{"id":4086,"date":"2024-10-11T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4086"},"modified":"2024-10-11T07:01:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T11:01:40","slug":"a-show-about-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/11\/a-show-about-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Show About Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

No hugging. No learning. <\/em>

That was the unofficial motto of Seinfeld<\/em>, the sitcom that TV Guide<\/em> once rated simply as the best television series ever.

After its 1989 pilot, Seinfeld <\/em>ran for nine seasons \u2013 172 episodes in all, most of them 22 minutes plus commercials. Today the show lives on in endless reruns, introducing yet another generation to the quirkiness of its four main characters.

The show was dreamed up by stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld (who played himself) and his friend Larry David, a gruff, neurotic fellow comic who was portrayed by Jason Alexander as Jerry\u2019s buddy George Costanza. 

David and Seinfeld, sitting in a coffee shop in Manhattan in the late 80s, suddenly realized something: Life\u2019s little irritations can be incredible funny.

As Jennifer Keishin Armstrong details in her book Seinfeldia, <\/em>their conversations \u201cabout nothing\u201d would evolve into obsessively close observations of the annoyances, frustrations, and pull-out-your-hair idiocies of modern urban life.

At first the show merely commented upon culture. Then it began to shape culture.

America\u2019s Friday morning water cooler conversations increasingly revolved around the misadventures of Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine the night before.

If you know the Soup Nazi, what happened to the Junior Mint, the strange way Elaine dances, who won The Contest, and where Jerry\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s toothbrush ended up, you\u2019re in the Seinfeldia<\/em> crowd. 

At first NBC didn\u2019t know if it wanted to take a chance on an offbeat show like Seinfeld. <\/em>In 1998, when an exhausted Jerry concluded it was time to shut things down, they couldn\u2019t imagine living without it.

That year Seinfeld was being paid $1 million an episode. When he broke the news to Jack Welch, the chairman of GE, which owned NBC, the CEO took him to a corner and wrote something on a slip of paper, then showed it to Jerry. It was an offer of $5 million per show. Seinfeld still walked away.

The cantankerous Larry David wrote a majority of the show\u2019s episodes. They came from the storehouse of his own disappointments and exasperations. 

From the beginning, the show\u2019s four primary characters were \u2013 there\u2019s no other way to put it \u2013 unlikeable. <\/em>Classically, a television show had always aimed to create characters that an audience could adore, or boo, or cheer on to greater things.

David would have none of that. 

The lead characters would be petty and cynical. There would be no happy endings, no contrived sentimentality, and no personal growth. Cast members even wore T-shirts with David\u2019s credo: No hugging, no learning. <\/em>

That\u2019s Real Life a la Seinfeld. 

In Real Life a la You and Me, however, annoyances, frustrations, and irritations don\u2019t have to define our existence.  

In truth, we\u2019re not particularly likeable, either. The people who know us best can probably tell a few stories that would embarrass us to no end if they became plotlines for a TV show.

But the good news is that our eccentricities and self-centeredness do not have to sabotage all of our relationships.

Dr. Suzanne Degges-White, writing a few years ago in Psychology Today, <\/em>suggests that our most important relationships can be kept in good working order if we make up our minds to excel at acceptance, support, and commitment \u2013 three strategies that rarely saw the light of day on Seinfeld.<\/em>

Here\u2019s how the apostle Paul puts it in Colossians 3:13 (The Message<\/em>): \u201cBe even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.\u201d 

Relational commitment is the determination to focus on the positive traits of your friend, co-worker, or partner, rather than obsessing about the negative. This is rarely something that we will feel <\/em>like doing. But it\u2019s a settled attitude that we can choose<\/em>, no matter how we feel. Such a decision helps soothe our spirits when life becomes exasperating.

So what\u2019s the biggest obstacle to making that happen? 

We get tired. We run out of gas. Being an imperfect person called to love another imperfect person feels like a drag.

It seems so much easier to retreat to the same old gripe sessions with the same disillusioned friends at the same old coffee shop.

But as followers of Jesus \u2013 those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells \u2013 our call is to be representatives of God\u2019s new creation. We\u2019ve been blessed with new purpose, new hope, and a new capacity to draw close to others instead of running in the other direction.

And if we take that seriously, you know exactly what that means:

Here\u2019s to a weekend of hugging and learning<\/em>.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here No hugging. No learning.  That was the unofficial motto of Seinfeld, the sitcom that TV Guide once rated simply as the best television series ever. After its 1989 pilot, Seinfeld ran for nine seasons \u2013 172 episodes in all, most of them 22 minutes plus commercials. Today the show lives on in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[431,822],"class_list":["post-4086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-learning","tag-seinfeld"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4089,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4086\/revisions\/4089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}