Oldies but Goodies | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Oldies but Goodies | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lisa Hudson
11/08/13
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I am a baby boomer, and with that statement, it is safe to say that I have never lived in a world without television. Yes, I remember the shows in black and white and according to my kids, those must have been the dark ages. But I loved watching television as a child. My favorites were Bewitched, and Gilligan’s Island, and of course, Andy Griffith. Although I’m not old enough to have seen the “I Love Lucy” episodes on their first run, I have found sheer delight in watching the reruns, over and over. Now with the invention of video and DVD’s, as well as television channels like TV Land, we can watch these old favorites whenever we want to. It is still a pleasure to ‘lose myself’ in a half hour comedy, to imagine life outside of the reality box, if even for a little while.

If you would have told me that one day the most popular shows on television would be “Honey Boo-Boo” or the “Housewives of New Jersey”, I wouldn’t have believed it. As I sit here and ponder the array of these so-called ‘reality’ shows, the list of titles available doesn’t seem to end. How have we become so obsessed with watching other people’s lives, where the drama is never-ending and the ridiculousness in which the players interact with each other is now entertainment? And even more unnerving is why these folks would even allow a camera to be on them every moment of the day. I have to assume it is because of money, or the lack thereof. The biggest mystery of all, is where do they find these people?

Scriptures mention how God will one day show us everything we have ever done, good and bad (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). That thought by itself is enough to make me want to cower down in a corner somewhere. The last thing I would want is to live my life in a fishbowl, for all to see my faults and flaws, as well as those of my family members. I make enough mistakes in my life that I can’t seem to forget, because of the tapes I play over and over in my head. The idea of having them immortalized on tape to be seen in thousands of strange living rooms seems completely insane. No, I don’t understand how a person or family could expose themselves like this. I also wonder what drives so many people to watch these programs, making them so popular in the first place. I sense myself moving in a ‘preachy’ direction here, so I won’t.

Yes, most of us are guilty for watching the ‘one-eyed monster’ in our living rooms. I would wager most of us watch to escape the stresses of the day, or to simply be ‘entertained’. Each of us have our own reasons for watching the types of programs we do. I confess, in light of the television programs that are coming out today, I am perfectly content to view the same old episodes where Lucy and Ethel are cramming candy into their uniforms and in their mouths, or to hear the familiar whistle as a father and his son are walking alongside a riverbank with their fishing poles. And if I really want to do some intellectual thinking, I can contemplate how so many people were able to accidentally land on an uncharted island, and always managed to leave again, but the same seven people couldn’t figure out how to be rescued.

And how did MaryAnn manage to bake those coconut cream pies without an oven?

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