Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Righteousness goes before him
    and prepares the way for his steps.

• Psalm 85:13

Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention:
    Forget your people and your father’s house.
Let the king be enthralled by your beauty;
    honor him, for he is your lord.
The city of Tyre will come with a gift,
    people of wealth will seek your favor.
All glorious is the princess within her chamber;
    her gown is interwoven with gold.
In embroidered garments she is led to the king;
    her virgin companions follow her—
    those brought to be with her.
Led in with joy and gladness,
    they enter the palace of the king.

• Psalm 45:10-15

Times have certainly changed.  Television viewing has drastically changed.  Maybe I should not complain.  On evenings with nothing but reruns, I get a lot written.

But to illustrate how sad the television networks have become, one network ran advertisements recently that their three shows on one particular night were going to have new episodes for three consecutive weeks.  Imagine that! Three episodes!  Three!  Of three shows each!!!!

Pathetic!!!

Yawn!

If this is big news, we have become the most pathetic society on the face of the earth.

When I was a young child, you knew that your favorite show would have thirteen episodes in that time slot for the next thirteen weeks.  No reruns until late Spring.  Then as I got older, they might have a few reruns around Christmas, but usually there were so many Christmas specials that the reruns were rare.

Then came the writer’s strike one year.  Horror of horrors!  The new television programs would not be ready to run until mid-October instead of right after Labor Day.

But now, the show that my wife and I still consider our favorite has one episode and then a rerun the next week.  There is no continuity among the characters.  If one guy brings one girl a coffee, is there a budding romance?  How would I know when the next new episode won’t be on for two more weeks, if even then.

They say attention spans are getting short, but the television networks are much to blame for that.  Now the networks are almost forcing us to go to streaming services instead of watching it the first time it airs.

And maybe that is their point.  Maybe they have crunched the numbers.  It is all about the money after all.

The first quote from Psalms gives us the idea that righteousness is important, but preparing one’s steps is important also.  The way the networks work, it seems they are surprised that Wednesday at 9:00pm has arrived just seven days after the last one and they are shocked.  Of course, what they produce for the most part is far from righteousness, sometimes the opposite.

But if the young daughter can maintain her attention span and prepare herself as the second Psalm quote suggests, I think I could keep my attention span on target.

But as for the networks, they need to realize that there are many more channels.  My favorite button on the remote lately has been the off button.  And maybe that is best.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.