I'm sure you've heard parents of young children remarking about how entertaining they too find the cartoons and children's shows they watch with their children. They usually say this with a "have I lost my mind" look. Being the parent of a 2 year old, this too was my initial reaction upon noticing that said shows, namely Sagwa and Sesame Street, and Arthur to a lesser extent, were drawing me in and holding my interest. How could I possibly find mere children's shows entertaining?? Have I freakin' lost it?
Well I'm here to tell my fellow parents of young children that I have decided this is not the case! I think these "children's" shows are almost as good as prime time TV. In terms of "quality TV", prime time is only a little better than children's programming, as far as having a slightly smaller number of plot holes and being only a tad less predictable. The more significant difference is that prime time is more bloody and shocking -- you know, all the stuff we know we don't want our youngest kids to see.
So has children's programming improved nearly up to the level of prime time, or has prime time degraded almost to the level of children's programming? In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "I think it's maybe both happening at the same time." Children's programming is also only slightly more formulaic than prime time. In other words, TV basically sucks anyway (with extremely rare exceptions) -- so go read a book.
Case in point, the other day Grover, of Sesame Street, illustrated for me a valuable lesson in self-importance. Grover. Yeah. You see, Grover was working. He was a letter carrier and had to deliver a package to Oscar the Grouch. "Through rain, sleet and patchy fog." He set forth with a very determined set to his furry, blue jaw. Of course every few steps he ran into one of his friends, but he was working. "I have no time to dilly dally, I am working" he would say. Every "threat" along his way he exaggerated. "This package is not insured!" he exclaimed quite exasperated. Finally after slogging through every conceivable delay from meeting a friend, he arrived at Oscar's trash can and handed over the package saying "no need to thank me!". Of course Oscar told him not to worry -- he wasn't going to.
Grover had really made a mountain of a mole hill here. He took his work sooooo seriously, just like so many of us do. What was the message kids were supposed to get here I wondered. At one level it illustrates how completely self-absorbed their parents can get in work. In painting that as "ok" I suppose it helps kids accept it. But is it ok? I don't think so. In exaggerating the importance of Grover's work, I just saw how foolishly so many of us view our work as sooooo important.
Most work is not important. Why do we work? To make a whole lot of money for a few people we don't even know and rarely even see? People the corporate structure conditions us to believe are "more important" than us? You could almost view working as a charitable action that way, contributing your effort to this cause, except that your charity is given to the people who least need it, who need it even less than you do, you who are giving it.
There are two better reasons to work though, one practical, one genuinely for the greater good. Practically, in our culture, in our civilization, money is survival. We literally work to survive. It may not seem that way on a day to day basis, but how long would you last with no income? The reason for the greater good is that in contributing your efforts to the corporation, you help keep it in business and profitable, thus helping preserve the jobs and survival of everyone else working in your company. That part of it sounds almost communist. With this way of thinking I could easily convince myself that mass layoffs are almost criminal in threatening the survival of so many. Especially when the real reason for them is the greed of the few mentioned previously, ala Enron.
So while working may be important, the work itself so rarely is. What work is important? Teaching the children, caring for children, keeping them and all people healthy, puttin' out fires, arrestin' the bad guys (even if that's too broadly defined -- does speeding really make me a bad person?), stopping the terrorists, making sure buildings and products are safe for people to use, warning people of predictable natural disasters (I'm thinking of NOAA and earthquake prediction research here), maintaining communication channels (that includes mail delivery, telephone networks, and e-mail), psychotherapy, spreading the Dharma, and singing the Blues.
Huh. I guess listing important work is easier than I thought. Funny, I did not list the industry my efforts are currently being consumed by. Ironic, Grover's work was important, mail delivery is important, even though most of it junk -- I consider that abuse of the system. Grover's work was important, but exaggerating it's importance only showed me how unimportant most work in general is.
So what is truly important? Not to take a nihilistic view, but not much really. Family, health, safety, and according to my list above, communications apparently. Hmmm. I'm not as close to a conclusion here as I thought...
The package Grover delivered was a picture Elmo drew of his goldfish, Dorothy, that he then spilled spaghetti on.
It is a teaching of Zen Buddhism that all things are our teachers. Yes, even Grover.
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