Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Tuesday: Touch

Touch Tuesdays can be literal or emotional. Today it is emotional.

I do love me some reality TV. I do love People magazine (and US Weekly). I don't read any other entertainment magazines or tabloids and I have long since given up on Entertainment Tonight. I have standards!

The most recent voyeuristic event I am fascinated with however, and touched by, is this Jon and Kate fiasco. I have nothing negative to say about either person. I FEEL their pain. I feel it down to my toes. I get it, I empathize, I've been there, I know, I understand, and it sucks. Of course I'm not a TV star, but that's so not what this is about. If you've seen either of them speak about this issue or caught glimpses of this story and lingered to watch - it's real. And again, it has nothing to do with their show. It's what's inside them, their personalities and temperaments, way down to the core.

Marriage is hard work. HARD work. Raising kids? Ohmygoshharderthanyoueverthinkitcouldpossiblybe. Put those two tasks together with the right (or wrong) personalities and you have a recipe for disaster. A long and winding and very bumpy road. I identify with this Jon and Kate story. To be just as honest as I always am...it's pretty much my story. Minus 6 kids and the TV show. Mike is Jon and I am a less demanding Kate (yes, I am LESS demanding!)

Except, except: Mike and I still have lots of embers burning inside that can be fanned and nurtured. If I am reading their body language and faces correctly (and I am an expert reader of people) for Jon and Kate...I hate to say it...but I see their fire as smoking coals that probably can not be lit again. I can read it on their faces - especially Jon's.

I guess it's a little odd I'm writing about these people that I don't know, and that I'm being dragged into the tabloidness of their very sad situation. But the thing is...what they are dealing with is so real, so raw, and so the lives of many many people.

It just touches me. Makes me sad. I feel for them. (Mike and I are fine, by the way...so no worries. We are definitely on our own very bumpy road, though.)

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

I haven't seen the show or the interviews, just see headlines here and there. But, a friend of mine was saying just what you are saying about them. She said it broke her heart to watch them interacting. That they were just so separated. When she was describing it, I thought... that's me. Marriage is hard. And, raising kids is too. But, the good parts of both are so good. It makes me hang in there. I need reminders though!

Clarissa said...

gosh, that show was ROUGH to watch. i'd never really watched the show before and was just interested to see how they'd handle discussing the whole drama. it was creepy. like watching a marriage fall apart on tv. they're really over, it looks like and it's just sad to see. the worst thing is, their kids will be able to watch their family fall apart on reruns. sad.
remind me never to have 8 kids. sheesh.