I’m a huge fan of the Disney Channel TV show “Phineas & Ferb.” I even own all the songs to the first two seasons. As I watched the episode “The Best Lazy Day Ever,” I thought about what might be called The Gospel According to Jeremy.
Jeremy is the sweet but clueless boyfriend of Candace, big sister to Phineas and Ferb. The boys decide that instead of building some crazy contraption, they’ll take a day off–a do-nothing day. Candace can’t stand the fact that they aren’t doing anything to ruin her life, so she tries to ruin their’s, and in the process, almost misses Jeremy’s concert.
At the end of the episode, Jeremy & The Incidentals sing “Do-Nothing Day,” which has some wonderful parts and some appalling ones.
First, the appalling.
Beautiful, kind and gentle,
And loving and softness and sweetness,
and candy and gum,
Peppermint and pink flowers,
And bunnies and happy songs we can all hum!
Draw a smiley face on the Sun,
It’s fun.
Aack! It’s so sickly sweet I can hardly stand it! And yet, this is what I hear a lot of in contemporary American Christianity. A vision of eternal life that’s extremely sappy.
Now, the chorus. Very Sabbath-y.
Slow down and look around you,
Throw your to-do list away.
The clouds look like sheep and vice versa,
Let’s have a do nothing day.
That’s exactly what Phineas & Ferb do in this episode. They lay down under a tree and just chill. They ignore their book of projects, which is their to-do list. They relax.
Uh oh. Here comes another verse.
Sunshine, cuddles,
and puppies, wet noses and safety and laughter,
and skip to and fro,
holdin’ hands sharing snow cones, and rainbows
Jeremy, PLEASE! You’re making the Easter Bunny gag!
But wait, he’s getting it …
and no place where we have to go!
So we’re just gonna go with the flow,
Oh you know.
Slow down and look around you,
Throw your to-do list away!
The clouds look like sheep and vice versa,
On a do nothing day,
On a do nothing day,
Our do nothing day…
Wishing you the good-parts version of the Gospel According to Jeremy and a do-nothing day.
