Gleeful for Glee

I let Adam stay up tonight to watch the Glee Christmas special. I had heard that they were going to be singing "Do The Know Its Christmas" - the charity single from 1984(!) that was recorded to raise finds for the famine in Ethiopia.

I have watched this show maybe 2 or 3 times in the past. Not really a huge fan. I was very impressed with the episode tonight, though.

I know the show has courted controversy before by having openly gay characters. I believe there was a same-sex kiss that riled up some conservatives.

In tonight's episode, one of the characters changes a scripted reading of Frosty the Snowman and instead reads the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke. I was very surprised and inspired that they would do that on one of the most popular shows on tv.

I also hope those former critics will be as vocal in their praise of the show and will commend the producers and Fox tv for having the scripture read on tonight's episode.

The episode continues with the cast showing up at a homeless shelter with food - this is where they sing the charity single. One cast member says - that the reading of the Christmas story inspired them to come and give to the homeless that evening.

It was quite an episode. When it was over, I showed Adam the original Band-Aid video of the Do They Know Its Christmas single. As we watched it together - I thought that the Glee singers are probably close to the ages of Bono, Sting and the others when they first recorded that song.

Compassion never dies - it just gets recycled and reincarnated in every generation. The Glee generation is picking up what started with Bob Geldof as he watched African kids dying on tv all those years ago.

I hope Adam gets similarly inspired when he grows up.