Radio Remember

TV doesn't do it all. Well, Netflix comes close with its no ads, not-just-blockbusters, lotsa choice formats, but radio has it, over all. Nonsense, I hear screamed in the background., televison gives me pictures, a thousand...   No, not nonsense: good sense. When I get up in the morning, and am busily scrambling, brewing and toasting, I can't be watching a screen or thumb-dumbing on a device. I have things to do and places to go where no man goes, other than, yes, the radio! I dug up an old transistor radio (those under the golden age will have to use the encyclopedia here) that I keep on the bathroom shelf and while I go about the ablution business in the early mornings, it keeps me informed, entertained and in "the loop". When I exit the small room, I am busily going about keeping down the dust, fluffing up the pillows and generally making the place presentable. My hands are not going to hold some little electronic bit to communicate because I am in the real world, and the real world is demanding my pro-active attention. The radio is doing its best to make my life more intellectually complete, while at the same time helping me avoid future serious arthritis in the thumb. Aside; I do fear for our texting young and their joint damage fifty years from now when I'll be fertilizing daisies. What one does in early life seems to show up, later, and it's no joke. But, back on topic. Radio is quality, at least the government sponsored station that I adhere to. It keeps me up to date on world issues, and unlike newspapers, provides me with more than headlines and compost filler. It speaks to me hands-free in the car and is my only emergency tool in the event of an event. I can receive tsunami directions, blizzard warnings, stock market trends and road snarls, not to mention, soothing my hungry, raging beast tummy returning home from work in a traffic jam. Radio is fun when you pick up shows that flirt with comedy or introduce you to people doing small but important things, as well as those on the other side of Good. If we want, truly, to be active citizens, we need to be introduced to the huge variety of people in this varied world we live in. We need to see the good and the bad, but always with that comfortable distance radio provides. Music and the arts are seldom covered as fully as on the radio. Seldom, do we get as much background information from experts in fields of current interest as in radio interviews or essays. We are speechified by politicians and professors and the proletariat, alike.  And best, there are no flashy ads to interrupt or interfere in our thoughts on a subject. Sometimes I wonder how many radio fans are out there who still enjoy the chat of a "host" or the music of "our very own", the voices we have come to know and love and trust. Turn on the radio.