Faith, Family and Fatherhood
by James Hahn
Additional Catholic Mom
Columns
Looking
out My Back Door
Our family recently moved out of a one-bedroom apartment and into our
new home. We had lived in the apartment for more than five years and
with three boys under five-years-old it was starting to get a little
cramped. My parents gave us some property and we began to build the home
of our dreams. My father-in-law and I built the basement one block at a
time. My father installed the plumbing, heating and cooling while I
installed the electric, primed, and painted.
We moved into our new home in August after about a year of serious
construction. When we unpacked most of our belongings we found that we
had forgotten one thing, cable television. We found ourselves staring at
a black screen wondering where the world had gone and why we had been
left behind. When the television was turned on all we could watch was
the all too familiar “snowstorm”. Rabbit ears didn’t help a bit and
there was absolutely no chance of installing a towering eyesore outside
our new home. We had decided to cut back expenses so a satellite dish or
cable was out of the question.
The boys were distracted by the change in living quarters from a shoe
box to a freezer box so the lack of “entertainment” didn’t bother them
much. They were too busy running from room to room and hiding in every
nook and cranny. I resigned myself to the fact that I really didn’t need
the “idiot box” anyhow and this was probably for my own good. So, I sat
down in the rocking chair and looked out the back window.
After a few evenings of rocking and looking out the window, like an old
man waiting for his youth to reappear over the horizon, I realized that
we had something far better than television in our possession. Our “back
window”, a three section French door, is larger than any big screen
television and only slightly smaller than most home projection screens.
It doesn’t cost much to operate except an occasional spray of Windex and
some caulking. Most importantly though is the variety of programming we
have available.
My family has witnessed some of the most intense dramas known to man. We
have watched episodes of life and death played out before our eyes in
three-dimensional full color format. We have watched quietly as small
groups of whitetail deer make their way across the hill toward new
feeding ground for the winter. One of the deer was injured by a hunter
earlier in the season and we didn’t think he would make it. Yet, in the
spring we saw the same deer on the neighbor’s property and the boys
rejoiced. We have watched rabbits bounce through the yard and we have
watched them be carried off by hawks and coyotes.
Our family has also sat with rapt attention during some of the most
amazing aerial feats that make shows like Top Gun and Jag look like
cartoons. We have seen intense battles over the seed in our feeder and
we have seen graceful formations of geese glide overhead. In the fall we
spent most of one day, fogging up the window with our breath, watching
with a controlled fear as thousands upon thousands of birds filled the
sky appearing to move a giant shapeless mass toward their winter
destination. Far above the hill we have seen buzzards circle and glide
wafting the air for their food and we have seen hawks seemingly drop
from the sky at break-neck speeds only to soar skyward again after
snatching their prey.
The world of sci-fi was not lost to us in our loss of a television. With
a screen as large as the wall, only two exterior lights on, and bowls
full of popcorn we watched the most intense nighttime snowstorm you
could imagine. One minute we felt like we were screaming through space.
The next minute we thought our house was in the middle of one of those
glass snow balls that you shake to get the snow swirling.
For thousands of years man has made his way through time without a
television for entertainment. He has watched the natural world around
him and not only been entertained but enlightened as well. The natural
world outside the window is far more beautiful, intense and entertaining
than anything that could be produced on the big or little screen. We
would highly recommend some quality programming tonight. Simply turn off
the television, pull up a chair, and gaze out at the world around you.
Better yet, walk out into that world. Walk out into your backyard,
neighborhood park, or zoo. Visit a lake, a stream or even a metro-park.
Take your family where there is real life to gaze upon and wean
yourselves from that fake box on the shelf that produces only a dismal
reflection of real life. Roll in the grass and the snow, watch the drama
of life and death, or lie still in the grass for a very long time and
try your hand at what my sons call “buzzard hunting”.
8/22/06
Additional Catholic Mom
Columns
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James M. Hahn is currently the Director of
Religious Education at St. Michael Catholic Church in Worthington, OH. He
and his wife reside in southeast OH. with their four children. Visit James
at