At the beginning of the Fall last year, I was priviledged to spend some quality time in an oasis in the wilderness. (I started to say that the time I spent was basically with myself - but at that point it wasn't quality time I was spending.) For almost two weeks I lived in a monastery in Northern New Mexico at the end of the Chama Valley. Believe me when I say that you don't just stop by to see the Brothers at Christ in The Desert Monastery. You have to intentionally be wanting to go there. The monastery sits among the red cliffs like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, except that the rainbow in this instance is a thirteen mile gravel, then dirt, then mud, path. "Out in the middle of nowhere" starts getting close to the remoteness.

It is a grand spot where thunderstorms sound like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, shooting stars look like the wheels of Helios' chariot, the colors rival anything Picasso attempted, and the silence is so utterly blanketing that you can hear your own foot falls in the dust... that is, if the monks are not softly chanting the Psalms in the sanctuary during one of the seven times a day they pray. It is a place that oozes with sacredness.

Imagine the shock I felt when I heard that, that monastery was playing host to a television show. No, it is not a documentary on the Benedictine Order - that I could understand. It is a 10 part mini-series put on by The Learning Channel. A friend of mine - a frequent visitor to that Holy desert place - informed me of the scandalous event. If you want to know more feel free:

USATODAY.com - 'Monastery': On-air seekers*

I'm disgustedly interested in this massacre of sacred space for the purpose of spiritual voyeurism. I don't want to watch, because I wish they'd stayed well enough away, plus what are they going to broadcast? I don't think this is like Survior, where someone gets voted out of the monastery.
"Maureen, you're soo, not a good chanter." One girl confesses to the camera as the scene pans out from her face to frame her entire front. [The audience sees Maureen's name folded and placed in the Eucharist chalice.]
"Anton, you didn't observe absolute silence during lunch" [His name goes in the chalice.]
Not great television.

So, I don't know what will compel people to watch. Wrestling with spiritual issues and answers to hard problems doesn't seem to me to be as interesting as watching Bruce Willis blow up a 747, Jon Stewart make fun of Congress, or Phil Mickelson win the Masters. That being said, I'm pretty sure I'll be staring glassy eyed at the tube when it airs, because I don't think I can stay away.