In which I rant YET again about age, aging, getting old and Sesame Street.
A few days ago I was listening to the Ted Radio Hour on WHYY and the episode focused on aging. My thoughts and feelings towards aging go back and forth between wanting to go gently into that good night and fighting like hell when my time comes. Frankly aging scares me. We live in a country that throws away its old, treating the aged as burden instead of celebrating the life led. This episode presented some fair and well thoughtout arguments on aging and while I still wrestle with doing my Darwinian duty should I not be the fittest, I still get afraid of aging.
Oh, you may think I’m being dramatic but dig what’s happening on Sesame Street. (Yes, THAT Sesame Street)
It was announced that longtime cast members Gordon, Luis, and Bob were being let go after decades of working on the show. As a child I watched Sesame Street voraciously; it was a show for kids, with kids, in a neighborhood somewhat like mine. Gordon, Luis and Bob were fixtures, men who were available in the neighborhood doing things to make the neighborhood good and not acting a fool. I may not be the best person to speak about the quality of the show as I can honestly say that it has been at least nine years since I have seen a full episode of Sesame Street. The Bee was drawn to Nick Jr and Disney Junior when she was younger, and we would tune in for Elmo’s World until she decided that Elmo was creepy due to her Tickle Me Elmo laughing at odd hours without someone touching it. That aside, it seems like Sesame Street is getting rid of everything familiar and in it’s quest to capture a new generation and audience, the older audiences are being told, “Too Bad.”
When it was announced the show was moving to HBO I was a little skeptical. Far be it for me to knock someone for doing what they need to do to get funded but really? New episodes are available almost a year later for people not paying for HBO?
I’m going to have to call shenanigans and malarkey.
But, back to aging. Who came up with “out with the old, in with the new”? Isn’t there space enough for old ideas to meet the new? I am aquatinted and well aware of those who claim “But this is the way it’s always been done” as well as those who only think new is best but what’s the goal? Children learning right? And for all of the advances that are made, there are times when progress is circular and that thing that seems old and dated, new again.
With this news and in spite of a lack of children in my home, I’ll have to give Sesame Street some play. It’s unfair for me to complain about these changes while I don’t even watch the show. Who knows? Perhaps Grover and Elmo will force my old brain to evolve and that will be the thing to make me swallow my fair and fight going gently into that good night.
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