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Are We Not Entertained?
55 Plays5 years ago
In our culture, and in our pursuit of health, we are so mindful of what exactly we are putting into our bodies, from the foods we eat to the cleaning products we stock up on. But what about our minds and imaginations? What are we willingly allowing into our souls, especially in regards to the entertainment we consume? In this week's episode, Michelle and Lindsay start the conversation on why choosing our leisure wisely can have a more profound impact on our overall wellness than we may think!
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Transcript
Pronunciation Debate: 'Clothesline'
00:00:00
Speaker
Mums clothes line rules. I still can't say it Can you say that clothes line What's wrong line clothes line because they have it. I feel like it should be one word. They have it as two words So I'm trying to say and it's a title so it's all capital, you know, like capital letters clothes line I can say clothesline. So it should be one word. Yeah, I would just say it as one word. Okay. Okay, here we go again. Mm-hmm. Okay, so
Episode Introduction: Entertainment's Impact on Culture
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome back to the Modern Lady Podcast. You're listening to Episode 56. Hi, I'm Michelle. And I'm Lindsay, and today we are talking about entertainment. Are you not entertained? Words spoken and immortalized by Russell Crowe's titular character in the movie Gladiator.
00:00:56
Speaker
But when we pause to consider the context of his rallying cry versus the eerie similarities in the trajectory of our own modern entertainment, that pause should full on stop us short.
Listener Appreciation and Shoutouts
00:01:08
Speaker
But first, if you are enjoying the Modern Lady podcast, we would be so honored if you could take a minute to rate and review us on whatever platform you use to listen to podcasts. It only takes a minute, but it really helps our little podcast stand out. When you take the time to comment, it truly makes our day.
00:01:24
Speaker
This week's shout out goes to Becca Catawaki, who left us a five star review on Apple podcasts and said, quote, I'm eight months pregnant with our first. And over the past two months, I have been shifting my time and energy from work outside the home to work inside the home. Not only is physical nesting kicking in, but also intellectual nesting.
00:01:46
Speaker
making sense of my new roles and responsibilities. Your podcast has given me so much to ponder, explore, laugh about and pray about as a wife, young new mom and soon to be homemaker. Thanks for sharing." End quote.
00:02:02
Speaker
Thank you so much for your comment, Becca. We love that term, intellectual nesting, and we're so honored to journey with you as you enter this new season of life. Congratulations and good luck.
Traditional Clothesline Rules and Anecdotes
00:02:14
Speaker
And if you would like to leave us a comment, you can do so on our website, www.themodernlady1950.wordpress.com, or you can leave us a comment on Facebook or Instagram, where you can find us at the Modern Lady podcast.
00:02:34
Speaker
But before we get into today's chat, Lindsay has our Modern Lady Tip of the Week. In a vintage homemaking group that I'm in on Facebook, someone posted an image entitled, Mum's Clothesline Rules. I don't know who Mum is, and I am unable to credit this source any further, but this list is just too useful not to share.
00:02:52
Speaker
So every spring I ask Jason if we can install a clothesline, and every spring he says maybe, and then we totally forget about it. But I have been long fascinated by the act of hanging laundry out to dry, and I do know how great it smells when you bring that dry clothing back inside. So without further ado, here is a list of clothesline rules. Number one, the clothesline must be wiped before hanging clothes. Number two, socks must be hung by their toes. Number three,
00:03:19
Speaker
Hang sheets and towels on the outside line so you can hide your unmentionables. Number four, shirts must always hang by the tail, never by the shoulders. Number five, line up clothes that each item shares one of the clothes pegs with another item. Number six, pegs must be gathered up when taking down clothes. Never leave them on the line. So I don't know what it is, but this list really convinced me that I need to have a clothes line outside this year.
Clothesline Styles and Practicality
00:03:46
Speaker
So Michelle, do you use a clothes line?
00:03:49
Speaker
I do, and I am one for six on those tips. Oh my goodness, I do gather my clothespins. You do? Good, good. Now I'm wondering here, so maybe you can help me, because it says the hanging sheets and towels on the outside line so you can hide your mentionables. Is that where, is there two lines then? Does that mean that run, and you would just, yeah. Yeah. So when I heard that, I immediately thought about the kind of clothesline that I have, and that made sense to me. So we don't have just a single line going across.
00:04:18
Speaker
We do have one of those that are anchored into the ground and they have like...
00:04:23
Speaker
four or five rows of lines going between the two posts. And so in that context, yes, I can see you'd hang the bedsheets on the outside and then all the clothes and unmentionables on the inside. Yes, that makes so much sense. Now, oh my goodness, I can't believe I didn't see it before. But everyone else did. I just love it. Anytime we can use the word unmentionables is a good day. A very good day, yes.
Complexity of Entertainment Industry: Moral Implications
00:04:56
Speaker
Just a quick note before we begin that the content of today's episode deals with more mature subject matter and may be inappropriate for some children. Listener discretion is advised.
00:05:10
Speaker
The entertainment industry becomes more and more complex every day. To satiate the culture's appetites, our form of entertainment has to change and intensify rapidly. And this can make for a complicated discernment process on our part while we're choosing what we and our families indulge in for leisure. This is quite possibly one of the hardest episodes we've ever recorded.
00:05:33
Speaker
This is because it's something very personal, right, for most people, and something that a lot of people, well, might get their backs up about. I couldn't silence the voice in my heart calling me to speak up any longer, so we're going to start this discussion. But that's what our little podcast is. It's a conversation starter. And you, dear listener, well, you're part of the conversation that's just happening between two friends, between Michelle and I.
00:05:57
Speaker
We do not claim to have all the answers when we sit down to record every week. And often we're actually in the beginning stages of figuring out quite how we feel about these topics. But what we're sharing with you is our process of becoming critical thinkers. You see us wrestling with these topics. You see us desiring to grow in virtue. But we also are open about how hard we can find it to be when we're swimming against the current.
Influence of Entertainment on Societal Norms
00:06:21
Speaker
Right, Michelle?
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's so hard to be different. It's hard to be in the world, but not of the world, right? And I know as Christians too, we're familiar with the Bible verse of compelling us to become salt of the earth. So there is this call to be different when we see the culture moving in a direction that we simply can't follow.
00:06:44
Speaker
as Christians if it goes against our beliefs or our convictions. And yet it's one of the hardest things for us to do, especially here in the West, right? Yeah. And we've said it before. So we are all in this together. And with that being said, though, I think we can all agree that the entertainment industry has played a very, very huge role in shaping society over the last 100 years. I was listening to a homily today that was actually about the March for Life in Washington.
00:07:13
Speaker
But the priest said something that ended up being totally related to today's topic. Father Jonathan Meyer said, who has the greatest authority over us in our world right now? It is those in the entertainment industry. They dictate the clothes we wear, our music, our vocabulary and our culture.
00:07:32
Speaker
He said this because he was referencing St. Paul's call to us to pray for those in places of authority. And we might think at first glance that our politicians have the most sway, but that's not really the truth at all. And it really hasn't been the truth for a very long time.
00:07:46
Speaker
That's a really interesting point. I never thought of it that way because you're right. We do tend to think of the highest in floors being the traditional authority figures in government and even in the church or in our families. But it seems like the entertainment and the celebrity aspect of it kind of slips in there. And it is so much more profound than we think it is. But it is powerful all the same.
Struggles with Entertainment Choices and Religious Conversion
00:08:12
Speaker
It really is. And you know what? I love entertainment. I love movies.
00:08:15
Speaker
Right? And TV shows and books and music. And heck, I even sang in a grunge band back in the mid-90s. I love the culture. And most of my friends in my formative years, while they were musicians and actors, wannabe film directors, I was always with creative people. I loved art that pushed boundaries, dark independent films and music with cryptic lyrics. I loved it all.
00:08:40
Speaker
And then in my early 20s, I became Christian and I became Christian kicking and screaming. And I knew right away that I was not going to just start listening to cheesy praise and worship music. I wasn't going to give up on my quest to immerse myself in a very avant-garde artistic world. But then, Michelle, I became a Catholic Christian.
00:09:03
Speaker
Oh boy. But since I'm still stubborn, it takes God a long time to work on me. I still knew then that I wasn't going to let, quote, the church tell me what to watch and where and read and listen to. I mean, sure, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I went to Mass every single Sunday, but I wasn't transformed. It was still me from Monday to Saturday.
00:09:26
Speaker
And then in 2012, I found the traditional Latin Mass and I started for the first time ever to see myself as how God sees me. And in no time I started feeling this push to become a whole new person. And at first this
00:09:42
Speaker
rejection of earthly things was easy because it was the obvious sin, right? I'm like, well, I'm not going to murder anybody. I'm not going to steal anything. Yeah, okay, doing pretty good. And I'm like, clearly, I'm living a Christian life. Well, it started to push me deeper and deeper and deeper into becoming how Christ wants me to be. And this interior transformation had to start being reflected in my exterior life and the choices that were a little bit harder to give up.
Problematic Themes in Modern Entertainment
00:10:11
Speaker
And this has really come up lately with Netflix. And this is what kind of spurred this discussion between Jason and I and within our home. And we love our movies and TV shows. Michelle, is there something that you have really struggled with?
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting because I do, I struggle with entertainment too, but I come at it from a different perspective because I grew up always in the church, right? And yet it is interesting to just acknowledge that that has not diminished the struggle at all, right? So it finds us all. For me, one of the things I find difficult to monitor and keep on top of our books
00:10:55
Speaker
I think it's hard because you can't always judge a book by its cover. You just don't know what's coming up, right? Whereas with movies or TV shows, I have been able to kind of look at it and get a sense of what it could be. You have trailers, things like that. But for a book, it's often different. And it is hard to, once you get really rooted in with a character and with the plot line and with the storyline,
00:11:23
Speaker
It's hard to put it down and I know I find it very difficult to do that and you're hit with this moral dilemma in the middle of a book. Sometimes I can. Sometimes, to my shame, I can't or I don't and I'm working on it too. So I really like having the discussion though because it
00:11:44
Speaker
It occurs to me as I'm reading it what to do and I think that I suspect that all of us have had moments like that. Well, I firmly believe that it's no accident that those things pop up halfway through a book or a couple episodes into a new TV show. I believe it's deliberate and it's a lot harder to sell us on evil.
00:12:06
Speaker
I'm right from the beginning, although I think my issue now is that it is not even being hid anymore in the new TV shows, particularly on Netflix. So what we're talking about here is entertainment. And I put quotes around the word entertainment when I'm talking about this with our friends. And what I mean by that is that in our busy lives,
00:12:27
Speaker
We only have a few hours of pure leisure in a week, right? Where we've put the kids to bed and we're putting our feet up and we're spending time with our spouse and we are choosing voluntarily to watch something that will give us pleasure.
Justifications for Controversial Entertainment
00:12:41
Speaker
That is escapism. These are things that we turn to entertainment for.
00:12:46
Speaker
Now, what that has become, and like I said, it doesn't even seem like Netflix is hiding it anymore. It only shows about like murder, real life murders, cannibalism, rape, violence, adultery, where you're rooting for the adulterous relationship.
00:13:02
Speaker
addictions of all kind, witchcraft and the occult, people with mental health disorders that are being used as characters or used in humor, talk shows that parade these people around like the old Victorian freak shows. And I mean, none of us would ever consider going to a freak show now, let alone a woman Coliseum that you referenced earlier where we watched people being ripped apart by lines. But that's what we're doing still in the comfort of our own living rooms now.
00:13:30
Speaker
Right. And isn't it so interesting that if we dare to say, you know what, that's not for us, right? Rejecting the popular entertainment makes us feel like we're strange. Yeah, we're the weird ones. Sorry, I don't want to watch Jeffrey Dahmer cannibalizing somebody. I don't want to, maybe I shouldn't be watching that. What? You're approved, right? Like there's an immediate response from people. Yeah. And it's kind of
00:13:56
Speaker
You know, like what you're kind of alluding to there too, I think I really don't like the idea that we're all being used by the entertainment industry, right? I think we can be naive or just forgetful sometimes when we don't remember that the bottom line is money. Absolutely. It's to make money.
00:14:16
Speaker
And so not only are these, you know, the actors and actresses are sometimes being used or exploited or coerced into doing things they're not comfortable with just to get a job, just to get their foot in the door. You know, they're being used and also we are being used too. Like our loyalty and our emotions and our search for leisure and entertainment, that's all being preyed upon by people who want to make more and more money off of us.
00:14:45
Speaker
And so they're going to amp it up all the time to keep us, keep us coming back for more. And I don't know that just, that doesn't sit well with me.
Aligning Entertainment with Personal Values
00:14:56
Speaker
Well, they're preying on something and I guess this can be our modern lady word of the day. We need a new jingle for that. But, um, con keep a sense, right? Michelle, con keep a sense.
00:15:05
Speaker
It's a word that we use in the church. It's a theological term for our natural desire towards sin, particularly sexual sin. I mean, it's within us. It's something we all have to fight and overcome. Well, marketers know this. TV writers know this. And you're right, the money that's made off of our desire to watch and see things that are thrilling or that cause
00:15:31
Speaker
feelings of pleasure or desire within us. I mean, they're feeding off of this thing that we all have within us. None of us are above that. And they're totally praying off it. And like we said, they've been praying it off since the beginning of time. And everybody falls for it. We are all struggling with this. But what we're saying to you in this episode is that
00:15:51
Speaker
Have you had that discussion? Have you had that time where you are meditating on your own values? I don't care if your value system is the same as mine or if it's the same as Michelle's. We're not here to preach our value system to you. What we're asking is, have you sat back and asked yourself and asked your spouse and asked your children? Are the things that we are watching and listening to, are these things in alignment with the values that we are very public about? The things that people would know about our family that we stand up for?
00:16:21
Speaker
Or when we put our kids to bed, are we watching things that we should not be watching behind closed doors? It's about having integrity. And it's about walking the walk. And I couldn't do it anymore over these last couple of years, right? I thought, I can't tell my kids that all of these things are wrong. And dare I say, sinful, we don't even use that word anymore. And then sit down as entertainment with my husband. And we would like be like, oh, we should turn that down so the kids don't hear him.
00:16:49
Speaker
And I'm not talking about horrible, horrible things. I'm just talking about things like Peaky Blinders, which we got into for a while, and Game of Thrones. We're like, we should turn that down. Or what if one of the kids walks down and sees that? What the heck? Then I start hitting me like a ton of bricks. What integrity do I have as a human being that I am telling my kids that all of these behaviors are wrong? And then I'm watching that as, again, quote, entertainment in my spare time.
00:17:15
Speaker
Right. And I think it helps, too, to kind of break it down even further and consider why it would be wrong.
Entertainment's Psychological Effects
00:17:23
Speaker
Right. That can that can sometimes ease it a little bit, too, because it does look good and feel good to indulge in so many of these shows that aren't necessarily appropriate. But so why it is. And actually, it just popped up on my newsfeed on Facebook this morning, this quote from St. Thomas Aquinas. And he says,
00:17:44
Speaker
that the things that we love tell us what we are. And I was like, ooh, ouch. Especially because in that context, I was looking up things for today's episode to record. I was like, oh, I do love
00:18:01
Speaker
what I love in terms of entertainment. But these things that we look at or that we read or we listen to, these things stick in our minds, right? And they become part of our memories. And then they can be used against us in moments of weakness or moments of temptation to turn our thoughts and our actions away from God and from doing what is right. And that's what the danger is, right? It's not like a killjoy thing.
00:18:30
Speaker
It's not like a status thing, like, oh, I'm more pure than you, like whatever that would even look like. It's like a self-preservation, that instinct that we've lost because we've become desensitized to it. So, you know, when we're talking about like, perhaps we really need to revisit having a conversation within ourselves first and foremost.
00:18:53
Speaker
What are we comfortable with that? I think that stems from a what is my desire in the long term? What direction am I going? And are these methods of entertainment helping me or are they leaving me further away from the path? That is such oh my goodness. You made so many good points.
00:19:10
Speaker
What am I comfortable with, right? We're allowing these things in our home. I know the first argument people say, and again, I'm sure even some of you listening to this are going, okay, too much. Like, this is ridiculous. We're fine with what we watch. We're grown adults. We can make a conscious decision. We're good in all these other areas in our life, and we can enjoy our one hour at night together, you know?
00:19:32
Speaker
And it's a conversation that still needs to be have because if you're comfortable with that and this conversation that Michelle and I are having are making is making you uncomfortable. Why is it making you uncomfortable? A lot of people like well, we can't protect ourselves forever. You step out into the world. You're going to hear swear words. You're going to see all this stuff. The world is a nasty place.
Unrealistic Expectations in Relationships due to Media
00:19:54
Speaker
Like you said, Michelle, these things that we take in to our ears and to our eyes, it goes into our brain and it does lodge in there. And even if we remove the God element, there is a psychological impact that is undeniable. Right. And so I look at it. Okay. So we're going to be really bold here when we talk about this. But, and this is again, a little moment. If your kids are in the room, you might want to take them out right now.
00:20:19
Speaker
and just pause it, okay? So something I noticed for many years, and I noticed this before I was a Christian, I had a lot of girlfriends who were so obsessed with romantic comedy movies. These were really popular in the 90s. They're not as round as much right now. But they all end with the heroine running away from the guy through an airport, and he's catching cabs in Manhattan to try to catch her at the airport, right?
00:20:46
Speaker
highly emotional, emotionally charged. And these girls that I knew, and I liked them too, not as much as some other women, but they really shaped how women looked at men and at relationships. And heaven forbid you were the guy who wasn't going to chase some girl down to tander flowers last minute and do all the romantic things in the movies because she wasn't going to be with you.
00:21:09
Speaker
She had this idea, this mistaken idea of what a relationship is supposed to look like. And I know plenty of women who shut down great guys and who turned them down for years and ended up not married and not happy because they never were able to live up to that romantic comedy idea of what a relationship should look like. Now, the flip side of that is pornography. I have known many men.
00:21:32
Speaker
And I saw pornography many times at house parties growing up. At all of the house parties, it was on TV when we were in high school, all the way up. But I knew many men who then looked at that as the ideal sexual relationship with a woman. I mean, it was an idealized version of sex. And so they were like, why isn't my girlfriend doing this? Why isn't my wife doing that? And the girls were like, why isn't he chasing me down?
00:21:57
Speaker
like taking it to top the entire state building. I mean, we've been so programmed into looking at our relationships like this because of this, our choices of entertainment that God aside, it's really screwed up relationships between men and women. And like I said, I saw this long before I became a Christian.
Fiction vs. Reality in Entertainment
00:22:16
Speaker
That brings up a really good point about blurring the lines, right? Because there is a difference. If you're watching something that's really fantastical and very clearly fiction, very clearly fantasy, I'm thinking like Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia.
00:22:36
Speaker
Star Trek, right, like obviously you're watching a TV show, right? And that's easy to turn off and walk away from and continue on into reality. But you're right. It is like with this rise of reality TV and even romantic comedies, like what you're saying, that genre, it's so it's close enough to what we can recognize in our own lives that it starts
00:23:00
Speaker
we start to not be able to turn it off and then continue on in our real world. It becomes a bit of our real world. And that's part of the hook. And you're right, I think it is having more of an impact than we may even be aware of. Yeah, then that's how
00:23:18
Speaker
That's how sneaky entertainment is, right? We don't even think we're dialed into it when we're watching things. It's just like we're comatose on the couch. We're just trying to relax at the end of the night. And again, we're all there. I'm there with you. But as soon as it lingers with us, I can't tell you how many times when we used to watch Game of Thrones, an image would be burned into my mind. And I had to try to shake that image that night going to bed or the next day. And if that's me, and I'm, let's just say at this point, a pretty
00:23:47
Speaker
formed Catholic. I mean, I've done a lot of work over the last 10 years. And if those things still stick in my mind, what about a 10 year old or an 11 year old or an 18 or 19 year old who are just starting to decide what their views are on marriage and on how they treat women or their coworkers, that sort of thing. It's just really changes our brains far more than
Recognizing Personal Sensitivities in Media
00:24:10
Speaker
we think it does. It is not just entertainment.
00:24:14
Speaker
So, in starting down this path then, in starting to reflect on what we're watching and does this line up with our values, one thing I thought was really interesting that you and I talked about was, and this was a while ago too, but it brought it up to my mind, was this idea of certain people also have tendencies or sensitivities
00:24:36
Speaker
in areas that other people may not. And to kind of know within yourself what that is for you. Because some people may have past experiences where they might be triggered. To use a trendy phrase. They might be more triggered by certain things and that might stick in your head more than it would someone else. So for someone who does struggle with lust and
00:25:02
Speaker
you know, things of that sort. Maybe romantic comedies have a more grave impact on them than, say, Harry Potter. But for someone who has bad experiences dealing with the occult and things like that, they may be able to watch romantic comedies and flick it off and be fine, but those images will not be able to leave them. So that's another level of consideration too, that just like we're all different in terms of our convictions and moral beliefs,
Blasphemy in Entertainment and Viewer Complicity
00:25:32
Speaker
And you also kind of have to be a little bit introspective and consider who you personally are and what personally will get you. Yeah, this is the exact conversation we want you to have. And again, it's this idea of not just being spoon fed what the culture is spoon feeding you and going, okay, I'll watch this. Everybody's watching it. It's having this discussion and thinking for yourself. One of the things that I have to point out, I can't
00:26:00
Speaker
just not point this out anymore, is the amount of times our Lord's name is taken in vain. This really started in the 80s, and I know that because I was born in 1980, and we grew up with all of the great movies, right? The Goonies, The Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones, and The Breakfast Club, and now I fondly look back on those movies, and I've been wanting to show my kids movies like Back to the Future, and I am shocked
00:26:26
Speaker
by the amount of times there is blasphemy in those movies, not to mention the almost rape scene, just keep that in mind with Back to the Future. But it starts really in the 80s. And so in our house, I mean, we haven't said OMG in many, many, many years. And I started, we got to the point where we were feeling convicted that if we heard it in a TV show, we would say a quick little prayer, sorry, God, and then we would keep watching it.
00:26:55
Speaker
But then, Michelle, I had this realization. And I thought, am I going to stand before Jesus one day? And he'll say, OK, so Lindsay, you were watching Peaky Blinders. You apologized 50 times for the amount of times they took my name in vain, which happens to be the second commandment, people. It's a big one. And you apologize every time, which says to me, you understood that that was a really big deal enough that you apologized to me. But you kept watching the show.
00:27:23
Speaker
you kept watching the show. I couldn't stomach that anymore. And man, it's hard because what shows can we find where they're not taking our Lord's name in vain? And I even have to say that before, if you would come to me when I was an atheist and very, very anti-Christianity, and you had said to me out of respect, you know what? I don't want to hear that. Or is it okay if we don't watch it?
00:27:47
Speaker
I wouldn't have actually fought you on that. That wouldn't have been, I would have fought you on a lot of things. But to me, that's just a sign of respect. I would have been like, yeah, no problem. I'm so sorry. And I would have done my best to guard my language. So I'm not your 80 year old grandmother right now going, don't take the Lord's name in vain. But I am a 39 year old woman saying, don't take the Lord's name in vain. Because it's no longer accepted in my home. It's not the language that we are going to allow on TV. Now, one last thing about this.
00:28:18
Speaker
we're as we try to navigate through this in our family, we are at the of the mindset that if we're watching like a documentary, or something where it's interviewing real people, and they're speaking off the cuff, and it happens to slip out, we will apologize about that. But we'll let that slide versus it being scripted into a TV show. Okay, we firmly believe there's a big difference here between a team of writers who are writing in blasphemy as lines that are
00:28:45
Speaker
forcing their actors to say these lines, particularly, and I'm talking about 12 and 13 and 14 year olds on Stranger Things, which got really bad in last season with that. Father Ripperker, who you and I are a big fan of, he said there's a different thing between, I believe, is it implied sin and actual sin? Michelle, you know that, where he talks about that.
00:29:05
Speaker
Yeah, I can't recall the exact words, but that is the that is
Courage in Entertainment Choices
00:29:09
Speaker
the sentiment. Yeah. So he explains that when there is implied sin, let's say in a movie, so it's like acted out violence or even some sex scenes, if it's integral to the pot plot and it's done well, there might not actually be sin going on with it. Now, the thing is with blasphemy,
00:29:25
Speaker
It's always sin. It's actual sin, whether it's being read off a script or said out loud. Like, it's not supposed to happen. And when we watch it and we don't turn it off and it happens over and over and over again in a show, we're complicit in that. And I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want to hear it in my heart. I didn't want to hear it in my conscience. I didn't want to hear it spoken by good priests. I didn't want to read it in the Bible, but I can't pretend I don't know that now. And I can't pretend that I
00:29:52
Speaker
It's not important for me to share that with you guys. And that's up to you to decide, but it's not going to happen in my house anymore. And I think this whole conversation really just comes down to we need to have a call back to courage again, right? Because
00:30:11
Speaker
During this whole conversation, I myself, as I'm talking with you, Lindsay, I'm fighting impulses towards fear. What is this going to mean for us going forward? Am I going to be ostracized? Am I not going to be able to
00:30:30
Speaker
talk to people or be relevant. Am I going to be laughed at or made fun of? And I am, I do feel fear over that, but it's this, the comfort is knowing that it is something that takes courage. And so that is the answer and that is the antidote.
00:30:48
Speaker
the courage to not only look inside and figure out what the right way to go is, but then to stand by it and to be firm in it. It does. It takes massive courage. And I don't know that I'm fully there yet. But again, I can't deny that this has this conversation hasn't been happening in my home. And it is it's been likened to a white martyrdom by certain priests in this day and age. There is such
00:31:16
Speaker
and understanding among almost everybody that we just all watch these shows like you don't even second guess it so if you are the weird family that doesn't do this people are like oh you're holier than that way you're one of those what are you guys just gonna do like some candles and sit around and pray all night and i'm like yeah actually we do do that sometimes
00:31:39
Speaker
And have a couple blasts of wine and have a good night too, if I'm listening to the lyrics and know what it's about. It's about being aware. This is what we're saying. And your value system might be different than my value system. And I'm cool with that. I just need you to look in yourself and listen to everything that you're allowing into your home and go,
00:32:00
Speaker
okay yeah I'm okay with this or no we're not okay with this you know in your own heart if you've been watching something you shouldn't be watching and it does take great courage to say okay I'm gonna disconnect from this I'm going to for right now not allow this into my space into my house as the homemaker
Reviving Uplifting Art
00:32:19
Speaker
You know, and if you stuck with us this far on this subject and you haven't been triggered yet, let me just throw one more thing at you to really test your mettle. I want to propose an edit of MAGA, right? Make America Great Again, the red hats.
00:32:39
Speaker
Yes, but how about we make art great again? You know, art used to be something that raises people up and tears people down. Yeah, and that's what it's quickly becoming en masse. It's not just the weird fringy shows anymore.
00:32:57
Speaker
that people know kind of stay away from. This is mainstream and art used to be a mainstream way of lifting us up and propelling us towards God and inspiring us and motivating us and entertaining us all at the same time. And that's what made it so great in the first place. So
00:33:17
Speaker
Once again if you want to join us down this down this MAGA road make art great again and fight the culture have courage to do so because we can do this and who knows maybe we can really turn things around and make the world a better place.
Family-Friendly Recommendations and Conclusion
00:33:40
Speaker
Okay, it's time for our What We're Loving This Week segment of the show. So Lindsay, what have you been loving this week? Well, speaking of wholesome entertainment, which can be hard to find, I stumbled across a new documentary on Netflix the other morning and I was just going to watch 10 minutes of it while I had my coffee, but ended up watching the whole thing and most of the kids joined me for almost all of it. The film is called The Biggest Little Farm. Have you seen that on Netflix yet?
00:34:07
Speaker
Oh no, I don't think I've come across it yet. Okay, it's new on there. It follows a husband and wife team from urban California as they pursue their dream of starting a farm using mostly traditional farming methods. Phil's gonna like this one too. Oh yes.
00:34:23
Speaker
The documentary takes place over seven years and it's beautifully shot and it's very moving and yeah I cried at the end like I do at the end of all movies and of course I also felt inspired to go start a farm like you will because of course I will.
00:34:39
Speaker
But they really do show the brutal reality of what traditional farming is like in 2020. The movie is totally family friendly. If you are the type of family that watches nature shows already where you see animals being killed and attacking each other, if you kids have already seen that on nature shows, that's the worst thing you see. And it's upsetting, but it's a great conversation starter with the kids. And the way they handle it is very respectful.
00:35:03
Speaker
They're really, really good at showing the reality of coyotes and chickens and what happens with farming. There's no bad language and there's no blasphemy. So I'm going to be watching it again this week with Jason. The Biggest Little Farm was a great show, great movie. And what have you been loving this week?
00:35:19
Speaker
So we also had some entertainment this weekend. We watched a movie this weekend called The Aeronauts. And this one's on Amazon Prime. Have you seen that one? No, but I've seen the pic. I know what you're talking about. I've seen the image. Okay.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, so the movie came out last year, and it stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. And I really like them together, actually. They were in that movie, The Biopic, about Stephen Hawkins. Yes. Yes. So I like them as a pair, but they star again together. And this is a story that follows a scientist named James Glacier in 1862. And he wanted to test his theory that weather is predictable.
00:36:00
Speaker
And he's always being laughed at. So to do this, he needs to study the air itself and the atmosphere. So what he does is he hires a pilot who happens to be a widow named Amelia Wren. That's Felicity Jones's character to take him up in a hot air balloon because she's a
00:36:17
Speaker
Yeah, her husband was a pilot and then he passed, but she still flies. And so what I found really interesting actually came up from Googling the people themselves. So James Glacier and his story is actually real with a few exceptions, of course, in the movie. But Amelia Wren is fictional and she draws actually from several real life figures, such as Amelia Earhart.
00:36:41
Speaker
and another woman named Sophie Blanchard who was a French female aeronaut in the early 1800s and she was actually the first person to fly at night and to fly to such heights that she would nearly pass out or freeze to death or nearly freeze to death up in a hot air balloon by herself. So I just thought it was a really interesting story. So that's the Aeronauts and you can find that streaming right now on Amazon Prime.
00:37:10
Speaker
Okay, that's going to do it for us this week. And if you want to get in touch and chat with us about our topic today, you can find us on our website, www.themodernlady1950.wordpress.com, or leave us a comment on Facebook or Instagram at The Modern Lady Podcast. I'm Michelle Sacks, and you can find me on Instagram at mmsacks.
00:37:33
Speaker
And I'm Lindsay Murray and you can find me on Instagram at Lindsay Homemaker. Thank you so much for listening. Have a great week and we will see you next time.