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02/17/2005: I thought I'd Beg To Differ...but I Do Concur...
I reeeeeally hate to beg to differ with the Clergy an all...plus it can get that whole bee-in-your-bonnet nest of religious folks scared up at ya if you do...BUT...
Pimp My Faith, written by By Rabbi Marc Gellman in Newsweek, just touches a nerve here:
Rabbi Gellman writes:"Think TV is a wasteland? Here are two reality shows that are hip and healing.... I hereby proclaim the Gospel of “Pimp My Ride” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” What I see in these two shows is a saving radiant glimmer of how television married to compassion (and a blown 450cc short block engine) can produce programs that are both hip and healing, both popular and profound."
Now, I do hereby confess a strange facination with Pimp My Ride. This show which my daughters often watch...along with a myriad of other MTV and reality drivel I'm forced to endure cause I have children, is actually interesting. The guys that do the "pimping" are very hip, funny and inventive...and incredibly kind and thoughtful of the person they are creating this "pimp mobile" for. Besides I've done some of my own mechanical stuff: tune-ups, tires, rebuilt carburators; rebuilt front end-chassis and tie-rods, auto body work...but those are stories for another day...
Rabbi Gellman finishes with this uplifing thought for his piece:"What makes these two shows not just kind and weepy but actually luminous is the way they unselfconsciously obliterate the traditional ways we often treat the poor. First, both shows treat the needy without a hint of condescension or pity. They respect these people completely. It is that respect, more than the pimped-out ride or the new house, that is the real gift. Also the workers on both shows work with real joy. Charity is often seen as a dutiful burden, but in these cases it is a labor of love. Psalm 100 says, “Serve the Lord in joy.” I checked in vain the ancient commentaries for a reference to the joy produced by trunk-mounted bowling ball washers, but who knows what King David had in mind 3,000 years ago when he wrote that psalm?"
I do concur, Rabbi...and while I don't exactly know if I'd call the stuff I've done a "labor of love"..but I can still relate to the your words...
Karen on 02.17.05 @ 04:13 AM CST
