DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
9/11 & NBC’s GO ON
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©NBC’s GO ON

I laughed out loud, last night.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done that watching a TV show. Sit-coms have taken a hit recently and many that I’ve tried to watch have not been very funny. If mildly entertaining, they’ll usually get a chuckle here or a smile there from me. But last night, while watching the pilot of NBC’s new comedy, GO ON, I found myself really laughing, out loud, more than once.

NBC says, “GO ON is a touching new comedy created by Emmy Award-winning writer/executive producer Scott Silveri (Friends) starring Matthew Perry (Friends) as Ryan King, a recent widower and sports talk radio host ready to get back to work after the loss of his wife. When Ryan’s boss makes him attend grief counseling before returning to the air, Ryan finds himself in a support group for “life change,” where he meets an oddball cast of characters, all with their own back stories filled with varying degrees of loss.”

If you’ve never lost anything, you might not get the show.
But if, like my husband and me, you lose stuff all the time, this show resonates.

If, like us, you’ve lost loved ones, health, jobs, careers, homes, church homes, cars, relationships, hopes, dreams… you’ll be able to relate.

And if, like me, you’ve actually been through group grief counseling, you’ll be rolling. The support group scenes in the show were the funniest to me.

Many of you know that I lost my mom to cancer when I was a sophomore in college. During my junior year, I became an exchange student from Howard University to the University of Southern California. My grief migrated west with me and decided it was time to put on a show. I needed help, Fam. So, while at USC, I met with a grief group once a week. We were a rag-tag group of students trying to make sense out of our bizarre symptoms of loss, but we helped each other get through it and learned healthy ways to cope.

I’m so grateful that so many years later, I can actually laugh at some of that which caused me such pain. In no way am I laughing at the loss of my mom. I won’t ever do that. But I found out last night that I can laugh at the process that helped me heal, and that in some way, helps me continue to heal.

Today is September 11th.

source

Even 11 years later, there are still lots of people feeling the pain of loss. We will never laugh at terrorism, tragedy and the loss of innocent lives. But I do hope that shows like GO ON will help us heal a little more. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the show premieres tonight. Last night was just a preview.

My 9/11 prayer for each of you is Isaiah 61. Isaiah is talking about a time of restoration for God’s people, but Jesus quotes this same scripture when He steps on the scene to start his public ministry. Today, I pray that He will:

“…comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve…
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

God sees all and knows all and is able to heal. I’m a living testimony of that. Grief doesn’t last always. At some point, we trade in the mourning for joy. That’s what I felt last night.

Whether you watch the show or not, or whether you like it or not, doesn’t matter. It could tank after this. Or the future episodes may not be as funny as the original pilot (which better be funny if a network is going to buy the show and order at least 13 episodes). Either way, I wish you a beautiful 9/11 memorial and I wish you peace, joy and healing.

Go on, Fam,
Naima

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