This is an older post that I finished, but never posted, on the 31st of Jan.
I suppose I ought not to post so much about the uncertainty I feel about the world... I'll try to make my next post more positive.
I am growing increasingly concerned about the media I allow myself to view, and/or listen to. Don't get me wrong--I'm usually pretty good at not watching or listening to things that have sexual or profane content. I'm worried about more subtle things. For instance, there's a television show that I had been really enjoying, up until about a week ago. That's when I started to realize everything that was wrong with it. Firstly, it was pretty violent, and somewhat graphic in its depictions of the violence. That's what finally turned me away from it--it just got too bad. As I thought about it, though, I realized there was an equally large concern that had not triggered the alarm bells that maybe it should have.
The show focused on the life of a man. A large part of this man's life was a woman. They had a very loving relationship. There was nothing graphically sexual or anything like that in the depiction of the relationship, although it was clear that they were, shall we say "involved". The problem was, although they weren't married, the way they were depicted was exactly like they were. There was no distinguishable difference between them and a married couple, except for the fact that they were not married. Essentially, it was as if the show was saying "marriage is unimportant! love is important!"
But it didn't end there! I brushed that show off as something that I could just no longer watch. And then, last night, I was watching another show that I enjoyed as well. In the show, the characters have been torn from their normal life as fairytale characters into our world in the present day. They are each put in a situation which makes it impossible for them to be happy. Two of these characters are a princess and her prince charming. The problem: in our world, charming is married to someone else. Even though they have no memory of their real life, the two have feelings for each other they can't explain or ignore, but his marriage keeps "getting in the way". I could justify myself watching the show, though, since this wasn't a main theme, and it certainly wasn't going anywhere dangerous. Until I was watching it last night. That's when our princess finally (huzzah!) told the prince that it just couldn't work out between them; after all, he was married, and his wife thought she was pregnant. Morality! Until they both realized the wife wasn't pregnant, and the episode ends with the prince and princess (who simply cannot control what they feel for each other, even though they try to avoid each other) kissing in the street. I mean, marriage only counts if your wife is pregnant, right?
All around us, there are similar lies being told. These ones were blatant enough and went far enough for me to finally notice them outright, but there are subtler ones that we invite into our homes through music, television, movies, maybe even something as simple as a joke. They tell us that things we know are wrong are just fine. The question is, how do you protect your home? Certainly isolationism is not the answer--we have to be in the world. So what is?
I suppose I ought not to post so much about the uncertainty I feel about the world... I'll try to make my next post more positive.
I am growing increasingly concerned about the media I allow myself to view, and/or listen to. Don't get me wrong--I'm usually pretty good at not watching or listening to things that have sexual or profane content. I'm worried about more subtle things. For instance, there's a television show that I had been really enjoying, up until about a week ago. That's when I started to realize everything that was wrong with it. Firstly, it was pretty violent, and somewhat graphic in its depictions of the violence. That's what finally turned me away from it--it just got too bad. As I thought about it, though, I realized there was an equally large concern that had not triggered the alarm bells that maybe it should have.
The show focused on the life of a man. A large part of this man's life was a woman. They had a very loving relationship. There was nothing graphically sexual or anything like that in the depiction of the relationship, although it was clear that they were, shall we say "involved". The problem was, although they weren't married, the way they were depicted was exactly like they were. There was no distinguishable difference between them and a married couple, except for the fact that they were not married. Essentially, it was as if the show was saying "marriage is unimportant! love is important!"
But it didn't end there! I brushed that show off as something that I could just no longer watch. And then, last night, I was watching another show that I enjoyed as well. In the show, the characters have been torn from their normal life as fairytale characters into our world in the present day. They are each put in a situation which makes it impossible for them to be happy. Two of these characters are a princess and her prince charming. The problem: in our world, charming is married to someone else. Even though they have no memory of their real life, the two have feelings for each other they can't explain or ignore, but his marriage keeps "getting in the way". I could justify myself watching the show, though, since this wasn't a main theme, and it certainly wasn't going anywhere dangerous. Until I was watching it last night. That's when our princess finally (huzzah!) told the prince that it just couldn't work out between them; after all, he was married, and his wife thought she was pregnant. Morality! Until they both realized the wife wasn't pregnant, and the episode ends with the prince and princess (who simply cannot control what they feel for each other, even though they try to avoid each other) kissing in the street. I mean, marriage only counts if your wife is pregnant, right?
All around us, there are similar lies being told. These ones were blatant enough and went far enough for me to finally notice them outright, but there are subtler ones that we invite into our homes through music, television, movies, maybe even something as simple as a joke. They tell us that things we know are wrong are just fine. The question is, how do you protect your home? Certainly isolationism is not the answer--we have to be in the world. So what is?
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