MINERAL WELLS — “Why came I so untimely forth into a world which, wanting thee, could entertain us with no worth, or shadow of felicity?”…When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun with nettles.”  (“To Lady Ailesbury,” 10 July, 1779)  Horace Walpole, Fourth Earl of Oxford, 1717-1797.

This quote came from a l7th century writer who was obviously in the same position we are in today. He apparently was in need, or want, of some good entertainment in his life.  I am surprised that he had access to television in his day, but he perfectly describes my feelings when I turn on the television today in an effort to get a little entertainment, with some funny, clean situation comedies, up to date news reports or exciting action programs in which the hero or heroine conquer trials of life with upright and honest effort instead of with a quick romp in the bedroom. Talk about untimely coming forth each morning to see and hear talk about Mel Gibson, oil spills, Tiger Woods and  LeBron James, day after day! It makes me want to write a poem.

When I had my first awesome and awe-inspiring connection with television in the late 1940s at Aunt Nona’s house, I was “entertained” in royal fashion with such as Lucy, Uncle Miltie, Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Jack Benny and the great Ed Sullivan, later on.  Who could improve on George Burns and Gracie Allen, or the family life-stories of Ozzie and Harriet? What laughs we had with that grump (later mimicked by my husband as a valid lifestyle) Archie Bunker! We could love him and dislike him at the same time because we could see the goodness in his heart. And he wouldn’t put up with anything suggestive or naughty by his son-in-law, either!

I think this was all brought, or at least was abetted, by the movies. We often watched Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates on television, treating the women on the cattle drive venue as ladies, with concern about the treatment they got from bad men. He tipped his hat to them, called them ma’am and assisted them into the stagecoach without touching them in unseemly places. Then he started making movies, and Dirty Harry emerged. But the worst was his film about a lone man of the wild west who rode into town, killed a few men, knocked others through windows, but only after he had taken a dance-hall wench up the stairs to a bedroom. That was no way for Rowdy Yates to act! But, he was not Rowdy Yates at that point, just rowdy.

In my day, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Tom Mix carried guns, chased the bad guys and shot at them, but never hit them, except with their fists after all the ammunition was expended.  They never kissed the girl. Instead they kissed their horse and rode out of town, singing one of their best-selling hits.

This morning, when I turn on the TV, if I do, I will see the hate-twisted face of Mel Gibson alongside the reading of his latest telephone call to Oksana. He will be using terms that TV censors deem unsuitable for leaving in their original shape. I don’t know why they are showing this in the first place, but blanking out his “epithets” is actually a bit stupid, since we hear them all on prime-time television programs every day. And his picture tells us enough about his problems by his ugly countenance.

Now isn’t all this a big “NUNYA” (none a your business), and why are we expected to entertain a madman in our living rooms, dens and/or bedrooms when we sit a minute to rest and see something entertaining? The people with the “sixtuplits” breaking up their marriage was too much. Ditto for the “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” programs. I don’t think our culture should be offered a model for “ordinary” lives, as these shows suggest.  It’s not ordinary for people with morals, manners and meaning in their lives.

Enough. I don’t want my “mind overrun with nettles.” I am sticking with my reading of Clive Cussler’s novels (nobody in bed illicitly and no filthy language), staying with the Cryptogram Puzzle books, researching ideas on my computer and e-mailing a few friends every day to exchange awesome “forwards” (my friends know the kind I enjoy – like Maxine) and if there is nothing else to do I will clean the kitchen or do the laundry.



Contact Guinn Sweet at sweettalk@mineralwellsindex.com.