{"id":3074,"date":"2009-09-03T10:47:01","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T10:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/spiritually-speaking-we-need-t.html"},"modified":"2009-09-03T10:47:01","modified_gmt":"2009-09-03T10:47:01","slug":"spiritually-speaking-we-need-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/spiritually-speaking-we-need-t.html","title":{"rendered":"Spiritually Speaking, We Need to Laugh and Jay&#8217;s Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jay Leno is finally coming back to evening television, and, in my opinion, it&#8217;s not a moment too soon. We need to laugh more, go to bed earlier, carry less stress and treat each other better every day.<br \/>\nSo the nightly television line-up will finally have more than drama and newsmagazines. I think Jay Leno&#8217;s return is what our national congregation needs.<br \/>\nKing Solomon acknowledged that there is &#8220;a time to die,&#8221; &#8220;a time to weep,&#8221; &#8220;a time to teard down,&#8221; and &#8220;a time to mourn.&#8221; And we&#8217;ve had a lot of each in the last several months. We&#8217;ve mourned Walter Cronkite,  he also acknowledged there is &#8220;a time to mend,&#8221; &#8220;a time to heal,&#8221; and &#8220;a time to laugh.&#8221;<br \/>\nFrom the big screen to the big stage, politics to poetry, heroes to villians and several points in between, we&#8217;ve mourned quite a few deaths. We still don&#8217;t have national health care and the President&#8217;s approval ratings are cratering. We can&#8217;t tell if we&#8217;re in recovery or recession. And we carry the stress, anxiety and lack of sleep that comes with it.<br \/>\nYears ago, when he announced the succession plan that would give Conan O&#8217;Brien &#8220;The Tonight Show&#8217;s&#8221; hosting job, I (like many) thought &#8220;wow, that seems premature.&#8221; Indeed, he was moving on at a far younger age than Johnny Carson. Wasn&#8217;t this comedy&#8217;s top job? Wasn&#8217;t this the highest of heights that a comedian can climb?<br \/>\nAnd, wasn&#8217;t there some kind of responsibility to stay the course for the sake of the nationwide congregation of late-night watchers?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nNevertheless, Conan O&#8217;Brien took over in May, and the summer of Health Care Forums, Michael Jackson&#8217;s passing, Ted Kennedy&#8217;s passing, Sarah Palin&#8217;s transition, the economic question of whether we&#8217;re in recovery or recession, President Obama&#8217;s outtakes, Hillary Clinton&#8217;s outburst and a host of other items have endured somewhat boringly with out Mr. Leno&#8217;s comedic commentary and satirical reflection. We just plain haven&#8217;t laughed enough.<br \/>\nConan O&#8217;Brien has not taken off. David Letterman has not filled the void. A host of other comedians labor on, but none seem to have stepped up. And it&#8217;s more than just a ratings game, or an entertainment issue.<br \/>\nOne biblical description of paradise is a &#8220;place filled with exuberance and laughter, thankful voices and melodic songs.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Laughter and bread go together,&#8221; said King Solomon.<br \/>\n&#8220;He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,&#8221; says Job 8:21, &#8220;and your lips with shouts of joy.&#8221;<br \/>\nWelcome back to the evening pulpit, Jay. I&#8217;m glad you&#8217;re on earlier (10 pm, NBC) as well.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/jay-leno\/8292\" target=\"_top\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/jay-leno\/8292\/584x85_belief.gif\" alt=\"Jay Leno\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jay Leno is finally coming back to evening television, and, in my opinion, it&#8217;s not a moment too soon. We need to laugh more, go to bed earlier, carry less stress and treat each other better every day. So the nightly television line-up will finally have more than drama and newsmagazines. I think Jay Leno&#8217;s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,4,1],"tags":[586,585,480,952,954,951,953,301,904,193,131],"class_list":["post-3074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-pop-culture","category-television","tag-jay-leno","tag-the-tonight-show","tag-conan-obrien","tag-david-letterman","tag-king-solomon","tag-late-night-comedy","tag-laughter","tag-michael-jackson","tag-prayer","tag-sarah-palin","tag-television-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Spiritually Speaking, We Need to Laugh and Jay&#039;s Back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/spiritually-speaking-we-need-t.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spiritually Speaking, We Need to Laugh and Jay&#039;s Back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jay Leno is finally coming back to evening television, and, in my opinion, it&#8217;s not a moment too soon. We need to laugh more, go to bed earlier, carry less stress and treat each other better every day. So the nightly television line-up will finally have more than drama and newsmagazines. I think Jay Leno&#8217;s&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/spiritually-speaking-we-need-t.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-03T10:47:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/jay-leno\/8292\/584x85_belief.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Douglas Howe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spiritually Speaking, We Need to Laugh and Jay's Back","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/spiritually-speaking-we-need-t.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spiritually Speaking, We Need to Laugh and Jay's Back","og_description":"Jay Leno is finally coming back to evening television, and, in my opinion, it&#8217;s not a moment too soon. 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