Born in the 50's
I had the distinct pleasure/curse of being among the first generation of human beings to experience Christmas enhanced by television. The pleasure part included the Andy Williams Christmas specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolf the Red-Nosed-Reindeer, hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Pope spreading Christmas joy in every language on earth. Other generations only heard about such things. They didn't have television.
The curse part was the increasing intrusion of product advertising. Until that time, there were baby dolls (not grown-up Barbies, with their own condos, sports cars, boyfriends, wardrobes, and careers); there were building blocks or lincoln logs to construct homes, not Legos to build super-structures and other-worldly mega-complexes.
We adopted a "Jetson" mentality, where only the new, the modern, the progressive, the anything-but-traditional, was worthy of admiration.
Is it any wonder that merchants are setting up Valentines Day displays on Christmas Eve? It's easy to blame the demise of our culture on greedy capitalists. The generation of the '50s unwittingly caved to the message that "new" is unquestionably better.
We're older now (some of us are ancient), and we realize that we were wrong. New is not automatically better (unless it's the Edison-type of new). We treasure the past we've been part of, and would like to pass the best of it on to fresher souls.
Thank God we have a vigorous new generation to carry the torch!
The curse part was the increasing intrusion of product advertising. Until that time, there were baby dolls (not grown-up Barbies, with their own condos, sports cars, boyfriends, wardrobes, and careers); there were building blocks or lincoln logs to construct homes, not Legos to build super-structures and other-worldly mega-complexes.
We adopted a "Jetson" mentality, where only the new, the modern, the progressive, the anything-but-traditional, was worthy of admiration.
Is it any wonder that merchants are setting up Valentines Day displays on Christmas Eve? It's easy to blame the demise of our culture on greedy capitalists. The generation of the '50s unwittingly caved to the message that "new" is unquestionably better.
We're older now (some of us are ancient), and we realize that we were wrong. New is not automatically better (unless it's the Edison-type of new). We treasure the past we've been part of, and would like to pass the best of it on to fresher souls.
Thank God we have a vigorous new generation to carry the torch!
posted by Kathy at 12/25/2009 06:45:00 PM
2 Comments:
Born in 1951. Switched off TV in 2007. At first, I really missed Stargate. Now I read Bible & books again.
Avery Willis' MasterLife course is better now than any TV show ever was.
At dawn gulls flew in, while I listened to Max McLean speaking Mark & Luke. KHCB is my main source of programming.
Life is much better now.
You too can leave the the Hellywood lifesyle.
TV is not yet mandatory!
I'm not totally in favor of eliminating TV, although I get a kick out of your "Hellywood Lifestyle" reference. I think it's important to strike a balance between personal existence (which excludes media such as radio, TV, internet, print publications, and social interaction), and personal engagement, which includes all methods of inter-personal communication.
Life is to be lived within society. Otherwise God would have given us each a Garden of Eden of our very own. He did not do that...He gave us a life that depends on others for perspective and context. This is the gift of community. It includes television, texting, facebook, twitter, and all sorts of technology.
I must admit, however, I certainly miss front porches...especially the rocking chairs and porch swings.
Post a Comment
<< Home