I have been on television watch lately, which means all my activities are restricted to doing nothing but sit and watch hours and hours of mindless television. Even though I have a collection of DVD’s, I still end up with a remote control in my hand and “click-click” the hundred or so channels of reruns, old movies, sitcoms, new movies, music videos and news parade through my head.

Did you know Sound of Music was on three times this past week? Did you know it is possible to watch three movies at one time? I had the Von Trapps singing at the same time Doris Day was snowball fighting on Moonlight Bay and an occasional click into the Neverending Story where the Nothing was taking over Fantasia.

As a reprieve from too many “click- clicks”, a faint memory of other things I use to enjoy jolted my mind. I use to read. I use to sit and listen to music. Remember?

Music is such a major part of my particular world. I sometimes forget how important. I get so busy that I forget that one of my most stress relieving activities is listening to music instead of having music as the background track of my busy life.

Not only are the hills alive with music but every aspect of our lives has music. We drive, we have music. If I am at home, I have the sound of television as my music, every show, every commercial and even news has music! If I exercise I turn on music. We ride elevators to music. Waiting on hold on phones, we hear music. Music, Music, Music!

As I watched the Ten Commandments for the fortieth time this past weekend, I began paying attention to the soundtrack. When the action on the movie is just showing a man climbing a mountain I thought how different and uneventful this particular shot is on its own. Moses did not have background music but as the movie track fills in the emotion, it is powerful, as monumental music swells, overpowering the scene; thus revealing the magnitude of what is taking place. Do you think a giant orchestra was playing inside of Moses’ head during the real scene?

Don’t we all have our own soundtrack in our heads playing for our life events? I do. Thankfully, I don’t hear voices inside my head but funky tunes and symphonies.

It takes life forcing me to stop before I realize I like to just sit, relax, and listen to music. Once the hypnosis of the television broke and I started to go mad from the images, I went running from the remote….to my new toy.

A new technology, that is, new to me, old to many of you, ….. the IPOD, or mp3 player which my elder two sons bought for me for Christmas. No longer do I have to drag out a cassette player, or in later years, a CD player which when I am finished with one product I have to dig around in a small suitcase loaded with cassettes or CDs and pick out the next selection, insert and then finally get to the next song. Now, I just push one button and I have hundreds of songs to choose from.

Thanks to techno advances we can all walk around with our own personal life soundtrack. When happy, I can play my Disco, when angry, my rock and roll and when I feel romantic, push a little Harry Connick Jr. and when disgusted with myself, I can punish myself with Barney the Dinosaur songs. (Not really, I would never download Barney.)

How important is music to our free world? One way to judge is that one of the things banned by the Taliban in Afghanistan was music. Diane Sawyer showed how not only has music returned in full force in the freed country, but they have their own version of American Idol called the Afghan Star. Great, bad singers are everywhere it seems!

But do they have their own version of Sanjaya?

If you live in outer space and do not know what I mean then let me say a huge conspiracy is taking place in American culture. A young kid with the fro-hawk hair-do has become the most googled person in the universe. This is truly astounding and more than little frightening. Why?

The power of music is one thing, but the power of a teenie-bopper is astronomical! For all the girls who remember the days of Donny Osmond, Leif Garrett, David Cassidy, and little Michael Jackson, this Sanjaya fellow has the power to rule the universe. We shouldn’t be concerning ourselves with him winning American Idol, but taking over the world. The power of tweens is stronger than any force in the world.

It has nothing to do with talent, best singing voice, but the word IDOL.

What does idol mean? For Christians we are taught not to worship other idols. An idol defined is a man-made object that is highly thought of in some way.

A Teen Idol is a popular celebrity “worshipped” by teenagers.

Idol the show is not just an American thing, but dozens of other countries also have their own version of a television show that gives formerly unknown persons an opportunity to become stars.

Music is a personal taste. Last year some folks liked McPhee and some liked the Soul Patrol but Daughtry has sold the most albums. Personal opinion and who takes the time to pick up a phone make an idol and not musical ability, otherwise wouldn’t a trained opera singer be the next American Idol?

I love David Cassady, but on a scale of great singers he is barely warm, but his posters graced my walls. Let us hear Sanjaya sing “I think I love you” in a blue velvet suit. I might warm up and vote for him.

Be wary of the power of music, it can not only enhance your stress-filled life, make a dull movie scene exciting, but it can also take ordinary teenagers and make them more powerful than the president of the United States.

Could Sanjaya be the evil one? Our Darth Vader of this world? Our Antichrist? Our Dark Lord Saron?

See, it isn’t really that important who you vote for on American Idol?

Or is it?