The Book of Moses 7:63 “And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other.”
My favorite tv show of all time is the show iCarly, a teen/kids show which aired on Nickelodeon from 2007-2012. The tv show itself deserves a whole post, if not more. But a brief synopsis is this: the three main characters, Carly, Sam (short for Samantha) and Freddie start a web show starring Carly and Sam, Freddie runs the camera. The show brings them all sorts of attention and many lovely hijinks ensue between the three along with other important secondary characters, such as: Spencer, Gibby, and Nevel (their arch nemesis).
My wife and kids would watch it with me when it was on, we still watch reruns, it was/is a great show.
When I found out the show was being canceled and the final episode was coming on I would not watch it because it made me so sad. I still haven't watched it 4 years later.
The show works on many levels but I won't dive into all the nuances of that, it's a quirky, balanced show with something for everyone and it's family friendly.
The reason the show resonates on so many levels, in my opinion, can be broken down into a few different reasons. There's more I could say but these will suffice.
1) It takes place in jr. high/high school---one of the most developmentally important times of our lives is during these years. This is where we really figure out who we are, and we start to make some real plans about what we imagine we might be when we “grow up”. This is when we dream big and we find out friendships really matter and love can be beautiful and excruciating all at the same time. We all can look back at this time in our lives and find many golden days and also find tears and a wealth of sadness.
2) The characters embrace their uniqueness---each one of us has a difficult time in our lives finding out who we really are. Some of us are really attractive, some of us aren't. At least by the world's standards. Some of us have a peculiar skill set of downing 35 buffalo wings that others cannot touch. This show embraces that uniqueness and runs with it. Nobody is the same as anyone else and they shouldn't be, Carly is kind and pretty, Sam is tough and loyal, Freddie is smart and tech savvy. We are all uniquely shaped into the person we are and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, there's a lot right with that.
3) It's ok to love---each one of the characters embraces love with gusto, but often times with awkwardness. Whether this is romantic love that doesn't work out or forging a friendship that is fraught with mistakes and mis-steps, they forge ahead regardless. Embracing love is what life is about, with our friends, with our family, with our lovers we hold tightly to and our children we cling to as they grow up.
4) Nothing lasts forever---the show ends, the characters go their separate ways. We do that in life. We graduate high school, we go to college, we move and start careers. We find new friends, we lose old ones, we reconnect sometimes. We lose people we love. Death comes to our door at times we are not expecting. That's ok. We cannot hold onto one thing and not embrace new. Those who have their story bound up with the story of the Creator know one thing, the old will be made new and we will come home and embrace each other and a new story will be written that has no end.
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