My family's big into Nashville Predators hockey, even though we don't live in Tennessee. We get Center Ice just so we can watch Preds games live on FS Tennessee.
Our Tivo catches most games, and we watch them later. It's a whole lot easier than trying to arrange our schedule around a distant hockey team. It also means we get to fast forward through the commercials.
Earlier this week, we caught game live. Meaning we got to watch Nashville's local commercials. Like our local commercials here, some we can quote, some make us laugh, and some are lame.
There was a commercial I've seen before for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. I tried to find it on YouTube, but, of course, when you want a commercial you can't find it; when you don't want it it's everywhere.
The commercial features four different healthcare professionals vowing to do what you would expect of them.
An orthopedist vowing to fix broken bones. A nurse promising to use her wisdom and compassion.
Again, things you would expect. Maybe not always received but expected.
The remarkable thing is the promise to do this "even for Black Hawks, even for Red Wings, regardless of Western Conference standing."
This is a Nashville hockey commercials. The Nashville Predators HATE the Detroit Red Wings. But the Vandy nurse promises to provide compassionate care even to Red Wings.
What if we vowed the same thing?
I don't mean we all promise to fix the Red Wings' broken bones unless, of course, we are the ones lucky enough to break them. Kidding.
What if we re-wrote the commercials to put in things we're expected to do even when confronted by people or situations we don't particularly like. Mine might look like this:
I will be patient... even when I'm on a tight schedule.
I will be joyful... even when I have a headache.
I will love... even non-Christians.
What would yours look like?
<>< Katie
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Ten Steps
What did you do thirteen days ago? At some point during the day did you walk to your living room and sit down on the couch? For the first time in two years, so did my friend Kaitlyn.
In October 2007, Kaitlyn was sent home from school sick. At first they thought she had the flu, but she got worse rather than better, and no one knew why. Her hyper-sensitivity to sound, touch, smell, light, etc. left her to sit in a dark room all day watching tv and the lowest possible volume level. Her family read the subtitles because the tv was too quiet to hear.
In April 2008, she lost the ability to walk. That June she was finally diagnosed with Lyme Disease and multiple co-infections. Her family of five (plus two dogs) packed up their lives, left their 3,800 square foot house, and moved 800 miles to a two-bedroom apartment.
Over the last few years they have faithfully walked through a battle that I cannot fathom. The air conditioner, the act of cooking dinner, and even the gurling of the fridge are painfully loud to her. Hugs are out of the question. She's been treated almost daily at same clinic since 2008 and the doctor and nurses have never seen her face because she wears a towel over her head to block the light.
The week before the Steelers (this family's football team of choice) won the Superbowl, Kaitlyn independently walked ten steps, something medicine could not explain. That ability was lost again but the hope it provided was remarkable. She's now learning to walk again, and less than two weeks ago she got to sit in the living room for the first time since they've lived there.
This week, on September 29, Kaitlyn turns sixteen. What did you do for your sixteenth birthday? Not sit around in a dark apartment or go to a clinic with a towel over your head, right?
For her 14th birthday, their apartment was flooded with cards.
For her 15th, we were asked to fast and petition the Lord, the Great Physician, for her healing.
This year, her family has asked that we find a way to make her 16th birthday memorable.
What they want everyone to do is something sweet or uplifting. Something out of the ordinary. They suggested volunteering at a soup kitchen, making a meal for someone, visiting hospice, writing to a solider, volunteering at a dog shelter... Bless someone on her behalf. In Kaitlyn's honor and for God's glory.
I would love for you to participate with us. If you do, please comment on this post or send me an email with what was done and where it was, your state if you're within the US or your country (since I know there are some international lurkers!). What they're going to do is collect these stories and bind them into a keepsake book for Kaitlyn.
“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:15-18
As for what I did, well, you'll have to come back on Friday.
<>< Katie
PS: For more information, visit her caringbridge. You do have to register for the site but it's free and open to everyone.
In October 2007, Kaitlyn was sent home from school sick. At first they thought she had the flu, but she got worse rather than better, and no one knew why. Her hyper-sensitivity to sound, touch, smell, light, etc. left her to sit in a dark room all day watching tv and the lowest possible volume level. Her family read the subtitles because the tv was too quiet to hear.
In April 2008, she lost the ability to walk. That June she was finally diagnosed with Lyme Disease and multiple co-infections. Her family of five (plus two dogs) packed up their lives, left their 3,800 square foot house, and moved 800 miles to a two-bedroom apartment.
Over the last few years they have faithfully walked through a battle that I cannot fathom. The air conditioner, the act of cooking dinner, and even the gurling of the fridge are painfully loud to her. Hugs are out of the question. She's been treated almost daily at same clinic since 2008 and the doctor and nurses have never seen her face because she wears a towel over her head to block the light.
The week before the Steelers (this family's football team of choice) won the Superbowl, Kaitlyn independently walked ten steps, something medicine could not explain. That ability was lost again but the hope it provided was remarkable. She's now learning to walk again, and less than two weeks ago she got to sit in the living room for the first time since they've lived there.
This week, on September 29, Kaitlyn turns sixteen. What did you do for your sixteenth birthday? Not sit around in a dark apartment or go to a clinic with a towel over your head, right?
For her 14th birthday, their apartment was flooded with cards.
For her 15th, we were asked to fast and petition the Lord, the Great Physician, for her healing.
This year, her family has asked that we find a way to make her 16th birthday memorable.
What they want everyone to do is something sweet or uplifting. Something out of the ordinary. They suggested volunteering at a soup kitchen, making a meal for someone, visiting hospice, writing to a solider, volunteering at a dog shelter... Bless someone on her behalf. In Kaitlyn's honor and for God's glory.
I would love for you to participate with us. If you do, please comment on this post or send me an email with what was done and where it was, your state if you're within the US or your country (since I know there are some international lurkers!). What they're going to do is collect these stories and bind them into a keepsake book for Kaitlyn.
“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:15-18
As for what I did, well, you'll have to come back on Friday.
<>< Katie
PS: For more information, visit her caringbridge. You do have to register for the site but it's free and open to everyone.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Idiot Box
Apparently in Australian slang they call the television the Idiot Box. I might embrace this idea because I almost never watch tv. It was Thanksgiving before my roommate learned the tv in our room even worked. The only show I care about is House, and I haven't seen an episode since I was home a month ago. Ask me if I've seen a certain movie and the answer is almost always no. I don't watch TV and movies.
This afternoon, the tv was on and instead of retreating to my bedroom, I sat down on the futon, computer in hand, and began to blog. Like always, the television stole my attention and it was not long before I was enthralled by the Wife Swap episode where a strict Irish woman living in Pennsylvania exchanged lives with a more laid-back biker woman from Washington.
As with most episodes, these two families were polar opposites. The Irish family spent all day running from activity to activity while the biker family spent their days riding bikes and jumping on bed. Swap the women and there's a problem.
The women want to convert their new families to be identical to the home they left behind while the fathers felt there was no problem with the original lifestyle and refused to change. While I enjoy seeing the way different families operate, this lack of open-mindedness and constant fighting was making me crabby. I don't need any more help getting crabby this week. The only thing stopping me from changing the channel was not knowing which remote goes to the TV and which is for the VCR--ok, DVD player--and the desire not to get up.
Ultimately, I'm glad I watched all the way through because both families were (eventually) able to admit their lifestyle was flawed. Face it, all lifestyles are flawed. Their willingness to see these flaws embrace change is was impressed me.
I don't like change. I don't do it well. Sometimes it's necessary. Since most of us are college students, the changes we need to make in our lives may not be the same as the families (eating dinner as a family at a table, fathers spending more time with the children, having more of a variety of activities in the kids' lives, less controlling mothers...)
That doesn't mean every thing's perfect. Do me a favor, try and find one flaw in your life and work on it. It won't be an instantaneous transformation, but work at it.
I'll try, too. Maybe I'll learn to embrace the idea that everyone else keeps telling me: I can be a poet. Or maybe not.
<>< Katie
Chris: We're going to get two subs and not eat them right away, but the two drinks we're going to drink right away because we don't want it to turn to ice.
Katie: Of course, drinks that turn to ice are never good.
Adam: You CAN make a science joke!
This afternoon, the tv was on and instead of retreating to my bedroom, I sat down on the futon, computer in hand, and began to blog. Like always, the television stole my attention and it was not long before I was enthralled by the Wife Swap episode where a strict Irish woman living in Pennsylvania exchanged lives with a more laid-back biker woman from Washington.
As with most episodes, these two families were polar opposites. The Irish family spent all day running from activity to activity while the biker family spent their days riding bikes and jumping on bed. Swap the women and there's a problem.
The women want to convert their new families to be identical to the home they left behind while the fathers felt there was no problem with the original lifestyle and refused to change. While I enjoy seeing the way different families operate, this lack of open-mindedness and constant fighting was making me crabby. I don't need any more help getting crabby this week. The only thing stopping me from changing the channel was not knowing which remote goes to the TV and which is for the VCR--ok, DVD player--and the desire not to get up.
Ultimately, I'm glad I watched all the way through because both families were (eventually) able to admit their lifestyle was flawed. Face it, all lifestyles are flawed. Their willingness to see these flaws embrace change is was impressed me.
I don't like change. I don't do it well. Sometimes it's necessary. Since most of us are college students, the changes we need to make in our lives may not be the same as the families (eating dinner as a family at a table, fathers spending more time with the children, having more of a variety of activities in the kids' lives, less controlling mothers...)
That doesn't mean every thing's perfect. Do me a favor, try and find one flaw in your life and work on it. It won't be an instantaneous transformation, but work at it.
I'll try, too. Maybe I'll learn to embrace the idea that everyone else keeps telling me: I can be a poet. Or maybe not.
<>< Katie
Chris: We're going to get two subs and not eat them right away, but the two drinks we're going to drink right away because we don't want it to turn to ice.
Katie: Of course, drinks that turn to ice are never good.
Adam: You CAN make a science joke!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Definition of Furniture 101
"Are the dogs allowed on the furniture?" Evie asked this afternoon.
"No! Why?" Grandpa responded. He pretends to not like the dogs, and when there are four of them running around I guess I can understand that.
"Well, Russell was on the sofa, and I didn't know... I'll tell him to get down next time," she explained, looking at me as if I should have known to shoo Russell off the couch.
"Oh, that don't matter. The dogs ain't allowed on the tree... the lamps... the tv... that kind of stuff," Grandpa told her and she and I both looked at each other and stifled laughs.
"But the couch don't matter?" She asked.
"Nah. That couch ain't furniture," he clarified.
Charlie Brown Christmas trees are furniture.
Lamps are furniture.
TVs are furniture.
A couch is not furniture.
Thanks for clarifying, Grandpa.
<>< Katie
"No! Why?" Grandpa responded. He pretends to not like the dogs, and when there are four of them running around I guess I can understand that.
"Well, Russell was on the sofa, and I didn't know... I'll tell him to get down next time," she explained, looking at me as if I should have known to shoo Russell off the couch.
"Oh, that don't matter. The dogs ain't allowed on the tree... the lamps... the tv... that kind of stuff," Grandpa told her and she and I both looked at each other and stifled laughs.
"But the couch don't matter?" She asked.
"Nah. That couch ain't furniture," he clarified.
Charlie Brown Christmas trees are furniture.
Lamps are furniture.
TVs are furniture.
A couch is not furniture.
Thanks for clarifying, Grandpa.
<>< Katie
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