Entertainment. You may recall that in reference to most forms of visual media my dads response has been "Well, if you want to fill your head with garbage..." As I get older I'm becoming more aware that entertainment is garbage, it's worthless!
Last night I realized that the point of that comment was that I am filling my own head with garbage. My parents did not fill it for me. They left my head pretty darn free of garbage and I started filling it up on my own until its so full of garbage that "sin sensors" are undeniably dull. I've been watching The Adventures of Merlin lately and on an episode I watched recently one character, Morgana, was the cause of a lot of trouble, ie, the king dying. In order to stop the trouble, Merlin had to kill her. And he did, he poisoned a bag of water with Hemlock and tricked her into drinking it. He used his good reputation, the trust that Morgana had for himself to murder someone. And I was rooting for him! She had to die for the conflict to resolve, obviously it was the only solution! Murder. Merlin stood there and watched Morgana's breathing begin to fail. This is one of the most family friendly shows I know. I glossed over it until I forced myself to ponder his actions.
Unfortunately for the entertainment industry, it's not friendly enough for my family. Recent studies have shown that children have a difficult time differentiating between fact and fiction until a certain age. Am I really going to teach Anastasia that it is okay to murder someone if the situation calls for it? (To be clear, I WILL teach her that self defense is acceptable.) Of course not! So why would I allow a TV show to teach her that while she is young and her mind is defenseless?
It is not my right to fill Ana's head with garbage. I shudder to think of standing before my Lord and confessing that I allowed Anastasia to be taught by the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry that murder, lying, stealing, using God's name in vain, and any other number of sins are "okay". What a terrifying thought.
All these musing last night led me to the fact that entertainment is worthless. And better yet, entertainment is boring! We are so entertained that entertainment isn't enough anymore! A friend of mine plays video games with his laptop right next to him, playing Netflix, and his phone in his hand for texting or YouTube or whatever else can amuse him between game loads.
So here I sit, night after night, mindlessly watching TV while I simultaneously check Facebook on my phone and my house is in disarray. I feed my husband sandwiches for lunch instead of preparing a meal the night before, because I obviously didn't have time to do it while filling my head with garbage.
As of today, I'm going on an entertainment fast. I will be blogging still and emailing, so feel free to contact me at emilyskilesfields@gmail.com or just keep up here!
I plan to be doing much more meaningful things in the coming days.
