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.
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Sweet Talk
Finding better things to do than watch TV
- Sweet Talk
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Either the dog or the husband need to go – but which one?
A. E. Houseman, noted Welsh poet of fairly recent times, echoed my feelings in his “Collected Poems” of 1939 when he wrote: “The stars have not dealt me the worst they could do: My pleasures are plenty, my troubles are two. But oh, my two troubles they reave me of rest, the brains in my head and the heart in my breast.”
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Sweet Talk: Like husband, like dog
“Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware of giving your heart to a dog to tear” from Rudyard Kipling’s “Power of the Dog” (date unknown).
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Sweet Talk: Using exercise to sync body and mind
The English poet John Dryden, in the 18th Century, wrote a letter of advice to a kinsman: “Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work, for man to mend.”
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Sweet Talk: Our long road of marriage taking an interesting turn
Robert Burns, in an obviously poetic and pensive mind, wrote to a friend, sometime during the 1700s, “To make a happy fire-side clime, to weans and wife, that’s the true pathos and sublime of human life.”
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SWEET TALK: I need to lie down - but can’t
In 1710, English writer, Johnathan Swift wrote in “Journal to Stella” a pair of comments regarding weather. One was written in October, when he called the weather “Plaguy” and cheapened it to a value of “twelvepenny.” The other, written in November, told us that “’Tis very warm weather when one’s in bed.’”
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Sweet Talk Christmases, and the gifts, have improved over the years
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. ‘Now they are all on their knees.’
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SWEET TALK: Christmases, and the gifts, have improved over the years
“Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. ‘Now they are all on their knees.’ An elder said as we sat in a flock, by the embers in hearthside ease.” Penned Thomas Hardy on a Christmas Eve in the late 19th Century England.
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Sweet Talk: Pets haven’t had the best of luck with us, nor us with them
“Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for God hath made them so…” according to a 15th/16th Century poet named Isaac Watts, in a poem, ‘Against Quarrelling’, line xvi.
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Sweet Talk: Something to laugh about later
Upon losing the 1942 presidential election, Adlai Stevenson quoted a saying by Abraham Lincoln, when asked by a fellow-townsman how he felt about the election: “I am too old to cry, but it hurts too much to laugh.”
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Sweet Talk: Despite hardships and pain, the blessings are many
What a great Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 2011! I can never expect another which will be better in the near future. My early morning “quiet time” alone with my Heavenly Father revealed to me many of His blessings of the past year.
- More Sweet Talk Headlines
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Either the dog or the husband need to go – but which one?
Obama Gives Education Waivers to 10 States
Giffords Aide to Run for Her Seat
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
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Syrian Forces Renew Bombardment of Homs
States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-abuse Settlement
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Raw Video: U.S. Pullout Celebration
Raw Video: Annual Empire State Building Run-Up
Man Killed in Courthouse Shootout
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
Ga Girl Fights Off Kidnapper at Walmart
Nevada Highway Patrol, City Settle Beating Case
Homs Bombardment Continues, Global Outcry Grows
Raw Video: Dog Rescued From Icy Colo. Water
Skip the Coffee Cup and Inhale Your Caffeine Fix
