I flew out of Michigan this morning for a 3 day golf trip in San Diego with my dad. We've checked into our hotel at the Torrey Pines Golf Course where the weather and scenery is out of this world! I'll start posting pictures tonight and tomorrow.
On the plane I had some time to get back into a book I've been reading called The Tipping Point. Malcom Gladwell is the author and the book is the result of his research about what causes a product, a message, or an idea to tip (becoming like an epidemic). The ideas are interesting from a ministry perspective. As the church we have a message (Jesus), and aren't we trying to start a holy epidemic.
I read an observation that stuck out to me. When I watched Sesame Street as a kid, I had no idea how much work the producers put into making sure it would appeal to my preschool mind! As the creators of Sesame Street developed the format for their show they were very intentional in researching it's effects on preschoolers who viewed it.
In one experiment in 1969 they were testing the affects of repetition in the program. There was a one-minute bit called Wanda the Witch that used the "W" sound over and over: Wanda the Witch wore a wig in the windy winter in Washington, etc. They weren't sure how much they could repeat an element, but they put this segment in three on the Monday show, three times on the Tuesday show, three on the Wednesday show, left it out on Thursday and then put it in one more time at the end of the show on Friday.
Some of the kids toward the end of the show on Wednesday were saying "Not Wanda the Witch again!" But when Wanda came back on at the end of the show on Friday, they jumped and cheered.
The conclusion was that in regard to repetition, kids reach a saturation point, but then nostalgia sets in.
The old saying, You never know what you have until it's gone is so true. My mom cooked for me everyday in high school. I took it for granted. Then when I went to College, nostalgia set in!
I think it is good for us to be intentional about treasuring the common things in life. Is there anything that you think about less only because it happens often? We would do well to appreciate what we have while we have it, rather than waiting until it's gone.
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