That's (a)musing....

This is going to be the start of a new section on Perpetual Flogulence. I originally got this idea from a the title of a column in a local college newspaper called "Matt's Musings." While this section will not simply be about the writings from this column, I did want to start with the article that sparked this idea. First, before we begin, we must define our terms; lest the pun be lost upon us.

The word "muse" means to think. The word is used three times in the Psalms as the author "muses" about the word and works of Yahweh. (Psalm 39:3, 77:12, 143:5). It's a word that has largely fallen out of use in the English language, however we still use a derivative of it today. When you put an "a" infront of some words it negates it. For example, A theist is someone who holds the belief that there is a god(s). To be polytheist is to believe in many gods. To be a monotheist is to believe in one god. Mormonism and Hinduism are examples of polytheistic religions. Biblical Christianity is a monotheistic religion. An atheist, on the other hand, is one who holds the belief that there is no god. So then, if the word "muse" means to think than...?
Yes, you guessed it: amuse. We have entire parks dedicated to not thinking. Now, to borrow the language of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for amusement. There is nothing wrong with taking time here and there to not think, or to be more accurate, to not think to deeply. My wife and I will, at times, read non-theological works. I, for example, am currently reading Sherlock Holmes when I am not reading theology. But, like alcohol, amusement must be done responsibly and in moderation. In everything there must be balance and if you know anything about balance there are often different kinds of balances. This kind of balance, I believe, is like the way a sword would be balanced-right at the end of the handle. What I mean to say is that the time spent amusing should be considerably less than then the time spent musing.
Yet, in today's society it seems to be the opposite. It seems that my generation and the ones following spend their time in the latest Xbox game or watching tv. The amount of time spent in amusement has skyrocketed. Not only has the amount of time spent in amusement gone up but the quality of amusement has dropped significantly. Gone are the days when cartoons were clever and puns prevailed in popular humor. Today anyone with a pencil can have his own (badly drawn) cartoon show filled with immature and filthy humor. American Pie, SouthPark, and Family Guy seem to have set the standard for what is funny and amusing. (You can about imagine what happens in my house when a good, (somewhat) clean comedies like Hitch, Get Smart or Date Night comes along - my wife and I love it!). If you don't get the humor of Family Guy people look at you as if you just grew a third eyeball.

In the next post, I shall be examining this article from the column known as Matt's Musings. Stay tuned....