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Hospital Dramas

Have you noticed that they do pretty well? St. Elsewhere ran from 1982-88. ER ran from 1994-2009. Grey's Anatomy is currently running its 9th season. And there are a couple lesser-known ones. I got to thinking about this last night. What is it about drama that pulls us? I don't know, but I think a medical drama has a special resonance. Death has a way of burning away the chaff. This is why medical drama usually does well.

I think the goodness and dignity of human beings that people tend to celebrate when people die begs for us to inquire as to its origin. Goodness endures. "The good is diffusive of itself." People often doubt God exists because of evil, but isn't the far more interesting question, "From whence did good come"? We can define it, we can name it, we know what it is and isn't. Isn't that odd?

Existentialism, the philosophy that each man defines himself and his own meaning, doesn't jibe with a pretty universal standard of what the good is. I think most people who hold this are feeling guilty about something, or they are stupid, either by design, or by repeatedly violating their own consciences.

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