Near and Far Faith

I believe that we as a nation have severely underestimated the power of Sesame Street. I'm sitting in my living room as Rory watches the kids sketch comedy act, or as she calls it, "Elmo". I must agree that the furry red one is by far the most worth-while character - sure his voice is high and squeaky and he insists on talking in third person, but next to the big blue "monster" who trys to eat everything but really just crushes it to the floor - I mean really they must have a cookie monster clean up crew for the set, what a slob - and why is he still speaking in broken English? Is it an accent? If not, he must be trying to relate to the thousands of little ones around the world that are also still learning to speak. But if one shows no progress after 20 years is he really helping or simply prolonging the inability to speak in our children?

Anyway, today's letter of the day (ok we DVR it - Tivo is just a brand name, by the way, like Formica. It's a Digital Video Recorder and Formica is Laminate - so it's not really today's letter) is "O". And as usual we place Prairie dawn next to Cookie monster. At least there's one puppet that can understand the mentally deficient monster. As Prairie Dawn tries to educate the beast on words beginning with said letter, the manipulative "monster" turns the conversation ultimately to food (can you say eating disorder?). Prairie - yes we are on a first name basis - ends the sketch with a plethora of sad "o" words like "Oh know!”. Not really a quick one, Dawn. This does happen daily. You'd think she'd at least have an inkling by now of the coming events. And so Rory follows suit and falls purposely off the coffee table and says "oooohhhh!" (it's fine - she falls all the time - it's a ballance thing). The power of the Street reverbarates as I also recollect some friends visiting the other day mentioning the power of it in how it had taught their 2 and a half year old his shapes, something they as parents had not yet attempted.

What else could we teach on The Street? Potty training? Manners? Conflict mediation? I realize that they are attempting a few of these, but perhaps PBS should allow us to suggest topics. It would be a worldwide sensation. Like I hear MacDonald's is begininng to serve breakfast all day soon. Of course it will work. It's Mickey D's. They could sell tobacco burgers with the proper marketing.

So let us utilize the power of the street. How and why are they so darn good at teaching? What can we learn from them? Pop culture can help us teach the gospel and I’m learning that from The Street. What they do works. God made Elmo, Cookie Monster, Telly (the socially inept), and best of all, Oscar. Oscar would be a great pastor - straight to the point and keeps you humble. Let us harness what they have done and stop trying to be original or Old School. Next study topic: what I learned from the confrontation styles of the Muppets.