I’ve been cooped up the entire Labor Day weekend trying to meet a deadline. Fortunately, TV Land is showing a 72-hour Michael Landon marathon (an uplifting contrast to Hurricane Katrina). So tonight I thought I’d unwind with a sketch Charles Ingalls.
Call me a sap, but I’ve always enjoyed Little House on the Prairie. Sure it’s a little hokey by today’s standards. But it also has a lot of heart. As a kid I had a crush on Melissa Gilbert and I wanted to grow up to be Michael Landon. Little House was fantasy, but it was uplifting fantasy. The Ingalls’ were a healthy, functional Christian family and the townsfolk always pitched in to help each other. What a contrast to the current TV landscape that seems to glorify selfishness and dysfunction.
I can’t help but reflect on the hardships faced by America’s pioneers as well as the current crisis in New Orleans. Both groups struggle to survive hardships without “necessities” like electricity or indoor plumbing, while I lose my cool if the cable goes out! How much I have to be thankful for and yet how often I take it all for granted.