I was a teaching assistant in law school. In addition to grading writing assignments, the TAs were supposed to offer, if requested, quasi-counseling to the 1Ls that had difficulty adjusting to the demands of law school. To help us in that regard, the writing department distributed pamphlets to all TAs discussing inappropriate stress management/coping strategies. At the time, I was convinced all my coping strategies were proper, and I looked forward to helping those with improper ones. I started reading the list of items that were not my problem: excessive alcohol use, illicit drug use, overeating, gambling, sex addiction, excessive television watching...wha? Wait a minute. What do they mean by excessive? I don’t watch THAT much TV. I don’t have a problem. I can quit anytime I want to. Well if I do have a problem, it’s law school’s fault. Leave me alone.
I realized at that point that I was addicted to TV. I still am. Network shows are my drug of choice (with a little E! and Discovery on the weekends) and Tivo is my enabler.
Now that I’ve admitted my problem, I’d like to discuss the shows I watched last night. Heroes. Best. Show. On. Television. ‘Nuff said.
I also watched the first half of PBS’s documentary called The Mormons. As a mormon, I was really impressed with the show. I thought it was relatively balanced and respectful. I think it presented mormon history as complex, disturbing, heroic and extraordinary, which is how I view our history. It did a good job of providing context to events such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre and polygamy. I’m excited to watch the second installment tonight.
1 comment:
I was wondering what you thought of the documentary -- I haven't seen it, though. I also have the Bushman Joseph Smith bio if you'd still like to borrow it?
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