Shutdown Day

The most important electrical appliance ever invented stopped functioning in my house. Ironically, it is also Shutdown Day (www.shutdownday.org) today. Left without much choice, my family is participating in this involuntarily. It all began last evening.

It was late in the night and I had just reached home. When I opened the door, I noticed that the house was unusually quiet. I reckoned either everyone was out or asleep.

I saw Mom sitting by the dining table, with her glasses perched on her nose, working out some household accounts. Little brother was in his room doing his own things. Pa's probably asleep already. Good, everything seems normal.

"You're back. Your fruits are in the fridge. Papa's asleep." murmured dear Mom.
"Nice" I thought. But the house was just too quiet for its own good.

I had my shower and fruits then wondered what to do next. It was past midnight but the night is still young, as they say. So I asked Mom if she'd like to join me for a movie.

"It's not working."
"Sorry?"
"The TV's not working."
"Really! What luck.. stopped working on a weekend huh!"
"Yeah.."

There was nothing much I could do except to go to bed. I went back to my room but was still feeling wide awake so I logged on to my laptop.

Through some aimless surfing of the WWW, my senses kept telling me that it felt exceptionally lonesome tonight. Soon I realised what it was: the house was devoid of the sounds from the TV.

TV programmes do not play a great role in my life that much. But Pa loves watching Taiwan's 中天频道. The news reporters with their high pitches spell out the day's events at a very fast pace. Quite frequently scenes of Taiwanese politicians shouting at the top of their lungs are also broadcasted freely on the channel. It goes without saying that the variety shows, portraying typical Taiwanese media culture, are really noisy too. The house is never quiet once the TV is turned on.

It was then that I realised the TV is my security blanket. Feelings of loneliness disappear when it is turned on. Not so much that the programmes keep me happy. But that it means someone is with me. Either mom's waiting for me to return home, or pa's keeping me company through my late night studying. The sounds make a difference, strange but true.

So as I was saying, today is Shutdown Day. In an unexpected twist of tale, the moral of the story is not whether my family survived the day without our TV or other tech gadgets, but rather that I am being cared for.

Cheers to our Moms and Dads!