Ear-noculars

I haven’t been watching a lot of TV lately. Between working, exercising, parenting, reading, sleeping, and blogging – there just isn’t much time left over for relaxing in front of the tube. But there is a new show this season that has caught my attention…

Community.

Community is a sitcom on NBC that stars Chevy Chase and Joel McHale and centers around the fictional Greendale Community College. I’ve always liked Chevy Chase since first seeing him in 3 Amigos when I was a kid. And I have to admit seeing him in the previews for this show is what lured me in.

But what I like most about this show is that it is funny, yet it makes a clear and significant statement in each episode. It leaves me with something to think about.

For instance…

This week’s episode of Community, Social Psychology, ended with a great conversation between Jeff (Joel McHale) and Pierce (Chevy Chase). Pierce had received his ear-noculars in the mail at the beginning of the episode which allowed him to hear people’s conversations from far away. It was like a mini-satellite dish that hooked to his ear. He wore it the entire episode – until the end. At the end of the show Jeff asks Pierce if he can use his ear-noculars to catch someone gossiping about him. Pierce says he got rid of them. He says, “You see Jeff. There are certain things man was not meant to hear. We were designed by… whatever entity you choose – to hear what’s in this range (motioning with his hands the area right around them). And really this range alone. ‘Cause you know who’s talking to us in this range?…”

The people we love.

Seeing Chevy Chase’s character explain this is captured much better on the show than I can do here in written form. There were 2 or 3 really significant points made in this episode,  but I can’t stop thinking about that one. I spend way too much time worrying about what is going on in a range that is outside my control – wanting to make a difference and feel some worth or just trying escape the “ordinariness” of my actual life. All the while I am neglecting the ones who God has put right in front of me to love and be loved by.