What I Would Trade

I own a 46" Sony HDTV, a 5.1 surround sound system, and a Playstation 3 capable of playing the most impressive in video format.

I'm also rather bored with my gadgets. (I also just succeeded in talking about my lovely electronics and not seeming arrogant. [Though I may have just blown my non-arrogant cover.])

Remember the first time "A Christmas Story" came on between glasses of eggnog on Christmas day? The delight on Ralphie's face as he unwrapped his Red Rider BB gun? Yeah, you may shoot your eye out, but shooting anything (even your eye) is the greatest feeling in childhood. For example:

I loved bowling. Not Brunswick bowling. We're talking a cheap plastic bowling set. Unfortunately, buying such a set would have required enough self restraint to save my allowance for three or so weeks. Maybe you were the next Charles Schwab, but I had/have, well, no self control. Three weeks was an eternity. So, childhood ingenuity overcame financial constraints. The precise selection of Skeletor, G.I. Joe, Raphael, Splinter and a McDonald's Happy meal Chicken Nugget toy held down the 7-10 pins. And, while other kids would have cheated and used a soccer ball for its relative size to the pins, we believed in regulating our local league in conformity with the USBC's strict requirements; a duct tape ball served quite nicely.

And we played with it for hours. Happily. I forgot that better sets could be bought at any grocery store. Who needed it? I had MY set; it was the "Corso Signature Series." Every detail of it was hand selected for a specific purpose. How could it get any better?

And then the value of items as commodities for the purpose of making life that little bit better snuck in. American Eagle's shortcomings were replaced by J. Crew (if you didn't know before, now you do: I am white). My bike, necessary to get me the 1.2 miles to school each morning and nowhere else, had to be replaced by a car; the car's stock audio system had to be replaced by an Alpine deck and Pioneer speakers. A perfectly satisfactory standard definition 32" TV lost all value because "Planet Earth" didn't give up enough of its details upon closer inspection. To top it all off, I couldn't hear the bullets coming from behind me in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 without buying my surround sound system (if you didn't know before, I am a white geek).

Despite the impressive sights and sounds of my newest toys (which are not a part of my "Signature Series"), they don't offer the same glee as a makeshift bowling set. Let's define glee: a great delight. So, I am on an adventure to find some "glee" again.

I started hiking recently. Have you ever hiked? It is, in a word, hard. And, as I trekked up the mountain (being passed by athletic freaks who were sprinting up the trail for a short ten mile run), I felt glee again.

Yesterday I played basketball. A simple game; a potential player need only find a hole and have a ball (Yes, that's what she said). But, God as my witness, I have no talent on the court. Everything I can do (read: dribble with my right hand, lose the ball with my left) I spent countless hours practicing to achieve. Yesterday, I made every shot I took. Yesterday I dominated the game, got every pass I wanted and was the "go-to" guy. Yesterday, I was Larry Bird (Do. Not. Ruin. It. For. Me. It is my description), and I felt glee.

I'm going back to simple. It seems to me that in the simple I find glee.

That said, I have no plans to give up my surround sound system or TV.