I have a mountain of old memories from West Texas. Some of my most cherished experiences in my younger days occurred there. I had a love/hate relationship with West Texas but in retrospect I now realize that it was probably the most perfect place for me to be at that time in my life. But I simply had to move on.

I remember the day vividly. It was Halloween, 1985. My newlywed bride and I were on a Greyhound bus headed for Santa Fe, New Mexico. I kept an eye out the bus window and when I saw the “Welcome to New Mexico” road sign my bride and I jumped up in our seats and shouted with glee at the top of our lungs. Luckily, the bus driver didn’t stop and kick us off the bus. But the celebration was truly triumphant and I’ve never looked back. The celebration was actually very helpful in the long process of making peace with the Lone Star State. It was imperative, though, to leave family, friends and memories beyond in order to venture into new levels of consciousness.

It’s been over a dozen years since I’ve had TV. But I do have a VCR and I must admit that on two or three occasions I have binge-watched a TV show. (I think that’s the only way to watch TV shows.) But those rare occurrences came only at times of exhaustion when I really needed to disconnect and vegetate for a day or two.

Watching TV is a thoroughly passive endeavor. Reading, on the other hand, is an active endeavor in that it requires thinking and, if the author is good, the use of one’s imagination. I know some people who never read anything longer than a Twitter tweet and who spend every minute away from their job sitting on their couch watching TV. They are essentially drugged and the longer they stay drugged the more their imagination and cognitive functions atrophy.

But I also know plenty of people who watch little or no TV and read a lot. These are often very exciting people to have conversations with. And for most of them a 13-minute well-written read is an exciting prospect. There are even plenty of these people on Medium.

As writers, though, it is important to not write for the audience but rather for the story that is coming through us. Once we start chopping away at the story in order make it fit certain attention spans or thought patterns of readers then we are shooting ourselves in the foot. We must be true to the story first and foremost. We are but slaves and our stories are our masters. We must not become slaves to our readers.

I say this but I wish that I can also say that I fully walk my talk. But I don’t. I’m working on it, though, and I’m slowly becoming a better slave and hope to someday become a completely empty vessel through which stories are delighted to come through.