Well apparently the oldest grandson loves to watch The Andy Griffith Show. This morning while watching it with both of them I reflected on the message of this show. First there is a clear delineation between good guys and bad guys.
The youngest, at three, is constantly reaffirming who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.
This is something we don’t always see so clearly these days. Secondly, there is always a lesson to be learned by Opie.
Today Opie unintentionally knocked a mother bird out of her nest, and killed her with his new slingshot.
Clearly upset by his actions Opie sits at the dinner table ashamed to let his Dad know what he has done. Andy is aware of the situation after finding the dead bird on his way into the house. He also notices that the mother bird left a nest of hungry babies behind.
Opie apologizes to his father for his actions, but Andy points out that just saying you are sorry doesn’t always make things right. Opie then takes on the responsibility of feeding the baby birds.
His next lesson comes when it’s time to let the babies go. This is a hard moment for Opie because he has grown quite fond of the babies. Andy always has a way of leading Opie to the best solution. We all could take a lesson from his style of parenting.
I thought about how glad I was to be raised on these types of shows. Remember The Munsters where everyone tries to make Marilyn feel better about being so unattractive.
It was refreshing to watch it again, and I was glad my grandsons were exposed to what we used to call “wholesome” tv.
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