Music vs. Muzak

For the last couple of months, I have been attending a Wednesday night Institute class for single adults age 27 and older. We meet at a chapel in Centerville, and attendees come from as far north as Ogden and as far south as the the Salt Lake valley. It's been a great way to meet several interesting new people, as well as to be instructed together in the good word of the gospel.

A handful of instructors take turns teaching these lessons, and one of them is, in fact, local musician Peter Breinholt. It was Bro. Breinholt's turn at the helm tonight, and it's something he shared with us upon which I now wish to expound.

Bro. Breinholt spent a portion of the evening discussing Elder Dallin H. Oaks's recent conference talk about the "good, better, and best" choices we often face. He compared the "best" to good music - this is, after all, a skilled musician who knows what he's talking about - whereas the "good" and "better," in comparison, sometimes seems like Muzak. For example, Beatles music, as performed by John, Paul, George, and Ringo, would qualify as "best," whereas a Beatles song heard in an elevator may be only good or (arguably) better.

Make sense?

I've been pondering on this idea throughout the evening, particularly how it relates to the idea of Ersatz relationships.

I first became familiar with the term Ersatz while watching an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" not too long ago. In this particular episode, Leonard's mother, who is a psychologist, remarks that Howard and Raj's friendship with one another is a sort of "Ersatz marriage relationship"; in other words, due to their lack of success with women, it has become a substitute or replacement for the real thing.

Many of us have these kinds of relationships, I suppose, in one form or another. And they're not necessarily relationships with friends. Some people have Ersatz relationships with their jobs or with their hobbies, be they TV or movies, reading, travel, video games, or almost anything else, rather than seeking for more-important (i.e. "best") relationships with those of the opposite sex.

Earlier this week, I read a rather troubling article in the Deseret News about marriages that have failed because one of the partners has become obsessed with online video gaming to the point of neglecting family, work, sleep, and even basic hygiene and nutritional needs for hours or days at a time.

Of course, none of the aforementioned hobbies are bad; but they're no substitute for the real thing, either.