The other day I was cleaning and looked, really looked, at my television in profile; it’s so flat. When I grew up, televisions were these mammoth beasts cloaked in wood paneling and had huge clunky knobs to change channels. I can still remember the first time we rented a VCR (that was a thing), and witnessed the confusion of people trying to connect it. I remember the first flat screen television I had (still a beast, just a flat in the front one), and I remember the first actually flat television I had and feeling like technology was bizarre and amazing.

Anyway, back to the profile of my current television.

It’s what, maybe all of an inch or so thick, but when you’re looking at it, really watching a movie or playing a game, it can transport you to another place. That weird, flat, sometimes dark object can open all these portals to amazing experiences and that’s kind of unreal. I think about all the games I’ve played on that television and it amazes me that something so thin can give the illusion of entire worlds. I think about the movies I’ve been engrossed by, and those came to me through that glorious flat box.

If I think about it too long, it kind of blows my mind.

After thinking all these things, I stood there and stared at the side of the television.

Pixels and technology.

Then I started thinking about pixels. I started thinking about tube TVs and projection TVs and I realized I don’t know much about television technology beyond the basics. Then I realized that’s probably okay since I was apparently feeling all philosophical about my television and what it does.

Sometimes I think about video games and am blown away. In some of the great games out there, the player becomes immersed in the game world. It can be easy to forget people created everything you’re seeing and doing. Some pieces of media are so mind blowing, I feel like they poofed into existence; it seems borderline impossible they were created.

Sometimes I think about my phone and that it cost more than my computer and car put together (to be fair, both were incredibly economically priced), and that it’s probably faster and more powerful than my computer and, very likely, my car. I’m grateful for all three things. Sometimes I think about tires and how they hold cars up and they are filled with air and doesn’t that give you pause? If I think about it too much, it wigs me out sometimes. All these people zooming around on freeways being held up by air.

I know there’s far more to it than that, but you get me.

I also start thinking about water pipes and air conditioning and elevators, and all that stuff is bonkers. Small pipes bring you water! There are units that keep you cool! Cables take you up in the sky to visit people at higher elevations!

What a world we live in.

What things do you marvel at? Please share.

P.S. I’m incredibly tired so if this is weird, oh well.