Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 4, 2011

I don't think I've got bad taste. I've got no taste.

Graham Norton, British BBC Talk-show host;
he was born on this date, 1963 (He’s Irish)


This will tell you a lot about me. My absolute favourite TV show is “South Park”. I have two sets of shorts with the South Park “boys” on them; their little figures stand on a table in our living room; and I have a decal of Eric Cartman on the back window of my car - Eric is definitely my Dark Shadow, or Evil Twin!

My next favourite TV show is Graham Norton. He hosts a show on BBC on which he interviews mostly entertainment celebrities. He is hilarious, and he and his guests can say practically everything, since the BBC is not hypocritical like American TV when it comes to so-called “morality”.

I said in my homily for Ash Wednesday that Lent was about Reality. So I’m using Graham’s quote to hold that up again. Some people think that evading the truth is a good idea. I don’t. I think that Reality, truth, is always the best course. Lying to oneself or others – and especially to God, since “God” is your truest Self - is always a bad idea. Lies breed deeper lying faster than brine shrimp reproduce in Australia’s Lake Eyre. It doesn’t take long to become lost in the wilderness of Falseness, Denial, Avoidance, Repression - and they lead equally quickly to sickness and death, metaphorically, spiritually, and sometimes physically.

I’ve gotten to the stage in Life where one of the things that brings me the most amusement is catching myself lying about myself ….. to myself! It has been MOST liberating to arrive at this point. I feel like the Samaritan woman in the parable who, after her encounter with Jesus at the well, ran back to her friends and exclaimed that He had told her things that astonished her! I have discovered what an enormous burden is lifted by being truthful. I just wish I’d learned it earlier.

So, go for it ….. today and as much as you can stand. No need even to pretend that you have Bad Taste (symbolically speaking). Having “no taste” is even better for your health!

Brian+