Light The Cauldron

It has become apparent that viewership, searches, hashtags, and other social media attachments of the NBC television show The West Wing have been on the rise in 2017. People have found it to be a good escape, and others are discovering what good television it was - and is even now - when it ran from 1999 to 2006.

I first watched the entire series run back in 2012, and I'm glad that I returned to it. Knowing a teensy bit more about politics, television, and writing, I am noticing so much more this second time around.

The West Wing was created by Aaron Sorkin, and he ran the show for the first four seasons with Thomas Schlamme and John Wells, but Wells took over sole executive producer duties at the start of season five. Sorkin was the brainchild of many of the first four season's scripts, and many suggest that season five and following was a sharp decline in The West Wing's quality. I was skeptical about the latter three seasons until I watched them.

Yes, those seasons aren&…

The great struggle in conversation is that people talk but don't listen. I used to laugh at that comment when I heard it, until I realized I kind of suffer from that problem. For example, if someone asks me how I am, I respond, but then forget one very important detail:

"How about you?"

It's my selfish, introverted personality that causes me in conversation to pretty much answer the question and not turn it back on the person that talked to me. Many, many times I talk to someone and realize later that I never asked them how they were!

I have made a valiant effort, especially in my professional career, to work on turning the conversation around. They ask me a question, I answer simply, and then turn it towards them.

"How about you?"

Usually their answer is longer and more detailed because they were the ones that brought up the subject in the first place. It does really help because I learn more about them than I knew before. They're trying to find out mo…

I'll be honest - I am a Michigan fan, and I've been a Brady fan since he was a Michigan quarterback. He got drafted by the Patriots to be backup to Drew Bledsoe, and the only time I saw him play was preseason games.

Then Bledsoe got hurt in 2001 and Brady was thrust in the spotlight. And man, did he embrace it!

Sixteen years later, Brady has just given the Patriots their fifth Super Bowl title, and he helped them win all of them.

He was the center of a scandal called Deflategate and was made to sit out the first four games of this season. Did he deflate the balls? He'd say no. I don't know. But the balls weren't deflated today, and he made the comeback of comebacks.

When Tom Brady wins Super Bowls, I immediately feel better because it shuts Aaron Rodgers fans up. No, Packer fans, Rodgers isn't the Greatest Of All Time - Tom Brady is. He has won five Super Bowls! FIVE! And he certainly doesn't look old! Peyton Manning looked old last year. Tom Brady still do…

This morning I read an article that was re-posted on Twitter after being initially published in June. The article, by the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod's Publishing Technology division, talks about the value of quality debate and how it's been pushed aside so people can ignore the other side and only listen to the people with whom they agree.

I remember reading the article last summer, but this time it affected me a little more. Lately, I have found on Facebook that I am muting people who post pictures or memes that go against what I believe.

Why do I do that? It's not that I don't consider them a friend anymore, but I am pretty sick of them constantly posting those political comments.

The article made me realize that maybe I shouldn't mute people. Maybe I should try to have a conversation with them, and to make a statement over what I believe.

Unfortunately, I usually choose not to. I have a big problem: I am a terrible debater with very thin skin.

I have notic…