As a student of damned near everything including psychology, child development, mass communications and so forth, a single phrase in a newspaper article jumped right out at me.
The article is about a coming solar eclipse and includes the following simile:
“On Aug. 21, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth. Like a toddler standing smack dab in front of the TV, the moon will blot out the sun, plunging those on the other side into darkness.”
The ancients worshiped the sun. Perhaps because they so much enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun after a bitterly cold night, this phenomenon evolved into a god or gods, the Egyptian Ra for one.
But today we worship Hollywood idols projected into our homes via television and we are more than willing to sacrifice time with our children in favor of attendance upon those gods.
Between the toddler and the TV, it begs the question: Who really is eclipsing Whom?
