Okay. It's now official: I am not even close to being a part of the mainstream.

Perhaps the title of today's blog should make me feel a little sad but the way I see it, (The View from Here), it doesn’t any at all on this Wednesday, February 25, 2009. How are you anyway? There are many reasons I am not ‘with it’ in terms of the culture we find ourselves in today. I’m not among the 65% majority who approve of President Obama’s leadership. I have zero personal reasons to dislike our new president and I actually think him to be very good on his feet and that he appears to be adapting well to his new responsibility. My disconnect is based solely on his announced direction, philosophy, and values, and nothing else. He has a beautiful family and I pray that he will, over time, moderate his ideas so that he moves towards a more God-pleasing approach to leading our nation.

Another way in which I feel very much disconnected from the culture at large is in how few of the current popular TV shows I watch. How about: Zero? I learned this yesterday when I read a list of the top twenty programs on broadcast television and found that while I know a little about some of the programs on the list, I have not watched any of them. I did see some of an episode from the hit series ‘House’ because I was where it was being watched but I didn’t get much from the little I saw of it. There may be some really good shows on that list but they have not registered on my radar screen yet, at least to the extent that caused me to watch any of them. Lately, I have been mostly watching full episodes on the internet from previous sitcoms or series like the original Dragnet. I have watched some NASCAR stuff and some news programming from time to time but I am definitely completely out of the loop on those top shows.

I well remember how surprised the people in Scotland were when we couldn’t talk to them about the TV nighttime soap opera Dallas which was the rage at that time of our visit. We had never watched it but we found out they not only loved that show but they thought everyone from Texas lived on a huge ranch, wore cowboy boots, and lived life just like the people on that show. If pressed really hard I might be able to come up with who shot J. R. but it would only be because I read about it or heard the answer on a quiz show. Being out of sync with our culture may cost me an opportunity to join the proverbial water cooler conversation but it really isn’t that big of a deal. In fact, it’s no big deal at all. I will most likely find out the winner of this year’s American Idol because it will be plastered all over the place. Until then I will be satisfied watching an old 'Columbo', 'Ironside', or 'Hawaii Five-O' rerun. Or maybe I’ll choose a 'Miss Marple Mystery', or 'Morse Episode', or maybe one of the really good BBC comedy programs like 'Keeping Up Appearances'. These shows and many others are all on my list; I wonder why they didn’t make yours? Now who’s out of sync? Gotcha! Have a blessed day! Amen. ….More later.