I’ve been seeing so much about these books, they’re everywhere. Even in the campus bookstore. They’ve even made such waves that hardware stores have picked up female business and sales of classical music have increased. Classical music? Really? Is it that good or profound or whatever it is?
From everything I’ve read about it (not on my reading list), it’s nothing more than the stuff my friends used to write in camp when I was in junior high, the major difference being this story is catered to older women and doesn’t involve the Brady Bunch (I’m still traumatized by that one). Frankly, I’m not impressed, and quite saddened. Apparently, it has beat out Harry Potter for the fastest selling paperback of all time. For porn.
My wife and I complain about how people don’t have fun anymore and enjoy life. In Living Color, Ghostbusters, Goonies, where are they now? People have stopped enjoying life and just made everything about sex. Basically after American Pie that was the beginning of the end. It’s gotten to a point people don’t even realize how much sex has been injected into everything. It’s as if nothing can be entertaining or funny unless someone’s ending up in bed.
Case in point: my sister just had to show us this movie she said we’d love, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She said except for the scene in the beginning where the guy is standing around nacked and it would be fine. After about ten minutes of staring at the floor we shut it off, and she said “I didn’t realize there was that much in there”.
Once upon a time people entertained themselves with more. Yes, people were messing around back then too. I’m sure nothing in 50 Shades would have impressed Ahav, Caligula , or the Marquis de Sade. Still, they aspired for more as well. All of the philosophers wrote about virtue and piety, whether or not they lived up to it. People studied the heavens and made high class art. People aspired for more.
Our rabbis more than anyone showed how a person could live a pious life and still enjoy themselves. David HaMelech (King David) danced in front of the Ark with all of his might as he brought it up to Yerushaliyim. The rabbis used to perform for audiences in the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) and at weddings. It was fun but it was high brow. They still kept their dignity and aspired to greater things. Their entertainment didn’t revolve around fulfilling their basest needs.
I miss the times where is was just okay to have fun. Because end of the day, sex is serious. Life is serious. I guess it was my generation, Generation X, that put a permanent puss on everyone’s face. Sorry. But there is more to life, and if we can pull away from just making everything about sex, maybe we don’t have to take ourselves so seriously.
