MOMumental: Adventures in the Messy Art of Raising a Family by Grant Jennifer

Author:Grant, Jennifer [Grant, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion
ISBN: 1617950742
Goodreads: 13438499
Publisher: Worthy Publishing
Published: 2012-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

It only takes staying in a hotel for a few days to remind me why I’m glad not to have ready access to the TV in my home. A few weekends ago, I was in Annapolis, Maryland. Ian, my lacrosse-playing son, had a tournament there. In the evenings, while he and his teammates ate copious amounts of french fries (not dyed blue, I’m happy to report) and ran around the hotel, I stayed in my room. I attacked my e-mail inbox. I called friends who live in the area and caught up with them. I also did something I rarely do—and put my feet up on the bed and clicked on the TV.

As I mentioned, I’m a terrific channel surfer. I find it highly pleasurable to click through a hundred stations, getting a split-second sense of what’s on the show. This time, however, I slowed down. It had been so long since I’d seen “real” TV. Was it really all that bad? Maybe I’m just an old Debbie Downer when indeed the quality of programming had improved. Maybe TV now was a bastion of excellence. I slowed down and took a look.

One station was playing The Wizard of Oz. Now who can complain about that? I savored the scene of Dorothy oiling the Tin Man’s rusted joints and then started the progression through the channels.

Immediately I went from “Why, it’s a man, a man made out of tin!” to a reality show on which a woman is tearfully telling the story of her husband’s murder. By his brother. Who had shot him in the head. You see, the wife and her brother-in-law were having an affair, the details of which she very openly shared on this program.

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

I clicked away from that one.

Next up was a program describing how to make sombreros. Helpful as that is, I didn’t think I’d have occasion to need this information anytime soon, so I changed the channel.

Next I saw a commercial for a wrestling show.

Click.

A car race called Super DIRTcar.

Click.

A snippet of a sitcom on which a woman laughingly calls the man beside her a “meth-daddy” and talks about getting “butt naked” together.

Click.

Next was one of the Back to the Future movies. (Hi, Biff!)

Click.

Next was The Story of Stuff’s Annie Leonard’s worst nightmare. It was a lengthy commercial that shows two women chatting and shopping at a huge discount store, their carts overflowing. One remarked admiringly about the massive amount of stuff her friend has in her cart and the other bragged that because of a special payment plan, she didn’t even have to think about paying for any of it for six months! (Wow! Six months! That’s like half a lifetime!)

I changed the channel.

I skimmed past a college football game, a boxing match, and then football again.

Next was a television drama on which a character was describing the domestic abuse she had suffered. She tearfully confessed that she was sure she deserved it.

The last show I saw before Dorothy

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