‘Blue’s Clues’ Is My Generation’s Emotional Barometer
Each of us is flesh and blood, and we need embodied love and affirmation. The satisfaction we crave won’t come through a screen—not even if a childhood hero is on it.
Like most twentysomethings, I have fond memories of watching “Blue’s Clues,” a children’s television program in which the (at the time, to me) coolest guy ever, “Steve,” and his best pal, “Blue,” an adorable, spotted cartoon dog, would follow a trail of clues (i.e., Blue’s paw prints) to figure out Blue’s plans for the day. Life was much simpler back then. As a child, I had the thoughts, and responsibilities, of a child. My job simply was to grow and learn. That included playing with Blue.
As St. Paul tells us in his first letter to the people of Corinth, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” Such things, however, must come to an end; it’s the natural way of the world. Children grow up and have, God willing, children of their own. And it’s unsettling when one meets a person who hasn’t, but should have, made this critical transition to adulthood.
And yet, this appears to be the situation for lots of my millennial peers.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, without an internet connection for the past few weeks—which is a power move of which I heartily approve—you know that Steve recently made a brief reappearance of sorts in our lives. And the internet is “weeping.”
Read the rest at American Greatness.