So Long To Our Samsung

This afternoon I said "goodbye" to a "friend". I watched as our Samsung 50 inch DLP big screen TV was carried out of our house and loaded onto a pick up truck. The local TV repairman is going to use it for parts. The color wheel had gone out on it and the cost to fix it was going to be about 40% of what a new comparable TV will cost.

Watching that TV going out the door was a bit of an emotional experience for me. I felt a sadness inside. Now don't start thinking that I am too emotionally attached to an electronic device. Over the past 7 years a countless number of hours have been spent in front of that 50 inch TV watching game shows, dramas, comedy specials, classic sit coms, Disney animated features, movies, baseball and more. But the thing that tapped the well spring of emotion was not the loss of the TV (after all we're upgrading to a better one within the next couple of days). It was an era in my life that the TV symbolized coming to an end.

When we bought the TV in 2003 Paula and I were in the early days of our marriage. We had made it through 3 years of wanting to be together but our life situations not allowing it to happen. The family that lived in our house in August '03 was very different from the one that lived there even a year earlier. The 3 senior members of the family (Paula's grandmother, father, and sister) were no longer living in the 3 bedroom ranch. It was just the 4 of us: Paula, Michael, James and me.

James was in middle school. Michael was a young adult with a job but no immediate plans to move out on his own. We were in a place where we needed to establish a home and structure a family that was unique to us. We had to grow together and become a family. One of the keys to doing that was redesigning our living room.

The living room had long been the place where Paula's grandmother spent most of her waking hours. The house's main TV was in that room but most of the other family members didn't spend time there. Because of the different circumstances the only time spent they spent time together as a family was usually at the dinner table. So Paula and I made plans to redesign our living room and turn it into a room that the boys would be drawn to and where we could spend time as a family.

Given our "new family's" tendency to gravitate toward the television during our free time, whether it was watching commercial TV; movies; or playing video games, Paula and I knew that the keystone to establishing our living room was a good quality television.

We shopped around for a bit and decided on the Samsung. It was also Paula's idea to get a Bose home theater system. This way we could the room would be a great place to sit and watch movies. We added in some storage cabinets, some new furniture including some recliners, and the new family room was complete.

The TV and newly designed living room did exactly what we wanted it to do. Over the last remaining months of 2003 and for the next few years our living room was the focus point of our home. We watched movies together. James and Michael had their friends come over to play video games.

There were countless number of nights into the wee small hours of the morning when James and his high school buddies, usually 6 or more at a time, would be playing the latest multiple player video game on a split screen. Michael's late night activities usually only included 1 or 2 friends, mostly his friend Chad.

Paula and I have spent time together watching our favorite TV shows and movies over the years. I watched the more than 60 Disney animated features in my collection 1 by 1 on our big screen TV.

The living room and TV even served as a place to make memories for my extended family. When my sisters and their families would come from Pennsylvania to visit we spent time in the living room visiting and watching our favorite movies. I can remember watching the Disney movies "Finding Nemo" and "Holes" when they came to visit in 2004.

For me one of the best things about having the TV happened when HDTV service became available. That's when I really started to enjoy watching baseball in my living room. I have watched hundreds of games, playoffs and World Series over the last 7 years.

Since James joined the National Guard in the summer of 2007 and May of 2008 when Michael moved out the living room is no longer the focus point for us as a family. It serves the same purpose when the boys and our daughters-in-law come over to visit but it's different now.

Still during the past few years when it's been just Paula and I in the room together watching whatever we're watching the TV served as a symbolic reminder, of the memories of the times spent together as a that 4 member family.

Now that symbol is gone. Carried away to be used for parts. I guess I shouldn't really focus on the object. I should be expressing thanks to God. He's the won who blessed us enough that it allowed us to the means to create a place like our living room and own something so useful as the Samsung. He's the one that cultivated the love between us as a family.

I guess it's easy to focus on objects because of how visible they are in our lives. But as the Bible says God is the one who blesses us,establishes relationships and directs our path. The Samsung TV may be gone but God's spirit which has blessed and established this family and grown us as individuals over the past 7 years still remains. He not only abides in our living room and inhabits our homes; He continues to live in our lives and our hearts. God's everlasting love and guidance for me and my family is something that will never ever go away.