The Terrible Slide

When I was younger, I couldn’t understand how anyone could be too exhausted to read great literature in the evenings.

Then, I got too tired to read great literature, but I couldn’t understand how anyone could be too exhausted to read slightly less great but terrifically fun literature.

Then, I got too tired for that, but I couldn’t understand how anyone could be too exhausted to watch really great films. I mean, you just have to lie there!

Then, I got too tired for that, and I started watching mostly television. But television is really great these days. Some shows are literature! So that’s ok. 

But tonight, I realized that lately I’m starting to be too tired even to watch certain TV shows. Like, I’ll have some episodes of a really good, well-written, hour-long drama queued up, and all I want to watch is mindless crap. 

Which means I have now reached a point where I am so intellectually lazy that even the better TV shows have become aspirational for me.

I never thought that would be possible. But here we are.