Sunday, November 9, 2008

Done with E! News

When Leo and I bought our CRV last year, our model came with free XM radio for a month, that we subscribed too after since we liked it. It was nice on my long commute to and from nursing school. While on those commutes, I would get tired of flipping through music and found E! news radio. I began to love listening to "news" of celebrities, who was dating who, wearing what, going where. I then started TIVOing E! News daily. I would just have it on while doing work around the house, and in my car, I'd listen to the radio. Since I've had Meeners, I don't think I've seen one half-hour show straight through, but I've played my TIVO's episodes here and there. It's not something that's ever ruled my life, and if I didn't see a minute of it for a week, I didn't think about it, but it was something I enjoyed watching and listening to.

Last week, Sirius and XM radios merged. E! News radio was not part of the new lineup of channels, so my link to the latest Hollywood trends and gossip was gone, particularly because I rarely watch tv now. When this happened, my first thought was, that's sad, but so good for my soul! 

You girls know me, and you know, I've generally been up on my pop-culture, but I'm known amongst friends for knowing what's going on in Hollywood. I could tell you everyone JLo's been married to but I can't name all 12 apostles or even list the books of the Bible. I've been poisoning my mind and soul with not only gossip, but bad influences. I can't be so sure that I won't be influenced by certain styles to dress immodestly, or think a certain way. I know recently when they showed Jessica Alba in a bikini with her "body back" just 4 months after giving birth, I compared my own body with hers. This is so unimportant and I'm filling my head with this junk. My body housed life for 9 months and it's not going to ever be the same, nor should it be.

The gossip, I always knew deep down was wrong. If it's not ok to talk about people I know and judge them, why would it be ok for celebrities. Somehow, because they're in the media that gives us the right to know their personal business and then judge them on that? No, but it took me a while to actually put this into practice.

I didn't have this realization and flood of grace to finally open my eyes until last night while driving to the abbey, so when I got home from Irvine today, and looked at my Tivo, I knew what I had to do. I deleted 2 episodes and cancelled my season pass. As small a thing as it is, I'm ashamed to say, it's going to be tough for me to resist the urge to turn it on, but right now, the interest isn't there. Praise God.

I don't know if any of you girls have the same temptation but it's just junk. We should be filling our minds with what the Lord thinks of us and all of His good news, not what the world values. I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner, but I'll just thank God for opening my eyes and heart to it now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I had something similar happen to me last Lent, and it inspired me to start writing about Catholics in the entertainment industry as sort of a positive alternative to such "gossip" news.