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 Holly Winter Living The Life Of Holly Apr. 29, 2003 “Ok. I need to know. How did you hear?” She asked, pouring dressing over her salad. “Darlin-man e-mailed me.” She froze. “You’re kidding. What did it say?” I shrugged. “It said, ‘By the way, in case you were wondering, the war with Iraq has started.” She slowly shook her head. “I wonder what it’s like to be you.” “It’s awesome.” I said, picking up a piece of lettuce with my hands and munching away. I love eating with my hands. Yes. Even salad. I know. That’s why I don’t use dressing. “You must really save on your electric bill.” She laughed. Brenda knows that I don’t watch TV at all. I do have a set and a VCR that an X boyfriend bought for me long ago thinking that he could lure me into quiet nights of sitcoms and late night comedy. Um. No. I have no interest at all in the commercials that litter their way around the different shows. I know. When I lived in Europe, I loved watching TV. There were no commercials during programming at all in those days. Sitcoms lasted twenty minutes, with commercials running before and after the shows so that you had time to grab a snack and use the bathroom. And the news in Europe is, well, real. When there is a war going on, there is some little guy holding a little TV camera running around on a little street where there are big guns. You can’t pull yourself away from it if you try. And that little guy takes that little camera into the big hospital where the doctors are all lined up helping people while they are crying because there aren’t enough supplies to patch people up. I know. How could you not watch? I was in Europe during a big war that happened in Romania in the late eighties. The TV coverage was exactly as I described above. When I returned home, I turned on the TV. My friend Rich was horrified. “You are watching the news? Are you sick?” He checked for a fever. “I need to see what’s happening in Romania.” I said. “Why Romania?” I turned on World News Tonight. There was a five second announcement that they were still fighting in Romania. Yeah. Five seconds. That was my last news for years. Five seconds? And they want to know why we Americans don’t care about stuff? I did watch a few minutes of war news about Iraq with Darlin-man. There were a lot of flashy maps and experts giving advice about positioning of targets. But what it really looked like to me was a bunch of men driving big trucks around a sandbox. Sorry. I know that war is necessary. But. I just don’t want to watch flashy accounts of it on TV. The fact that I stay so far removed from the news has bit me before. Years ago when I was teaching with Brenda, one of my students entered my Special Education English classroom. He was very excited. “Ms. Winter. I know what I am going to write in my journal today. You better get the candy box. I have a good thing to write.” “Yeah, right. We’ll see.” I smiled. He was a very low functioning student. I was really excited to see that he had entered my classroom with an idea for a journal entry. I leaned over his shoulder. His entry read: “The war has started.” Oh man. Had it? I tiptoed out of class and found Brenda in the office next door. “Brenda. Are we at war?” She put down her paperwork and pushed up her glasses. “Oh. I’m so sorry. I meant to tell you. Yes. They are calling it Operation Desert Storm.” She filled me in on a few quick details as I grabbed the candy box. Oh. You bet. I lavished candy on that student with the IQ of 65 who learned everything he knew from watching TV. Oh. Sure. I let him know that I hadn’t watched the news. I didn’t know a thing about the war. He knew more than I did. Man. He loved that. “Hey. Guess what, everyone! I know more about war than Ms.Winter!” He announced. Yup. I must say. Not a whole lot has changed over the wars, has it? ------------ About the author: Holly Winter is a teacher and a writer and a flight attendant living in Denver, Colorado, USA. She can be reached at her website or email: Holly@livingthelifeofholly.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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