Superlame
The trip home was odd enough. Baton Rouge was bare compared to the log jam that met us Wednesday afternoon. For all intensive purposes it was 11/26/05, but through the wonder that is xm radio we tripped through the last 3 weeks of January 1948.
In a move that Amy approved of by sweet sleep preceded by a 'you've got to be kidding me...you guys are killing me' we tuned to channel #164 that plays old timey radio broadcasts. They were playing a re-broadcast of Superman from '48 that covered 14 episodes & the rest of our trip home after we ate in Covington. Cam was stoked @ 1st, but I thought that his interest would wane soon being such a primitive form of entertainment from yesteryear. After we got home & he asked if we could finish off the series by listening to it in the driveway before we went in, I came to the conclusion that I was wrong.
The thing that intrigued me the most were the commercials. They were nothing like you'd expect from modern day promo spots during a kid-type program. They never promoted the next big Superman this or that, so that the kids would get hyped & beg their parents to death for whatever it was that they were trying to sell.
The ideals of the day were nothing like today. The weren't even close. They were much grander & bigger than I could have even imagined.
There were PSA's that tried to sell the kids on things that were much bigger & grander than they were themselves...even bigger & grander than the man of steel himself. They pushed kids to consider the less fortunate of the world that were still struggling w/being displaced from a very tragic world war. They preached to kids the importance of health, tolerance, clean clothes & a clean mind. They played to the benevolence of their listeners to stamp out infantile paralysis, which would become better known as polio.
Superman himself made cameo appearances on the spots & urged the kids to be good stewards w/what they had & to be considerate of their parents as they had to deal w/the rising cost of living. I had to remind myself that I was still on earth & listening to a program almost 60 years old, rather than visisting another dimension. Child stars of the day also made guests spots to help kids to think of something bigger & grander than themselves or even Superman.
At 1 point I turned to Cam &asked him what Superman expected of him, just to see if he was getting all of this. He replied, yeah dad, I get it...Superman says it's important to have a clean body & mind...duh! He didn't really say the duh part, but his tone let me know that he meant it.
From here it'd be easy for me to yap about how terrible the world is & how much better & more moral it all was back in '48 & for a while that's where I thought that this would head, but not now. Now I sit & wonder how commercialized everything is, including the world's perception of christianity. Just like the modern day cartoon that uses it's ad time to sell the latest action figure or video game, we've attempted to sell Jesus on t-shirts, bumper stickers, candy, whatever.
It's like God left us to mind the shop that was originally founded on the bigger & grander ideas of redemption & restoration through faith in the Father by coming into a love relationship w/the Son & we've instead cheapened it all by trying to copy the world's toys to sell. I'm afraid that we've lost our 1st love & even have a t-shirt for that too. We're lost in who we are to be because we've lost sight of the One we are to be, or more importantly, the Way we are to be.
I wonder if Jesus had a old timey radio series done on His adventures if He would do PSA's pointing those that would listen to an ideal beyond & bigger than the life that he led, much akin to the ideal beyond & bigger than the life that Superman led. Sure, Jesus' life was perfectly beautiful real & is to be studied, but if all we get are examples w/out implication for our lives today, what good is it?
If all we get from faith is religion what good is that? If my faith is so small that it can be summarized on a religious t-shirt, bumper sticker or book, what good is it? If I'm not cognizant of my every breath being a gift & that I'm privy to the presence of God on a constant basis, what good am I...?
superlame...
...duh!
In a move that Amy approved of by sweet sleep preceded by a 'you've got to be kidding me...you guys are killing me' we tuned to channel #164 that plays old timey radio broadcasts. They were playing a re-broadcast of Superman from '48 that covered 14 episodes & the rest of our trip home after we ate in Covington. Cam was stoked @ 1st, but I thought that his interest would wane soon being such a primitive form of entertainment from yesteryear. After we got home & he asked if we could finish off the series by listening to it in the driveway before we went in, I came to the conclusion that I was wrong.
The thing that intrigued me the most were the commercials. They were nothing like you'd expect from modern day promo spots during a kid-type program. They never promoted the next big Superman this or that, so that the kids would get hyped & beg their parents to death for whatever it was that they were trying to sell.
The ideals of the day were nothing like today. The weren't even close. They were much grander & bigger than I could have even imagined.
There were PSA's that tried to sell the kids on things that were much bigger & grander than they were themselves...even bigger & grander than the man of steel himself. They pushed kids to consider the less fortunate of the world that were still struggling w/being displaced from a very tragic world war. They preached to kids the importance of health, tolerance, clean clothes & a clean mind. They played to the benevolence of their listeners to stamp out infantile paralysis, which would become better known as polio.
Superman himself made cameo appearances on the spots & urged the kids to be good stewards w/what they had & to be considerate of their parents as they had to deal w/the rising cost of living. I had to remind myself that I was still on earth & listening to a program almost 60 years old, rather than visisting another dimension. Child stars of the day also made guests spots to help kids to think of something bigger & grander than themselves or even Superman.
At 1 point I turned to Cam &asked him what Superman expected of him, just to see if he was getting all of this. He replied, yeah dad, I get it...Superman says it's important to have a clean body & mind...duh! He didn't really say the duh part, but his tone let me know that he meant it.
From here it'd be easy for me to yap about how terrible the world is & how much better & more moral it all was back in '48 & for a while that's where I thought that this would head, but not now. Now I sit & wonder how commercialized everything is, including the world's perception of christianity. Just like the modern day cartoon that uses it's ad time to sell the latest action figure or video game, we've attempted to sell Jesus on t-shirts, bumper stickers, candy, whatever.
It's like God left us to mind the shop that was originally founded on the bigger & grander ideas of redemption & restoration through faith in the Father by coming into a love relationship w/the Son & we've instead cheapened it all by trying to copy the world's toys to sell. I'm afraid that we've lost our 1st love & even have a t-shirt for that too. We're lost in who we are to be because we've lost sight of the One we are to be, or more importantly, the Way we are to be.
I wonder if Jesus had a old timey radio series done on His adventures if He would do PSA's pointing those that would listen to an ideal beyond & bigger than the life that he led, much akin to the ideal beyond & bigger than the life that Superman led. Sure, Jesus' life was perfectly beautiful real & is to be studied, but if all we get are examples w/out implication for our lives today, what good is it?
If all we get from faith is religion what good is that? If my faith is so small that it can be summarized on a religious t-shirt, bumper sticker or book, what good is it? If I'm not cognizant of my every breath being a gift & that I'm privy to the presence of God on a constant basis, what good am I...?
superlame...
...duh!
posted by lee at 9:49 AM
1 Comments:
Excellent stuff man! That's a wonderful observation. The evolution of the superman photos was a nice touch too!!!
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