Dear World / The Hunting

Mar 17, 2020 | Entertainment and Arts

By: Yvette Cherry

Dear World,

I’ve been watching a lot of television lately. Tired, I guess.

I’m very good at doing nothing. It’s one of my many talents. I’m not sure how the kids get fed and clothed and the house remains (relatively) tidy.

No, that’s not true. It’s all Leigh. He gets stuff done. Like a marathon runner, he is very well-paced. He goes through life with consistency, routine, discipline and humour. Me, on the other hand, I do life in fits and spurts.

Every morning Leigh sets out a mug with a tea bag and sugar for me. A kind of cuppa-tea-starter-kit. It’s one way that he shows me he is thinking of me. I leave the squeezed, wet teabag on the bench and he discovers it ten hours later when he gets home from work. He’s a better person than I am.

Anyway, about the TV watching…

I’ve just finished Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale on SBS. It wasn’t enough to just watch the show so I also listened to the SBS podcast ‘Eyes on Gilead’ where I could process it all with some other ladies who like to over-analyse everything. After episode 11 my English-teacher friend Fiona and I exchanged voice mail messages about plot predictions. It made my heart so happy.

I also watched Season 2, 3 and 4 of Last Man on Earth. This one makes me LOL because it is so ridiculous. It’s also good fuel for Vetland- the alternate reality my brain lives in when I’m driving, eating, helping with homework or in need of a tiny mental break from my 3-hour Pastoral Care lecture. It’s kind of like a Minecraft world but built only in my head. Lately, I’ve been imagining what life would look like if I was the last woman alive.

Right now I’m in a Drama Series on SBS called, ‘The Hunting’. It caught my attention because Asher Keddie is in it and Asher Keddie knows how to pick ‘em. The show is about Australian teenagers and the trouble they get into with their mobile phones. My kids aren’t teenagers yet and I have been out of the classroom for over a decade so I’m not sure if it’s an accurate depiction of the kinds of things that are going on in the lives of Aussie teens… but I get the sick feeling that it is.

If anyone else is watching, ‘The Hunting’- especially teachers and those with teenage kids, I’d love to know what you think? I think it might be Australia’s ’13 Reasons Why’, though hopefully it sparks better conversations and has better outcomes than the tragedy of that series.

My 12-year-old is asking for a mobile phone and I’ve told her she has to wait until she is 14. After watching this show, I’m thinking she’ll be getting a Samsung Dumbphone.

Article supplied with thanks to Yvette Cherry.

About the Author: Yvette is a wife, mum to four little girls, worship ministry coordinator, and former English teacher.