Wednesday, May 02, 2018

You, As In Tube

I could spend the whole day looking at YouTube and never get bored. The following, from April 26, 2007, explains my fascination.

It started last night at 9 o'clock as I sat down to type my entry. On my way to Bible study, I heard the song, Knights In White Satin by the Moody Blues, playing on the oldies' station. There is a haunting poem at the end of the song that stuck in my mind. When I got home, I googled the song and found out the short poem is entitled Late Lament and was penned by the group's drummer and recited by the keyboard player. Then, I started to wonder if I could find video of a performance of Knights. I clicked on YouTube and typed in the song/band. Bingo...there it was! Then, I was curious if they had my favorite Moody Blues' hit, Go Now. Bingo again! That led to a search for Dusty Springfield (Wishin' And Hopin', Son Of A Preacher Man) and then Concrete And Clay by The Unit Four Plus Two. I found Barry McGuire (allegedly a distant cousin of my distant cousin) and his protest anthem, Eve Of Destruction. I was drawn to The Beau Brummel's Just A Little and the Beatles' In My Life. Before I knew it, I had listened to Are You Ready? by Pacific Gas And Electric and The Seeker's I'll Never Find Another You. I had to locate John Mellencamp's Authority Song and the classically awful Saturday Night by everyone's favorite boy band, The Bay City Rollers. Before I knew it, ninety minutes had passed and no devotional entry. (Amazingly, the one tune I couldn't find by the original artist was Loudoun Wainwright's uplifting 1973 smash, Dead Skunk In The Middle Of The Road. Shocking.) There's always tomorrow which, of course, is today.

How did I get so far off track last night? My curiosity at times is insatiable. The Internet through YouTube allows me to wander through memories and feed my hunger for both verbal and visual data. It could get addictive because there is a limitless source of information for me to rummage through. And that's just music video clips. History, sports, old television shows, biographies- I could easily spend my entire day looking stuff up and indulging myself with a warm glow. (I just found a documentary on one of the best shows ever about growing up, The Wonder Years!) Where does the line get blurry between the productive and wasteful use of time? I rely on the computer to find things to write about but there must be a point where it becomes counter productive. The Internet is also now the most complete source of Biblical knowledge; translations, commentaries, word searches, sermons, etc. For some reason, though, knowledge is more enticing with pictures and film clips. But there's just no YouTube shots of the Transfiguration or walking on water. You can't pick up a scene from the Sermon On The Mount or Jesus casting out demons, at least with the original cast of characters. I guess I'm just going to have to settle on the written word of God for inspiration. It just seems so outdated. Christianity in the twenty-first century: it's such a struggle!



Applicable quote of the day:
"Nostalgia is a seductive liar."
George Wildman Ball

God bless,

Steve
Luke 18:1

http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

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