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Spoiler Alert

I'll admit it. I'm a purist. I want to experience books and movies the way the artists intended, without having someone ruin it by telling me the ending. But that seems to be increasingly difficult in this age of connection.

I understand that I am sometimes a bit slower to current trends than others. For instance, have you heard of this new upstart social networking site that's becoming more popular than MySpace, Face-something? I kid, although I would still post to Xanga if there was anyone around to read it.

I think we need to be understanding about people who may have had something else to do besides go see all the latest big movies, read the latest best sellers and watch every show on TV. After all, people do have to work....and sleep....and perhaps talk with a real person every once in a while.

So I believe we need rules for this sort of thing. For instance, putting spoiler alert in your post or article and then making the very next line TWO WORDS WHICH REVEAL HOW A MAJOR CHARACTER FROM A BESTSELLER WILL DIE, all while I AM STILL READING THE BOOK! Yeah, that's not okay.

Spoiler Alerts should be notified at the beginning and then hidden somewhere in the middle. If everyone would do this, we could all happily move on from post to post without concerning ourselves that we didn't take sick days to finish a book before ever returning to the internet.

You'll never see this happen in church. We do Easter plays every year in churches, but no one sees Mary weeping during the crucifixion scene and blurts out, 'Hey, it's ok! He'll be back on Sunday!' Even on normal Sundays, no one jumps ahead of the pastor, who holds on to his notes like they are military classified.

I once did a series on the book of Revelation in the Bible. When I announced what I was doing, one teen grabbed his ears and starting screaming that he hadn't finished the book yet and he didn't want to hear the ending yet. I suppose there should be a statute of limitations on certain books and movies. For instance, it's probably alright to mention that the Titanic sinks in the movie, just like it did in real life.

If I just ruined that for you, sorry, but I did name the post Spoiler Alert.
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