Not too long ago, we cut the cord television-wise in my house. This is not a particularly good analogy because we actually used satellite service and not cable, but I suppose that cords were involved. It doesn’t really surprise me that I miss having television service, but what does surprise me are the reasons that I miss it.

See, watching things is not the problem here. When I want to watch something, I know what I want to watch and have many ways to do this at my disposal. Here’s how it normally goes: I want to watch something. Is it on Netflix? If not, is it on Hulu Plus? If not, is it available through Amazon Instant Video or Vudu? If none of those qualifications are satisfied, I’ll usually find something else to watch. I’ve got a hefty backlog of things I’d like to watch and there will never be time in the world to watch them all, so this isn’t a problem.

So, like I said, the problem isn’t when I want to want something. The problem is when I want to watch nothing. That might sound weird, but give it a minute. Chances are good that you’ve done this before, or if you haven’t, you know someone who has. Basically, you probably know what I’m talking about, even if you didn’t know you knew until just now.

And that’s the problem. Most of my day is filled with knowing exactly what I want or have to do. I’d imagine that for most anyone reading this, your day is the same. Sometimes, though, I just want to do nothing for a few minutes. Since I’m not David Puddy, I’m not going to just sit there and stare into space. So I used television, even though I didn’t know that’s what I was doing.

I don’t have that anymore, and it’s strange how much I miss it sometimes.

As the great poets in Cinderella once said, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.