In these troubled times, there are many disturbing stories flashing across our digital television screens. Wars and rumors of wars (now where have we heard that before), economic woes, social discomfort…
… the alarmingly large number of people with nothing to do except make Halloween a year-round affair by playing dress-up as they attend Thursday midnight premiere showings of whatever special effects-laden sensory assault Hollywood is pushing this week.
Look, I can geek out with the best (or whatever you want to call it) of them. Original Star Trek? I was there from the beginning and at least the first three hundred and fifty-seven reruns of each episode. Star Trek: The Next Generation? Ditto, even though it took all parties involved two and a half seasons to become watchable, Marina Sirtis notwithstanding. X-Files? New movie will be the second film I see this year (WALL•E being the first — just don’t go to the movies very often). Star Wars? Well, the first set of films; still haven’t seen the second or third episodes since watching them would be about as meaningful as watching Titanic. The logic of investing a couple of hours in a film where you already know the ending eludes me. The ship sinks, doesn’t it? Anakin Skywalker turns into Darth Vader, right? So why bother? I can live without knowing exactly how these things happen. But I digress.
Getting back to the topic at hand, being so wrapped up in a movie that you feel the need to break out a costume and blow off your life, if in fact you have one which is highly debatable, in order to stay up until two in the morning watching it and then hustle off to the nearest 24 hour restaurant so you can eagerly dissect it with your fellow freaks is a mindset that eludes me. What does the entertainment industry have to offer that’s so vital it’s worth wrapping any portion of your life around? The only possible exception to this is music, since it is a gift imparted directly from God used for worship and edification as well as entertainment. For Scriptural references to this, check out 1 Chronicles 6, 9 and 15 (there are others). The Temple was home of the original jam band, which is why I use music so much in various communications. The gift from God aspect, not the jam band although I reserve the right to sneak just about anything into the podcast. But again I digress.
There’s nothing wrong with entertainment for entertainment’s sake. But that’s all it is. If you’re so wrapped up in a little world defined by which pop culture trappings you embrace, you might want to rethink things.
