Live Telecast

Whenever the television is left on and I have no particular interest one way or the other what to watch, I would usually choose whatever is showing live. I don't care whether they are showing darts, pool and cricket (which I would ordinarily would not watch, my favourites being tennis, golf and football which I would take the trouble to watch live), or its monster truck madness, or news, whatever - as long as it was live.

Why, you may wonder, hypothetically of course? (I do not expect you to trouble yourself even for a moment with such inane peccadilloes!) The reason is twofold. Firstly, there is this sense of shared togetherness that both those people doing their thing on the screen and I are sharing this time, if not space, together. We are both existing and playing out our moments before each other, instead of the usual out of sync, recorded and played back (like how most of television is). And in that, there is a sense of company and kinship no matter how tenuous when the television is on when there is a live thing going on. It also reminds me how beautifully different many of our lives are and that in all our differences we exist together and have to learn to deal with that instead of trying to suppress one another or fight about who is superior.

And secondly, because I think of live and recorded programs especially in relation to sport (of course not those series and movies, etc.) are comparable to that of freshly cooked food and reheated food. It's always better to eat freshly cooked. And even if you don't want to eat anymore and have to, at least it's fresh. As with all general rules there are exceptions. I, for one, wouldn't mind and in fact welcome reheats of my favourite football team, Arsenal, in full flight. Yummy.