Bacon bowl[/caption]Gordon Matilla---Experts tell us repeatedly that what we think about and what we put in our bodies impact for good or ill our mental and physical health. Many spiritual leaders would also say it also affects our spiritual health. But the Christmas conversation presently embraces the bacon bowl and Duck Dynasty, and one must wonder how these discussions, and our food choices, bring us to full realization of the holiday spirit and the message of Christ, whose birthday will be celebrated soon.
A frequent advertisement on television includes the bacon bowl. The advertisement tells us we can use a cooking apparatus called the bacon bowl to make bacon that cooks just right. Then we can load up the bowl, made of bacon with those great vegetables and other nutritious food items for the holiday and other times. It also shows us that it can be used in so many ways that from breakfast through dinner, our meals will be tasty and good.
Bacon, however, is that red flag for cancer. It also raises cholesterol levels. Bacon is not only a processed food, but it is categorized as red meat. Too much of it can kill you or at least raise the stakes when it comes to whether or not folks will live a long life, doctors say. And the bacon bowl. It has been news, for an article about it in the Huffington Post declares 'Bacon Bowl' May Be the Most Useless Gadget Yet.
Duck Dynasty is now the major discussion choice in much of social media, whether it's on Facebook or mainstream news. This television show offers comedy at the lowest common denominator of entertainment, funny but often following the road down both in language content and values. Yet it is upheld by viewers, especially recently, as a fun-loving, entertaining show that should be kept on the air in spite of its star comparing homosexual relationships with bestiality and worse along with comments that African Americans were happier as slaves than they are in present times. We are what we think, as people uphold the First Amendment rights over hate messages children hear in association with the show's star, Phil Robertson, while extolling the entertainment value, when the values bring out the least in us and become what children learn. It is what we think that helps create not just our present but our future, even as Fox News headlines maintain that A & E has "declared war on 'Duck Dynasty.' And while it contains positive values about family and working hard, the show also focuses on hunting and sexist attitudes, reinforcing to the rest of the world that America is composed mainly of bearded backwoodsmen and wives who serve them, as opposed to the Father Knows Best model that worked as a family show but offered the fatherly role as a loving and supportive one instead with neatly dressed parents and well-behaved children. When folks think about old-fashioned values, an old-fashioned show may have done it best.
Duck Dynasty Pawn Stars, Bad Girls Club, and the crime series that dominate television channels throughout most of the day offer very little in the way of upgrading culture, language and thought. While entertaining, the focus is on the dress, mannerisms and style that reinforce the negative, even as some of the better values may also be embedded in the mix. And some believe too much news is a negative also, making folks focus on fear and aggression as opposed to happy and cheerful events. Indeed as experts tell us there is power in thought, so what we think, we become.
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