Let's begin with my sweet grand-daughter. When I showed her a picture of grandma & grandpa on their wedding day -- young, lean, beautiful! -- she looked at me. Then the picture. Long pause. What I think heard in her polite silence was: " Oh my God, how they've changed!"
No argument there. But now here's a corollary thought: "Oh my God, how the world's changed!"
Permit an antiquarian to suggest there's at least one change the world should not have allowed: The end of the Saturday Movie Matinee. Now wait, this is more than syrupy sentimentality. It just may be a hint of what the world has lost that it could still use again. You see, those Saturday serials -- in the 30s & 40s in movies then in the 50s on television -- had this unique way of instructing us how to face our challenges.
Let me explain.
The challenges today are as big if not bigger than back then. Failed economy, lost jobs, terrorism, global warming, bitter partisanship. The difference, though, is that with today's crises, everyone gets scared! then angry! then bitter! then chooses to stand toe to toe rather than shoulder to shoulder. If only more people today would have those old Saturday Matinees to enlighten them.
Seriously. Watch the classic cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter: "The Perils of Pauline," "Superman," "Flash Gordon," "Hopalong Cassidy." There was absolutely, positively no way the good guy or gal could survive. And yet, next week the camera shots show us exactly how they did survive. Wow! amazing! didn't think they could do it!
But they did. And as we left the movie theatre or our TV screen there was this subconscious sensation that spoke hope to our little hearts. To our national hearts. By golly, good guys do prevail.
No one can postulate that Saturday Matinees solved any national problems. But a soft-lens case might be made for the flames of hope and camaraderie they fanned. In place of today's 24/7 jack-hammering from sanctimonious pundits, bitter rivals, disgruntled losers, and cheap gotcha reportage, the country might do well with a dose of hope-against-the-odds. Belief-in-the-unbelievable. Good-guys-finish-first.
No, good feelings aren't solutions, But they are where most good solutions and victories begin....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This brought on a twinge of nostalgia for me Jack ... and remembrance of much of my youth. Your last paragraph was particularly fine with its "flames of hope and camaraderie" ... Great!
ReplyDeleteGeezer ~ If we ever meet -- somewhere between Chicago and the Canadian prairies -- we'll immediately know one another. Sight, sound and soul
ReplyDelete