Blog

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Channel 34

I'm sitting in bed in a low end hotel in San Francisco's China Town. I've been here 3 days. Four days? It's all blending together now. At any rate, a couple of nights ago I was mindlessly flipping through the few channels available on the old television set in my room when I came across a subtle meditation. Apparently, there is an entire television channel devoted to 24 hour coverage of what looks like a random intersection somewhere in downtown San Francisco -- just a live picture with no sound. 24 hours a day. Like an unblinking eye.

When I mindlessly flipped to this channel - channel 34 on this old television - I stayed there, thinking it was an exterior shot from some movie perhaps. I just watched it, waiting for the next significant thing to happen. And I waited. And I waited. And then my mind started to wander.

And then I started thinking about some thing. And then another thing.

And then it dawned on me that nothing "significant" was coming. I was just watching a random street corner in San Francisco, live and with no sound.

And then I REALLY began to watch it. And an odd feeling came over me. I suddenly realized that I felt more calm than I'd felt in WEEKS.

...

I watched it for about 20 minutes. I just watched this foggy, silent, lamp-lit street corner in San Francisco.

I woke up the next morning, turned the television back on, having forgotten about channel 34, and was immediately sucked in again. It was, of course, morning outside. And it was also morning on channel 34. I watched it for about 10 minutes. 10 wonderfully calm minutes.

And then I took a shower, dressed and left my hotel room.

Posted By John Common at: 12:08 am

Blog

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Channel 34

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