Sex and Cars

i have nothing of interest tonight. i'm sitting at home, waiting for the tropically depressed Frances to come visit. i guess i'll put the kettle on.

Granted, while i'm sitting here, with TV on, but giving my undivided attention to you of course, i'm realizing how much of television is about sex . . . holy smokes . . . commercials, like 4 in a row, desperate housewives (that's a show now!), an ABC primetime special about a teacher in Florida - that's all i'll say.

And then we wonder what in the world is going on in the world.

One of my sociology classes at university posed an interesting question: is content on television, for example, determined by what executives decide to show, or what society demands? i run that question through my head a lot - i'm also a psychology major, so i think about what YOU would say to that question - not in an analyzing kind of way, but a . . . . OK, so it's an analyzing kind of way. We have to take responsibility for what we ask for, what we watch, what we want, etc, etc, but what responsibility does a television station have? We have all the tools to pick what comes into our homes, on our television, our computers, our books (mostly v-chips and will-power).

It seems like there's a push to make television more "clean" - thank you Justin and Janet. i'm torn about what to feel about that. The easiest thing for me to say is "YES TAKE IT AWAY." There's no pressure then. If no one builds it . . .

However, i'm also a little more liberal than the next, thank you Dominion of Canada. i think things like how it seems public displays of religion are, at best, frowned upon. i would like to have an opportunity to spread that message en masse, thinking that if one doesn't want to hear it, one will turn it off. It's one's own decision what one really wants to hear, correct?

So, why is it OK for someone else, and not me? i've got the freakin' creator of the universe to help me avoid the temptation.

One more thought on the whole thing . . . think of a car. We can do 3 real kinds of work on a car. We can:

1. Fix broken things (a la my friend Harvey)
2. Preventative Maintenance - to keep things from going wrong
3. Improving on what you've got - e.g. suping up

When it comes to our own sprituality, we're always doing one of these things . . . we're always trying to get our sins forgiven, doing something to prevent messing up again, or adding on and buidling and getting closer to God. The more time we spend stuck in 1 and 2, the less time we have for 3. i know that i'm usually stuck between 1 and 2. i want to add a new air filter, some high-perf spark plugs, and maybe even a super charger . . . but I seem to spend too much time checking my tire pressure, patching up rusty spots, and trying to fix my alternator (sorry Harvey! It works great in my analogy though!).

Thanks for listening guys. Sorry it's so long. Keep praying. I hope the title wasn't too offensive . . . but I do hope it convinced you to read the whole thing!

Grace.