I was enjoying a weekend watching the recently released Animaniacs series on DVD with my own kids, when I started pondering the sad state of contemporary children’s television. There is a real quality that old classics like Looney Tunes had that seems to have been lost as time goes on. I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I see the culture very young children have developed recently, and I realize there is a great virtue being lost in today’s world… silliness.

Animaniacs was a unique flash-back to classic Looney Tunes style cartoons, which is why I bought it for my own kids. One of the best parts about Animanacs and Looney Tunes is they appeal to both kids and adults. There is are a lot of jokes in those cartoons only adults can get, and others only kids can laugh at. I love watching old cartoons I as an adult finding new jokes I couldn’t catch as a child. I also enjoy seeing what my kids will laugh at.

Children are being forced to grow up faster and faster… well, let me rephrase that. Children are being forced to give up their innocence sooner and sooner. The reason I make that distinction is because children aren’t really “growing up” fast at all these days. An eighteen year-old these days is much less equipped for life than an eighteen year-old fifty years ago. It is the fun and innocence of childhood itself we are losing.

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Next Wednesday, September 5th is the 10th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa. My local Catholic newsletter asked readers to submit a letter of explaining what Mother Teresa meant to them. Below is what I submitted:

Mother Teresa was one the major influences which lead me to join the Catholic church. When looking for role models or heroes in this world it is pretty hard to find anyone else who better manifests the commands and virtues of Christ. However, so many people have raised her to a super-human level, like a myth or a legend, because it is so hard to believe that we could be held to the same standard. Her recently discovered writings, while they have been used by some who wish to discredit her, have made her more real and more human to me.

For someone who has done so much good in this world, Mother Teresa has a lot of critics. Especially in the evangelical world I grew up in, people were always trying to attribute her actions to anything other than charity. I have heard everything from “She is nieve and confused” to “She is just insane.” to “She is a devil in disguise trying to promote evil Catholic doctrine.” Those criticisms actually lead me to respect Mother Teresa more and more as I looked into her history and personal writings.

I think some people will do anything to discredit Mother Teresa because people like her set the bar too high for the rest of us. When Christ said that we are to be like Him, we don’t really believe it, but Mother Teresa did. Mother Teresa shows us how far we ourselves can go, and how much good those who truly believe and obey the teachings of Jesus Christ can accomplish.

When I first heard saw the reports of her writings about her inner struggle of faith and pain caused by the darkness around her, I cried. Not because I was disappointed, but because it hit me just how human she really was, and how genuine was her work. I myself am tempted to think of Mother Teresa as an exception to the human condition, but that report reminded me that she was a human just like me. She was an imperfect person who faced the full brunt of the darkness of this world and overcame it. If that doesn’t define a saint, I don’t know what does.

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