i just turned off a TED talk about a third of the way in.

for those of you who may not know what a TED talk is, they are these brilliant [normally] shortish [10 to 20 min] talks on a whole host of different areas of life. someone gets up and speaks an inspiring talk on something they’re passionate about and as i said they are usually really good. this one wasn’t, so i turned it off.

and a strange thing happened…

no-one died. well not that i am aware of.

in other news i just finished reading the biography of Archbishop Desmond Tutu which i had been looking forward to for a while, but which i didn’t overly enjoy. i just don’t think it was particularly well written and it focused too much on events and happenings and not enough on Tutu’s engagement with them or emotional response to them. so while there were glimpses, i don’t really feel i got to see Tutu’s heart concerning apartheid and a number of other incredible events and experiences he got invited into.

and i kinda knew that from half way in but i just kept on reading because i kinda wanted to see where it ended i guess.

i can’t get those hours of my life back [and it was a bit of a wadey book so it was a bunch of them]

i am someone who has walked out of a bunch of movies – not a crazy amount, but probably more than most. and i can’t remember ever walking out of a movie that i regretted or feel like my life became worse off for not having watched it. i can, however, think of a bunch of movies that i feel worse off for having watched at all or having stuck out [usually ‘to see how it ended’]. and sometimes it just a waste of time [the recent RIPD being one of the worst movies Val and i have ever watched and it really was curiosity about how it would end and i will never get that hour and a half of my life back] but other times it’s imagery and content that i really don’t want or need anywhere in my mind [like the recent Arrested Development series which Val stopped watching and i really wish i had – when paedophilia is the subject of the humour, safe bet to turn it off, Brett] and it is good to be able to get up and walk out, or turn it off, or put the book down.

because no-one will die. 

and people have different levels of what they see as okay and what is offensive and what i have learnt to some degree is that i don’t have to be input police for everyone else and so if someone else feels like something is okay, that’s fine but i don’t need to feel like i can’t make the decision to stop taking it in or on.

i have gotten a lot better at that with books in the last few years [because there are so many i really want to read] and with series there are SO MANY good ones out there that i never have to subject myself to something bad or unenjoyable. turn it off and find something you enjoy.

this thought feels so simple and yet so terribly profound.

how about you? ever walked our of a movie or stopped reading a book? what was the motivation for you? and any regrets on something you really wished you had stopped before the end?