Letting St. Elsewhere Go

He asked was I planning to save the last episode of "St. Elsewhere."  He said he was, that he had saved the last episode of "M.A.S.H." and of "Hill Street Blues."  He wished there had been a way to save that last "Mary Tyler Moore Show," but then you can't have them all, unless you caught it as a re-run.  I wondered was this the myth of the VCR, and of other things too.  That copying or saving is the same as having.  It suggests that keeping, even of a copy, was somehow important to do.  It was like capturing time, but time is not to be captured and even to look again at those last episodes won't mean the shows are not over.

The last of anything, like any other aspect of it, is available to experience.  It can in its moment be appreciated and even applauded, but then it ends.  It cannot pretend any more newness.  If we would value it, it would be OK to do so just once, and then move on.

No, I won't be recording.  I'll watch it and I will probably miss seeing it, though I lost interest when Dr. Westphal left the show.  When it ends it will be over, as it should be.  The actors will take on other roles.  Thank them if you want for the ones they've been playing.  Know too that he never really was Dr. Westphal beyond this hour in these weeks.

Time to have them as memories, and other things too.  No need to diminish them by pretending to suspend that moment on tape.  Let it be over.  Get on with other aspects of life, and real life as well.