Pass the Soma?

After a week of post-sickness lethargy, laying on the couch hopelessly binge watching whatever series happened to pop up first on Netflix, I opened my email this morning to find a somewhat convicting video word from John Stonestreet.

I'm not sure I agree entirely with the message, especially when it comes to citing fictional novels to warn of being "over-entertained" (after all, aren't novels just another form of entertainment?), but there is ring of familiar truth. 

How many times have I gone to click on a serious news headline, only to be distracted by some entertaining bit of fluff posted to the side of the page?

How often do I spend as much time as a chore would have taken, browsing through my audiobook library to find something to listen to while I work?

Is my desire to enrich the educational experience for the children with fun and activity,  really driven by an impulse for more entertainment in disguise?

And, while I'm not actually worried about a week or two of sickness induced sloth, I couldn't help but be reminded of other words I have read...

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. Ezekiel 16: 49-50 (ESV)

or

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. James 5:5 (ESV)

...and sadly (or maybe ironically) of a few I have heard...

I am heartily ashamed of myself...But don't despair, it'll pass; and no doubt more quickly than it should. - Mr. Bennett, Masterpiece Theater, Pride and Prejudice