Category: A Spiritual Look At All Forms Of Entertainment…

I’m asked all the time what shows do I regularly watch on television and every time I respond they rarely seem to be the ones everyone else seems to be watching. If you pay attention to the Nielsen ratings to see what the majority of the population is currently tuning into, you’ll see it’s primarily programs that mimic real life. But that’s precisely what I don’t want to see when I sit down in front of my television and turn it on.

Look, life in general in our world is already filled with so much violence, scandal, gossip, judgment, dysfunctionality, and the like. So watching programs that endorse greater amounts of that only stresses me out even more than what’s in the news these days. This is why I tend to be drawn mostly to shows that are in the genre of science fiction or fantasy. But even then, I don’t watch every single one that falls under either of those genres. Instead, there’s a theme that I’m constantly drawn to with what I follow on the small screen and that’s the “good versus evil” or “light versus dark” concept.

This is probably why I tune into all those superhero-based programs on television, as that’s generally what their themes are about. And I always feel the more I watch them, the better I feel about my life. Sometimes I think that’s because I was brought here to help fight the darkness that pervades our planet and do what I can to replace it with light. Unfortunately, I got distracted from that goal for a very long time due to all the addictions I used to succumb to. But thankfully that’s not where I’m in life anymore.

Regardless, I tend to wonder if who each of us are inside can often be identified by what we regularly watch on television. Can we easily become that which we watch? Psychologists have been theorizing lately that the people who go on these shooting sprees could be due to all the violent programming on television nowadays.

While there really isn’t proof yet for any of these speculations, my spiritual teacher has reminded me time and time again to really be careful of what I watch myself. So I do. I’m very careful to only tune into things that I find uplift me. Because the last thing I want to do is move backwards in my spiritual journey by allowing myself to watch things that make me feel angry, fearful, or more negative.

Nevertheless, I feel this is definitely something to ponder. So I leave you with these questions for that reason. What do you watch regularly on television? Are any of the undesirable traits of the shows you follow the same one’s others sometimes see in you? And who do you really want to be in life, as to become that, could it involve tuning into different programming that’s more supportive of that goal? I truly hope you take the time to muse over these questions and I wish each of you well on your spiritual journeys…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

 

There have been many famous Olympians throughout history who’ve left a lasting impression upon our world, some of which I’ve been grateful to see leave their mark and others who came along way before my time. But one who still seems to stand the test of time was a humble African-American man by the name of Jesse Owens, who won international fame with four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. While there have been many other athletes since then who have won just as many medals if not more, what makes Owens story so special was his rise to fame in a time when the color of one’s skin mattered so much to people.

I can honestly say I didn’t know much about Jesse Owens life before heading to the theater recently to see the movie “Race”, which chronicled much of the highlights of his athletic journey to stardom. But when the film’s closing credits began to roll, I couldn’t say that anymore. What I could say though was I now understood why his life’s events were so important to not only the United States, but ultimately the world.

The movie begins with Owens, played quite well by actor Stephan James, saying goodbye to his family as he becomes the first person to head off to college. It’s overly apparent though once he arrives there at his alma mater of Ohio State University (OSU), that others don’t like him or even want him to be there, solely due to him being black. Yet there is one who does look beyond it and embraces Owens, as well as his talent, and that’s Larry Snyder, the coach of OSU’s track and field team, who’s also played quite well by actor Jason Sudekis.

The film goes on to highlight the growth of Snyder’s and Owen’s relationship, including the training that led up to Owens setting three world records and trying a fourth during the Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, MI on May 25, 1935, all in the span of 45 minutes, which is a feat still unbroken to this day. While this made Owens a hero to many of his own race and even helped to begin breaking down some of the barriers between whites and blacks in our country, it’s what the movie covers next in his life that helped to change the world and that was his decision to go to Berlin for the 1936 Summer Olympics. As then, the games were being held in a city just as Adolph Hitler was coming to power, who as most know was a man profoundly against Jews and blacks. “Race” then does a superb job showing how Owens would go on to leave his mark there, with a world about to enter a war due to blatant racism and persecution, by winning four gold medals. But even more importantly, as the movie ends, it’s pretty clear that Jesse Owens also would leave a lasting mark within his own country by letting us all know that there are for more important things in life to reflect upon than the color of one’s skin.

I give “Race” four out of five stars and highly recommend it.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Anyone who knows me even a little already knows that I have a huge love for movies. Yet there’s one thing most of them probably aren’t going to know about this love of mine and that’s how much I’m disappointed with this years Oscar nominations that were just announced last week.

If you’ve tuned into the news at all lately, then you’ll most likely know why I’m disappointed. Spike Lee and Jada Pickett-Smith have been the most outspoken about it for the same reason as I, and each has already pledged to not attend the Oscar ceremony this year because of it. I don’t blame them given the fact there isn’t a single nomination this year in any category where the individual is non-white.

Look, I watch a lot of films, some of them are great, some not so great, and some pretty terrible. But within them all there has been a wide diversity present from Black to White to Latino to Asian to well, I’m sure you get my point. But the ones I and so many other movie reviewers who saw as a great this past year, that also had that very same diversity present within them, were totally overlooked for this years Oscars.

I find this extremely frustrating given some of the talent I saw this past year emerge in film including from movies such as Straight Outta Compton, Concussion, and Beasts Of No Nation. Yet none of them obviously made enough of an impact with the Academy who are the ones that actually guide the Oscar nomination process.

This seems so ironic to me because if there’s one place I feel that diversity would absolutely show up in, it’s Hollywood. But I continue to see how most of the movies being made are geared for straight white actors and even when one of them is essentially made for mostly non-white actors, it tends to be forgotten about when the major awards season rolls around.

I often think Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X would have a tremendous amount to say on this appalling lack of diversity if they were alive today. And how many people just like them have worked just as hard to help make our country become the equality-based melting pot it is. Yet, it seems as if there still is quite a bit of inequality going on and maybe even some passive racism because things like the Oscars seem to continue catering to an all-white society.

And truthfully, it shouldn’t have to be so groundbreaking when an actor or actress of color gets a big award nomination and ends up winning it. With the diversity our country has, shouldn’t it just be a regular thing to see plenty of them receiving nominations and ultimately winning? Alas it doesn’t appear so, at least not with the Oscars when you take a look at them throughout the past few decades.

So I don’t blame Spike Lee or Jada Pickett-Smith for taking the stance they are with this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. While many are saying they’re being overly dramatic and too radical, I say good for them for taking a stance to prove a point. And while I am a white individual, I can safely say I’m tired of everything being so whitely-run. I truly believed that Obama becoming President might have been the tide we actually needed to finally move in a more equal direction. Unfortunately, it looks as if we still have a lot of work ahead of us in this country and it begins with things just like the Oscars.

The bottom line is that God didn’t create an all-white world. God created a beautiful melting pot of many different races, where some of which have an incredible talent to act and deserve to be recognized for it. While it’s too late for this year’s Oscars to see that happen, I’m hopeful that all this frustration being aired by so many in Hollywood right now might actually create some momentum for next year’s. But even more importantly, I’m even more hopeful that one day our country and our world for that matter, will truly start honoring the diversity it has within it. Because in all honesty, don’t you think that God would want that for us as well?

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson