Financially Unjustifiable | LISB
Hey y’all,
Here in the US, last week was Thanksgiving, and is sort of the unofficial start of what is euphemistically called “The Holidays”. It’s one of my favorite times of the year – the pace of the world seems to slow down, there seems to be less urgency, less rush. Of course, none of that is true if you work in retail.
In years past, I have produced gift guides of things I thought you might like, but this year has been rough and brutal in so many ways, and so I did not do that. But I will tell you about my favorite purchase of 2024.
We are not big TV watchers. That is an understatement, actually. Our TV can go many weeks in a row without being on. That said, sometimes we like to sit on the couch and watch a movie together, or watch Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving day, or have friends over to watch something together. And we need a TV to do that.
So for the last five years we have lived in this house, we have had a big black blank TV on the wall easily 99% of the time. Our living room is not huge, and we have lots of art on our walls, and so we have begrudged the space it took up, but were unsure what other options we had.
But a few weeks ago, I was at a dinner party in Atlanta, and the host had a Samsung Frame TV. If you don’t know, it’s a TV specially designed to NOT look like a TV, but like a piece of art. The screen resolution, thinness, design, power consumption, and anti-reflective coating all combine to look like a framed piece of art when it is not being used as a TV.
The downside is, they are expensive, easily four times what a “regular” TV would cost. But after seeing that TV over my host’s fireplace, I felt deep resentment to my “plain” TV in our living room, taking up space. But there was no way I could justify the expense.
But Renee and I talked it over, and one of our values is to create a life we don’t want to escape from. If the new TV made us enjoy being in our living room more and added beauty to our lives and we can afford it (questionable, but Black Friday was coming), we should get it.
And so, when it was on sale for almost a $300 discount on an early Black Friday sale, I pulled the plug and got it. The “no interest for 2 years” offer helped seal the deal.
It’s almost the same size as the piece of artwork that did hang over our fireplace, but now it shows a new piece of artwork every three minutes. It is astonishing – at a casual glance, it looks nothing like a TV. I catch myself sitting on the couch, “watching the art”.
I still can’t justify it economically. But I’ve paid a lot for art before that didn’t even have a TV included, so I guess this puts me ahead of the game.
Five Beautiful Things
It’s more than 9 years old, but this drone footage of Antarctica is still breathtaking. I find I like cold weather much more on my screen than in real life.
Archaeologists found a colorfully painted ancient throne room in Peru.
L.P. Hartley said that “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”. I think that is why I love old black and white photographs – it does seem so foreign and surreal. Like these pictures from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Imagine living in the rural Midwest in 1893 and seeing something like that Statue of the Republic for the first time. Surreal does not begin to describe it.
I like riding my bike to go places, but have zero interest in “bike culture” – you know, the carbon frames, the spandex, the bright colors. Maybe that is why I loved this long-read profile in the New Yorker of biking iconclast Grant Peterson. Read it if you get a chance. You’ll be glad you did.
In 2015, when I started this newsletter, I shared that year’s promotional video for Lotería de Navidad, the Spanish lottery. Every year, they release a new one, and waiting for it is one of my holiday traditions. Here is the one in 2015 (still my favorite!) and here is this year’s entry.
In case you missed it
The most opened link in the last issue was the Tiny Hamster’s Thanksgiving.
As part of an exercise at a retreat, I wrote a poem based on the model by George Ella Lyon’s Where I’m From. My version is nowhere near as poetic as hers, but I’m proud of it all the same., I shared it on my blog.
Member’s Only
Members get, among other occasional goodies, a weekly essay in their inbox. Their support keeps this newsletter both free and ad-free for everyone else. Here are the ones I have published since the last LISB issue.
Tony and me – Reflections on my friend and mentor, Tony Campolo.
A place to go after work – My Uncle Lonnie’s workshop, and mine.
Thank you!
Link ideas in this issue from Jason Kottke and faithful reader Stephanie.
I am so thankful for your readership and that you allow me in your inbox all of these years. If I made a list of all the blessings of my life, y’all would be near the top of it.
If you want to support this work, you can become a member, forward this to a friend, or buy me a cup of coffee. However you do it, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
If someone forwarded you this email, you can subscribe here.
Take care,
HH
-- -
Hugh L. Hollowell Jr
(he/him)
web | newsletter | blog