Life is not a spectator sport.

[eleneariel]

Engage. Do not sit back and wait for something to interest you enough to force your attention- be in charge of your attention. Direct it. Think about things. Don't be a passive recipient. Life is not a spectator sport. It's your responsibility to be interested, not entertained.

Don't just survive. LIVE.

(read the whole post, which goes on to talk about raising children with this attitude, here at the blog of my favorite family ever. I haven't seen them in far too long and I miss them! ♥)

Comments

[jmcphers.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this link. We are facing the prospect of raising children in scarcely a few months and I only hope we teach our kid(s) the kind of attitude conveyed in that post.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

One of the main things I'm looking forward to (if I have children someday) is the opportunity to introduce them to the world and its wonders. :)

[ladyrita.livejournal.com]

Timely for me to read as I was just thinking along this vein for me and Jubilee. We don't have a TV and I realized I want to be actively filling her time with stuff, not just passively avoiding bad stuff.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Good point - I think my tv-free childhood was so rich not because of the absence of tv, but because that time was filled with creative and mind-engaging activities. :)

[jmcphers.livejournal.com]

I had a TV-free childhood as well! And am, in retrospect, very grateful for it.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

I don't think Ill ban tv altogether, but I want my kids to have very limited exposure to it at least during the early years. I had such a great childhood. :)

[ladyrita.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. I've met someone who, for instance, had never seen The Wizard of Oz or Bugs Bunny growing up, and I think that was a bad omission in their childhood. The scary thing to me was that as an adult they didn't get Bugs Bunny and that was horrifying to me.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Being culterally literate is good (to an extent, anyway), and there are definitely lots of movies I want to share with my kids. But I can see the difference between myself (who didn't watch tv or movies regularly until at least thirteen) and my brothers (who've pretty much grown up with both). It's not that they aren't good, smart, intelligent kids, but I cringe when I see them defaulting to movies or tv whenever they have free time, instead of it being just one of many options.

[melyndie.livejournal.com]

What a great article! Thanks for sharing.

[radiantlove.livejournal.com]

I love that attitude!!