Let The Show Go On

            The “thing” you could find this last week at the Jessica-Antonio household was the TV blaring episode-after-episode of “That 70’s Show” while we tinkered around the place (Unless a Brewers game was on).  I grew up watching that show, and even though I may know every joke, every plot line, every device (they jumped the shark, like, three times) it can still squeeze some laughs out of me.  It helps that Jess is a new viewer, re-watching a comedy with a newcomer refreshes the experience, you look to them to have validation that what you think is funny is funny (laugh with me!).

            To take from this show’s theme song (the “same thing we did last week” bit) my life, and Jess’, has been its own marathon of reruns of sorts.  We did a lot of the same things daily over the last months of relative freedom (Check: Summer).  But I didn’t grow bored.  Sometimes the expected laughs are better because you know the good times are here.  What was done wasn’t much, but what was done was fun.  There was some unforgettable, at this moment only times, but between these there was plenty of the good ol’ reruns, you knew what was coming but that was okay because you liked it.

            But there’s that point where the rerun runs out its welcome, and we did eventually say no more to that show of yesteryear.  Variety is still the spice of life, and rerun after rerun of a sitcom is the direct opposite of that.

            Here I find my parallel: I had a literature teacher who believes a book can find you at the right time in your life and give you a lesson or perspective you don’t find in other places.  I for sure agree with this, and I can see it in the reading I did all this summer.  Only this time for me it was a simple sitcom, “70’s Show”.  It didn’t hit me the same way I took in Slaughter House-Five or Pride & Prejudice (name dropping, ftw), but it did show up on our local tv listings at a transition period for this household’s focus.

            You see, The Show Must Go On.  It’s Labor Day.  Summer is dead.  We need to continue our march to whatever we seek next.  Me, I’m going to back to the books and papers and space-out sesh’s that is college classes, and I am going to finish my first degree with a pimp slap to show it whose boss.  Jess is doing much of the same, minus the bitch slapping part (maybe).  I enjoyed my summer of reruns (with occasional fresh stories) but I am ready to move on to some new, meaty story.

            Not to say I won’t enjoy the occasional repeat.  A good time never goes out of style.

            I’m ready to write some new chapters.  Let the Show Go On.