By Dr. James Snyder
When I was young, we did not have a TV in our home. My parents did not think it was important, so we listened to the radio instead. I love the Saturday morning radio shows, Popeye the Sailor Man, particularly.
Then something big happened that changed our lives. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This event changed everything for us.
My father was really concerned about the news, so he went out and bought our first TV. It was black-and-white, but he wanted to stay up to date on the news about the President. The news was on almost all the time.
It also changed my mother. She had two close friends from church that would get together and talk for hours. I never understood what they were talking about, and what I heard didn’t make sense to me.
As time went on, I finally figured out they were discussing soap operas on TV. My mother started watching these shows with passion. When her friends came over, they would talk about the latest drama on their favorite soap opera. Even when they met in church, a soap opera was one of the topics they talked about.
I’m not sure which soap opera was her favorite, but she followed two or three of them very closely. She and her friends treated these shows as if they were real life.
The soap operas were on when I was at school, so I never got to watch them with her. Even if I had the chance, I’m not sure I would have wanted to watch them with her. If I had to choose between one of her soap operas and Popeye the Sailor Man. It would be an easy choice, I would choose Popeye.
People must have pretty boring lives if they watch soap operas so passionately every day.
As I got older, I realized that many people think their lives are like a soap opera. They think they’re living in a drama every day.
After I got married, there was a popular TV show called “Dallas” that I never watched. I had more important things to do than watch a soap opera.
I remember everyone asking, “What happened to J.R. Ewing from Dallas?” This question was everywhere for a long time. I do not understand why people were so interested in a character that was not real. As far as I know, we never got an answer to that question.
I know some people, even in my family, think their lives are like a soap opera. They have so much drama in their lives that I wish there were a switch that I could turn off.
When I was young, I realized that life is real. I wish I could make my life into a soap opera with a happy ending, but thankfully, it’s not like that.
Sometimes I make situations more dramatic than they need to be because I don’t know what else to do. But that doesn’t help the situation I’m facing. If my life were a soap opera, I would be able to change the channel to something more fun, like the Three Stooges. My life is more like theirs than any soap opera.
This year, my wife and I will celebrate 55 years of marriage. I never thought I’d live long enough to see this day. I’ll be turning 75 just before we celebrate our anniversary.
I can honestly say that in those 55 years, I have not had a single bad day, and that is because I have been married the whole time and not single.
Yes, we have had our dramatic moments, like when my wife first introduced me to broccoli. That was a soap opera day for sure.
Another dramatic day was when my wife told me she was pregnant. I was not yet 21, and I didn’t know if I could be a father.
It took me a while to work through that soap opera drama, but I finally did when our first daughter was born. I just did not know what other drama was coming my way as a father.
We ended up having two girls and a boy, and that was just the beginning of the drama-just have a bunch of grandkids come over for a party and you will see what I mean.
People often wonder why older people have gray hair. The answer is simple: the more grandkids and great-grandkids you have, the grayer your hair will get. Believe me, I’m proof.
Soap operas and real life differ because soap operas are carefully scripted and planned. They even redo scenes multiple times. In real life, there is no script, and every day is a surprise without a repeat. If only I could write my own scenes, I might handle things better. Also, you don’t get to redo a scene.
Reflecting on this I remembered what The Apostle Paul said on this subject.
1 Corinthians 2:11-12, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
My life is not a soap opera, but a life of reality through the Holy Spirit, who is always real.
Dr. James L. Snyder lives in Ocala, FL with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Telephone 1-352-216-3025, e-mail jamessnyder51@gmail.com, website www.jamessnyderministries.com.
