January 17, 2005
Gushing
Fashion is meant to be the focus of the Golden Globes pre-show programs, but a moratorium seems inexplicably to have been declared on both raving about and panning outfits. One of the interviewers (who looked pretty snappy, herself) said that she had been instructed to stop gushing and stop talking about clothes. Thus handicapped, she struggled to talk about the content of people’s movies and television shows. It was awkward.
Come to think about it, gushing seems to be the MO more often than not these days. I remember how proud was our own bishop when he announced he now had vestments for all seasons and we would no longer have to rehang the parapets to match when he showed up. (Some were looking for a man for all seasons, instead.) Then there’s the plethora of American lapel flags over these past few years all the while the constitution for which they stand is being dismantled.
Not the least of this style-over-substance milieu is the church’s giving primacy to doctrine over gospel, propriety over justice and love, talking over walking. Leave it to the entertainment industry to remind us that it’s content and substance to which we’re commissioned to witness, no matter how awkward it seems.