I got to thinking the other day. Is it possible that watching shows like my very favorite 24 could wreak havoc on my discernment? It may be possible.

What made me realize it is when I correctly predicted the explosion that killed off Jonas whatever his name was. The placement of actors in the scene, and the dialog that resulted in the placement, was just short of overlaying text that would say: “that vehicle is about to explode.”

However, in real life, things don’t work that way. We don’t get mediocre writing and thinly stretched plot lines. Life, by definition, is a plausible plot line. Barring the supernatural acts of God that we know happen, but can’t usually put our fingers on, life does not artificially create drama, it simply is.

So what happens to our ability to discern the reality of a real situation after watching too much TV? I dunno, but let me just suggest that we remain students of real life, and leave the TV dramas as an opportunity to step back and hear a story. In that fictional world where Jack Bauer might be able to precisely render an opponent unconscious with a flick of his left pinkey finger and Ensign Ricky will certainly not return from that away mission, there is very little that resembles the much less predictable developments of the real world. So watcher beware.

“…as the happiness or real good of men consists in right action, and right action cannot be produced without right opinion, it behoves us, above all things in this world, to take care that our opinions of things be according to the nature of things. The foundation of all virtue and happiness is thinking rightly.” – Benjamin Franklin