Mentally Relaxing While Walking And Watching TV

I love this time of the year – late summer.  The light quality is starting to change, and the days are becoming shorter, but there is still warmth in the breeze and noisy activity in the skies above.  I love it.

This never used to be a favourite time of the year for me.  It only became so after I exchanged city and urban/ suburban life for an extremely rural one.  I suppose it’s because there is less human interference (light and noise pollution etc.) that I can now see the beauty that this time of year brings.  It’s especially nice this year because it’s less rainy than usual.  Of course, this isn’t the greatest thing for my lawn. 

While I enjoy the warm breezes during my morning walks these days, I find myself writing full paragraphs in my mind.  It’s something that happens unconsciously as I walk.  I can’t will it to happen, and I’ve noticed that the conditions of my walk have to be right.  These days, my walks are puddle and mud free; calm and enjoyable; breezy and refreshing.  If a midge were to be present, you’d better believe my brain would be too traumatized to compose anything more than a few swear words in multiple languages.

Today, I was thinking about a conversation I had recently about TV shows that forcibly relax our brains.  I’m working on a project with a very thoughtful young lady and she remarked that to switch off her brain she watches a select few reality TV shows.  It was a totally unexpected comment, and I did a lot of internal chuckling, because it took me back to the old days of MTV’s reality TV show ‘The Real World’ (which I think is having a revival by the way!) which I used to quite like.  I don’t know when it happened, but yeas ago I got tired of watching people doing semi-scripted antics for amusement.  I started to view it as manipulation of a sort.   I absolutely understood what she meant though, sometimes one needs to be immersed in something fairly opposite to the usually chosen pastimes to relax mentally.  Sometimes I read historical pioneering/ cowboy novels to obtain this mental relief.  I have also been known to start watching Christmas movies in July to create a mental environment of uncomplicated happiness and the ‘happily ever after’ construct.

Currently, I’m watching Korean TV to get my mental relaxation.  Of course there are some good TV shows and some that don’t quite hit the mark when it comes to acting quality – like everywhere else.  But, I do find it mentally relaxing to watch TV shows that come from a slightly different angle to the usual US/UK plots.  East Asian TV seems to have less of a tolerance for sexually charged scenes and this means that plots and scripts are developed in a manner designed to evoke emotion from the viewer.  I do not laugh as much for American TV (dramas as I don’t watch sitcoms) as I do for Korean TV, for example.  It was the same when I watched the Bridge – both the original Swedish series and the American version.  Both versions were extremely well done, but there was the usual over-flashy acting on the American show.  The Swedish version however was stark and much more realistic and gritty, which appealed to me more.  And, as I mentioned to my brother who immediately started laughing, I can’t stand the unnatural, plastic-white glow of the cosmetically whitened teeth that all American TV stars seem to have these days.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for white, clean teeth – but for some the whiteness looks so fake it’s a turnoff.

The Korean TV shows that I’ve really liked so far – after about a 8 year hiatus of watching Korean TV – are:  Vincenzo, Crash Landing on You and It’s Okay To Not Be Okay.  These had good plots, made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion and were not the usual formulaic dramas. 

I’ve watched many other good Korean dramas and, surprisingly, one of the outcomes is that I’ve been learning about Korean literature and poetry – not because the dramas are based on a book, but because literature is mentioned a lot with regard to plot, sub-plot or character development.  Instead of me listing some of my favourites, I’ll link to a couple of well written and insightful blog posts by Marion for Korean Dramaland (KDL):

The books in Romance Is A Bonus Book (RIABB) Part 1 and Part 2 can be found in my links in this sentence, as well as those in Because This Is My First Life.

I must also admit that while I’m not overly interested in Chinese TV (something about the acting style and how unrealistic and young the actors look compared to the characters they’re portraying) one Chinese TV series introduced me to the Book of Songs.  This is classic poetry written by Confucius and is utterly beautiful – of course I can only read the English translation. 

Hopefully my bletherings today will inspire some of you to look up these books and read some beautiful thoughts.  What today’s post lacks in the usual photography, hopefully it makes up for with links to really interesting reads.

I want to give you my most beautiful thoughts
[가장 예쁜 생각을 너에게 주고 싶다]

(2017)

Author: Na Tae-joo (나태주)
Publisher: 알에이치코리아 (RHK)
English translation: None

Each and every one of us
is a star traveling across the universe.
Stars that got lost and ended up here
after wandering the vast universe.
No, that’s not true. We’re stars that ended up crossing paths
right here in this moment
Because we missed each other and longed
for one another for a long time
That makes us miraculous stars.
The stars that travel across the sky only twinkle.
They are never sad or lonely.
However, we’re stars that feel lonely and sad at times.
Stars that have regrets.
And that makes us such lovely stars.