In The Background
By Bill Crain (Covid 19 Musing #6)
I have become a real voyeur as a result of the crisis we are experiencing at this time. I watch too many news shows on TV, and it seems that well over half of the reporting comes from correspondents and even sports, weather, and traffic anchors coming from remote locations, usually their homes.
Wearying of the generally bad news they are reporting, I find myself checking out the backgrounds, seeing what their homes look like. I especially try to make out the titles of books on their shelves. What other pieces are displayed on the background shelves indicating their importance to the reporter? Family pictures? Professional awards? Diplomas? One such remote to the home of an obscure to me author; showed one of his own novels prominently displayed “full frontal”, so to speak, visible just over his right shoulder.
Watching the “Tiny Dorm Concerts” produced by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on YouTube at 5;00 every afternoon, I’ve noticed that most of the performers are students in the pre-college section of the Conservatory, the college students having left San Francisco when their school closed for the semester. The backgrounds of these middle and high school students’ homes in Bay Area cities such as Cupertino, Palo Alto, San Leandro, and San Francisco, commonly show pianos, guitars, drums, and other indications of music being a prominent feature of the students’ family lives, likely a reason for their career choices.
This has made me wonder what I would want to show in the background if I were asked to appear on-camera from a remote location, my house. Just to clear off the clutter would be a chore. Would I want books (The Bible, Encyclopedia, trashy novels?) or would I want to feature pictures of the two most handsome grandsons in the USA?
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Of course, the foreground of our lives is THE message, but the background is significant as well. Pray that both are in agreement with each other and with what God would have us show in these difficult times.