I just finished watching the 2-hour special Idol Gives Back, American Idol's charity drive that will probably raise over 100 million dollars (including corporate donations) to fight disease, poverty, and illiteracy across the United States and in Africa.
Given the state of television these days, and knowing I was in for two hours of celebrities in a semi-unrestrained live telecast, I was a bit apprehensive about the show. I braced myself for lectures about wasting money on fighting wars while people are starving at home. I braced myself for lectures on why Americans are responsible for all the suffering in the world.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. The tone of the show was exactly right. The video clips of children both in this country and in Africa were heart-wrenching, and sometimes even difficult to watch. But the producers let the video clips speak for themselves, and without passing judgement on the audience, allowed us to grow to care about the children whose lives we have the power to change. The show was full of excellent vocal performances and laced with humor (picture a deadpan Eric McCormack telling the audience, "If everyone who ever voted for Sanjaya gave just one dollar, we could do so much good.") It never felt overwhelmingly sad or hopeless. In fact, the whole mood was one of hope and encouragement.
If only more people could understand this secret! John Denver and Steve Irwin understood it: Don’t rail at people for destroying the environment, for cutting down trees, for endangering species; share your love of the mountains and the forest and the animals with them. Make them love these things so much that they can’t bear to see harm come to them.
The remaining six Idol contestants sang a song called "American Prayer" at the end of the show. Two lines in the song completely sum up this philosophy:
Don’t kick at the darkness;
Make the light brighter.
Given the state of television these days, and knowing I was in for two hours of celebrities in a semi-unrestrained live telecast, I was a bit apprehensive about the show. I braced myself for lectures about wasting money on fighting wars while people are starving at home. I braced myself for lectures on why Americans are responsible for all the suffering in the world.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. The tone of the show was exactly right. The video clips of children both in this country and in Africa were heart-wrenching, and sometimes even difficult to watch. But the producers let the video clips speak for themselves, and without passing judgement on the audience, allowed us to grow to care about the children whose lives we have the power to change. The show was full of excellent vocal performances and laced with humor (picture a deadpan Eric McCormack telling the audience, "If everyone who ever voted for Sanjaya gave just one dollar, we could do so much good.") It never felt overwhelmingly sad or hopeless. In fact, the whole mood was one of hope and encouragement.
If only more people could understand this secret! John Denver and Steve Irwin understood it: Don’t rail at people for destroying the environment, for cutting down trees, for endangering species; share your love of the mountains and the forest and the animals with them. Make them love these things so much that they can’t bear to see harm come to them.
The remaining six Idol contestants sang a song called "American Prayer" at the end of the show. Two lines in the song completely sum up this philosophy:
Don’t kick at the darkness;
Make the light brighter.
6 comments:
By the way, I also thought it was quite interesting that two of the biggest corporate sponsors that contributed millions were Exxon-Mobil (Evil Big Oil!!) and Bill Gates (Evil Rich Corporate America!!), who was also repeatedly made fun of during the breaks on those (admitedly hilarious) Apple commercials. :-)
I also want to make it clear that, by all means, there are times when the darkness needs its butt kicked. This philosophy only applies when your goal is to open the eyes and hearts of decent, rational people.
Last one, I promise, but Orson Scott Card's review this week makes a similar point about the Discovery Channel's series "Planet Earth," which I have also recently heard Rush Limbaugh praise wildly. According to Card, "they never get preachy – not even about global warming. Their goal is to show us nature truthfully, and then trust us to have the brains to realize that we don't want these creatures and places destroyed."
You're so right about John Denver and Steve Irwin! I know I could never be mean to a crocodile or a tree.
Well said, Laurie, including your postscripts.
More thoughts on encouraging people to give . . . Our pastor frequently tells our congregation how incredibly generous we are, and we gladly give even more. After Hurricane Katrina, Jesse Jackson and his friends told us how prejudiced and uncaring we are, and I gave nothing.
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