(warning: i'm in a serious mood today - if you need a laugh, click here. For a feel-good moment, click here.)
Weird TV theme last night, that I'm still thinking about this morning. And I'm hoping I don't stir up all kinds of enmity, or indignation, or moralizing. (remember - we play nice on this blog!)
So, I was flipping through channels last night, after I got home. It was a long day, and I wanted to unwind for an hour before going to bed.
I flipped by a sitcom, where one of the characters was celebrating "not-a-father day", and other characters were deciding do-we-or-don't-we have a baby right now. Mildly interesting, but not really. (Been in that discussion. Decided not to. Believe me, it's not the kind of thing to be resolved in a half-hour sitcom.)
Flipped by a talk show, whose host I tend to share some values with. Despite the similarity in beliefs, I never watch this show, because I really dislike the host, who often seems arrogant and snide. Paused in my flipping, as one of his guests announced that all pro-lifers were aggressive and violent. Mean. Apparently that's not what the topic of the day was, but it went there, and so the host challenged her on that, especially the "all" word. She squirmed, was uncomfortable, but held to her position (for the 10 seconds I watched it). You could see in her facial expression, that in her experience - this was a true statement.
As someone who fits under the pro-life label - I found that very sad. If you didn't - go back and read that sentence again. It wasn't scripted. She was a real person, and that was her experience. Ugh.
I flipped. To Boston Legal, whose episode last week should receive a receipt for campaign donations, with its amusingly blatant promotion of Sen. Obama the night before the election. (But I digress - not being American, I didn't care much, no offense to my American readers.)
The intro this week showed a 15-year-old girl who wanted to terminate her pregnancy, and needed a lawyer. And Denny Crane said, "A show about abortion....I can hear people changing the channel already." And he was right. I did. I didn't really feel like watching a show where people who hold some of the same values I do, would be shown as bumbling idiots, full of religious hatred, unreasonable and archaic in their thinking.
But Denny's reverse psychology worked, and I flipped back. Watched most of it. Watched different characters on the show who believe firmly in the right to choose, talk about their own pain when they did. Watched them question what motives are acceptable for which choice, and then watched the 15-year-old tell them clearly that her motives were not their business. Watched them wrestle with that thought, because she was right - and that bothered them.
Anyway. I was surprised. It's an issue that polarizes, because it's one that ignites passions. How can you not be passionate, when the consequences are huge and irreversible, from either side of the table? I appreciated the lack of name-calling, the thoughtful soul-searching, the safety to look at it from the "other side's" point of view.
Yes, I believe in the sanctity of human life. I believe in a lot of things that are very important to me. But for most people, life has some very difficult, very painful, very complicated moments in it. I hope that as I interact with various people in these moments - I can do it in a way that will be characterized as helpful, empathetic, thoughtful, kind. As opposed to aggressive, violent and mean.
(And hopefully any comments on this post will be written in that same way.)
