Colour Supplement

Articles by writers around the world

Sunday 1 April 2007

 

The fabulous Gordon Show

By Gordon Atkinson

 

Coming soon via satellite and the internet - it’s the Gordon Show!

This is the television production of the ages. Continually running for 45 seasons with a cast of millions, and every set is perfect down to the last detail. The backdrops are stunning, every prop is historically correct, and the houses are all authentic; the dressers even have socks in them.

The actors have spent their lives preparing for their roles, even those who only have walk-ons. The truck driver who passed the star in scene 27-7/13-18:20 was groomed from childhood to be a truck driver for that part. He drove trucks for 25 years, immersed in the culture of the road, all so that he might be authentic for his brief appearance on the show. It’s the same for all the actors on the Gordon Show. Every school teacher, coach, neighbor, and friend were raised from childhood to be thoroughly prepared for their various roles.

The studio maintains several retirement communities and recreational facilities for the actors whose parts in the Gordon show are over. Occasionally they get called back for a dream scene or a memory sequence, but mostly they lounge around the pool and take advantage of the generous buffet tables.

Why look, there’s Carmen, the little girl Gordon loved back in kindergarten because she could color in the lines. That was such a sweet episode, wasn’t it? A real crowd pleaser. Funny how she hasn’t grown. Over there by the shuffleboard is Gordon’s grandmother, still smoking her Pal Mals. And there’s Lance, Gordon’s best friend for most of the 10^th and 11^th seasons. I hear the cast from last season’s Colorado episode are having a reunion tonight at Bennigan’s.

Yes, it’s the fabulous, fantastic, Gordon show, where a neo-Ptolemaic revolution has revealed that the universe not only revolves around the earth, but specifically around whatever point on the earth that Gordon happens to occupy. Whole galaxies have existed before recorded time only to provide one or two stars in Gordon’s personal night sky.

Wait a minute! There’s our star now, walking though the parking lot and toward his next scene. He waves to the crowds, nods to bit players from previous episodes, pauses to comfort weeping girlfriends from those classic 17^th and 18^th seasons, and all the while he is signing autographs.

Oh, he’s heading toward us. Hush now, for there is quiet on the set. A new scene is about to begin. A spotlight falls, making you squint. You are now on the Gordon Show; I hope you don’t mind.

The first step is admitting that this is the way you see the world. It’s the only way you can see the world, for you are trapped in your brain and behind your eyes. And while you may come to believe that you are not the center of everything, your gut doesn’t buy it.

So own that. Own up to it.

The second step is taking a serious look at the people around you. As it turns out, each of them is the star of his or her own show. On their shows, you are the bit player. Your name might not even make the credits. It's true; they are all stars. From this point forward, dedicate yourself to treating the people around you with the respect we normally reserve for famous people. Maybe you should even get impressions of their footprints in your sidewalk.

Now look at the animals, plants, rocks, and trees. There are no cheap copies, no storefronts, no mountains painted on a screen in the background. Every grain of sand took a million years to form. Every animal species developed painfully and slowly over millions of years to fit perfectly in its environment. Every leaf on every tree grew from a tender bud and has a fragrance and a life all its own. Once you thought the earth was here for your good pleasure, a stage upon which your life is played out. But that’s not true. Our world is a beautiful and rare thing in itself. Why, there might not be another like it in the entire Milky Way.

Yes, I see it in your eyes. You are beginning to understand. It is the greatest of gifts to have been given life and allowed to live amidst such beauty and in perfect step with others and with our environment. Is it possible that a higher intelligence of some kind gave you this gift? And if so, how should you respond? If you understand these things, you have discovered Shalom, the deepest, richest, and most rare form of peace.

Quiet on the set. The spotlight is on you, and I think you have a speaking part this time. Take a deep breath and speak naturally, from the heart.

“Shalom.”

Gordon Atkinson is pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas and has his own outstanding website www.reallivepreacher.com.  We are most grateful to Gordon for his permission to reproduce his essays here.

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