Until not so long ago, I resisted watching the “Hallmark” movies that my wife would select for viewing a couple hours before retiring for a night’s sleep. I consider myself a “Romantic Realist” (I know, guys, you think that is an oxymoron!) and thought that the movies began pretty well and believably but ALWAYS ended happily and somewhat predictably! As a former literature and life teacher, I just could not force myself to sit through the whole movie and then say, “Oh, isn’t that sweet?” like my “much nicer than I” wife so often does.
Well, after a hefty and lengthy dose of news, real news, fake news, and whatever other types there are these days, I think I have changed my mind!
The other day as I was about to enter my Cruze outside the Post Office, a nice car slowed to a stop, “electricked” down the window, and said, “Hey, how are you and your family doing?” It was PAT ALEXANDER (now Johnson), one of my early students and a great basketball player, looking too young to have been a freshman at F. H. S. in 1973-1974.
We exchanged a few pleasantries and some information about our families and then turned to the “world/U. S.” state of affairs—and we both lamented the same things, such as violence, petty politics, pandemic stresses, closures of some of our favorite places, the fact that too many of us don’t get to talk to each other as often or as “carefreely” as we did not so long ago, and that it seems that too much of what we hear, say, and watch on television is sad, angry, or biased! And, strange
And, strange as it is going to sound, I said, “Pat, I have found the cure for some of that! Have you watched the HALLMARK CHANNEL on television lately?”
Her reply was in the negative, and, in fact, she did not remember ever watching it or knowing what its programming is! So, I explained to her what I have discovered. It is nearly always about romance of some type, about success after what could have been failure, family values, pretty scenery, friendly people of all ethnicities, and good people—and, as far as I can tell, no episode ever comes to a conclusion in an unhappy, sad, demeaning, or heavy-hearted way. And folks don’t get shot, or killed, or beaten up!
Well, I think I may have made a “believer” of her, or so it seemed as we said a fond good-bye and promised to try to talk again sooner than how things have gone recently. And, I suggest that you give the HALLMARK CHANNEL a try! If your cable company doesn’t carry it, ask them to explain!
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