Something to Believe in...

I don't watch a lot of television...some of that is by design...some is because I'm cheap and don't have cable or satellite...some of it is because I'm just not home that much. I do love to watch certain sports on TV, like baseball anytime; college football when it involves the Baylor Bears, Longhorns, or LSU Tigers; college basketball in March Madness...the NBA Finals and the NFL Super Bowl...an occasional tennis match, and that's about it. The exception recently was "Joan of Arcadia" (and to a lesser extent, "Everwood") which was so cleverly and brilliantly written that it was cancelled after two seasons. I've been looking for a replacement ever since...I may have found it tonight as I stumbled on to ABC's new show "Eli Stone". It caught my attention because a mild firestorm has been raging in the medical community over the subject matter and the way it has been handled. The show is about a successful lawyer who is faced with his own mortality and imperfection through a series of visions and hallucinations, (including George Michael on stage in the lobby of his office building singing "Faith"...yeah, they coulda been a tad more subtle). The controversy arises out of the storyline, which has this lawyer (Eli) taking on the case of of a mother who is suing a large pharmaceutical claiming that a vaccine given to her son caused his autism. There have been cries of outrage lambasting ABC for allowing this kind of story to raise doubts in some parents about innoculating their young children, to praise from others for ABC having the guts to give a high-profile voice to many who believe that there is legitimacy and wisdom in such scepticism. Aside from the controversy, I actually enjoyed the show...its writing, while not Joan-worthy yet, was very good and Eli's struggle to believe in a power he has heretofore dismissed as fairytale is (with the exception of the awkward, but amusing George Michael sightings) handled with a light and humorous hand. The show even got me tapping my feet as the closing scenes played out with the sounds of Aqualung's "Something To Believe In" which I was introduced to last year by my music-saavy daughter, Calla, who is a bit of an Aqualung fan. (I also have heard the song on my occasional secret guilty pleasure show, "One Tree Hill"...hey you gotta love a show about high school basketball players where the actors really are good basketball players...I'm just sayin').

At any rate, my life lately has also been on a search for something to believe in. Not the God thing, necessarily...just the pieces around it that have been stable, or maybe dormant for a long time, and are starting to wobble, and shake off the cobwebs. My faith in institutions and systems is jaded and calloused...I'm having a hard time caring about them at all. There are a few things that have me exploring the possibility that there are some things worth believing in...like the rise of Barack Obama as a legitimate Democratic presidential hopeful...I listen to my middle daughter Hannah talk with passion and resolve about helping solve some of the problems of the inner city by being a part of the problems of the inner city. I also belong to a faith community that is refreshingly more worried about loving people than building big buildings and monster market shares. I have a new friend in Louisiana, whose 8 year old that she adopted at birth with such extensive medical problems that that they didn't expect him to live more than a few months, begin to speak audible, understandible phrases, and eat solid, regular kid food, for the first time in his life. It was an amazing surprise and gift for his teachers and therapists, but especially for his mom who has been his faithful nurse, daily teacher, and most passionate encourager since his birth.

So Wendy and Blake, Eli Stone, Aqualung and, even I, all have something to believe in... come on, jump in and sing a verse...

Pling...Pling...

dg