US Television

My wife took her final exam this week to finish her seventh of eleven required courses for a master's in ESL at Shenandoah University, Virginia. We celebrated by watching some "Cheers," together. She enjoys that TV show, as well as "TAGS" (The Andy Griffith Show), "I Love Lucy," and "The Cosby Show." I also bought "Dick Van Dyke," one my mother enjoyed with us while we were young, and I don't know why she has not gotten interested in that one.

M*A*S*H was my father's favorite show, and my wife and oldest son enjoyed that fairly much. I never realized how effete M*A*S*H was until watching a few episodes with my family this past year. I saw it some in my youth, but then I never really got into TV all that much. Only now, with my wife's keen enjoyment of classic US TV shows, have I truly begun to enjoy TV, and I like it very much. It is hard to imagine that I ever would have been this way. We change very much throughout life.

I like "The Waltons," as does my daughter, but my wife, while she enjoys it to a certain degree, says that she wants to see comedy because drama just adds to her physical exhaustion. Having five children is not always a piece of cake, or, it takes continual vigilance, and if you're not accustomed to that, it can at times feel like a burden. So, she needs levity in her TV diet to help her get away from the sense of constant monitoring of our children to keep them from danger's way.

Television is good for my wife, as she acquires not only more English, vocabulary that I never use, but also exposure to U.S. culture, which should prove valuable in forming relationships after moving there next year.

I just got off a web site for Sally Mae student loans. I worked my way through the process, entering financial information, until they showed me conditional approval for a loan, and the rate was 12.39 percent plus Libor. Actually, it would work out to 15.39 plus Libor, given that there is a 3% fee upfront to initiate the loan. That's a very high rate of lending, to me at least. I think I could make a good living on a much lower rate that that, were I to manage my own lending company. But I am in seminary to make a preacher, not to make money, so this is not an alternative career option. Nonetheless, I will work my way through school, rather than borrow money at that rate. I wish they would have posted rates up front.

Well, let me take my children to the afternoon English Sunday school.

Love, Nathaniel