“I miss high school… The nostalgia has officially
begun,” said Charles Bass, a graduating
senior on one of the most popular shows
among high schoolers- “Gossip Girl.”
The show, now in its third season, is the
usual friendships-and-romance-in-high-school
teen drama show, but with a twist, as you
probably know. For those who haven’t
watched the show (which is not necessarily a
bad thing…), the twist is that there is a
mysterious character who randomly text
messages all of the main characters in the
school with juicy bits of gossip, basically
attempting to turn each character against
the other. The result is
back-stabbing, bickering, breaking up,
hooking up, and as the show’s title
suggests, lots of gossip. Now while I
miss high school, too, I personally don’t
miss what Mr. Bass was feeling nostalgic
about.
Of course, shows like Gossip Girl have existed in one
form or another throughout the last four
decades, and it seems like each new one just
gets trashier and trashier- you know,
incorporating stuff that tries to turn our
attention away from whatever other program
is playing during that time slot. The
show embraces its racy content, and to the
show’s creators, objections from some
groups of Americans become equivalent to
Emmy nominations. Because many trashy
shows have gone before, each episode of
Gossip Girl has to be a little edgier and
push the boundaries a little more.
That said, there are some great things in
teen dramas about friendships, support, and
sticking together that are really great.
But most of the time, they are not
emphasized and get lost in the shuffle.
There is a reason that in the Bible Jesus says “Let
your yes be yes, and your no, no,”
(Matthew 5:37) and that the Book of Proverbs
says “a righteous man pays no attention to
false lips.” (17:4) In our faith,
prayer life, worship, and reading of the
Scriptures, we often encounter the
importance and benefit of truth and virtue.
God does not talk about how wonderful truth
is just because He says so, but because when
we live a truthful life, it is a tremendous
benefit to our life in this world, as well
as in the world to come. It’s so
tempting and so easy to do, unfortunately,
but if we get caught up in every negative or
trashy remark we hear, whether true or not,
we lose focus of what’s really important
and worth seeking after- the Kingdom of God.
We find ourselves wallowing in trash and
stressing out over why that was said or this
was said. Jesus Christ is our example,
our greatest role model for living, and He
never gossiped or became preoccupied in what
others were saying about Him. If we do
the same and follow the example of Jesus, we
can navigate through life’s challenges,
and grow in the Spirit- in love, faith, and
truth.
A wise man once said that people are either like flies or
like bees. Flies go around looking for
garbage, and bees go around looking for the
sweet and beautiful. I don’t know
how many of each your high school has, but
let’s do our best to make sure we, and
thus others around us, look for what is
sweet and good in life, following the
example of the Lord. Then, after you
graduate, you can be nostalgic about high
school, and it probably won’t involve
texting gossip.
