A Love Affair with Real Life

I've been a fanatical follower (albeit an embarrassed one) of reality. I love reality television. It's quite embarrassing when speaking to adults, but I still watch The Real World and I immediately get sucked into all the new ove reality shows. Now, please understand, The Bachelor/ette is not trashy enough for me! I prefer Rock of Love and Real Chance of Love and, most recently, Megan Wants a Millionaire.

You can imagine the looks I get from self-respecting adults, but I have no shame.

My love for the real life has never bled in to my literature life. I have looked at reading as my change to escape the real world, not an opportunity to study it. I don't even like documentaries. The real world in literature and in movies bore me. Literally, they put me to sleep.

That was until this summer. I stumbled upon a new author (new to me)--Jen Lancaster. My first memoir by Jen was Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big or Why Pie is Not the Answer. You can see how the title made me pick it up immediately. And the memoir did not disappoint. It was funny (often laugh-out-loud funny) and light-hearted. I didn't get the typical happily-ever-after-once-you-are-skinny ending, which I really appreciated. Lancaster made me hunt for more.

The next week in Target, I picked up Lancaster's Bitter is the New Black and another memoir--If I am Missing or Dead. The former was just as funny as the other Lancaster memoir and the latter was a heart-wrenching tale of long-term abuse. If you ever wonder how smart, emotionally-centered women become the victims of abuse, If I am Missing or Dead provides some heady insight into the answer.

And today I have found three documentaries to be more interesting that my Law and Order marathon. I started with Prom Night in Mississippi, which had to be followed up with Prom Night: One Year Later. I was appalled at the fact that segregation was alive and well just a year ago. I finished up my documentary afternoon with a moving documentary of what drives a 15-year-old to commit suicide. Boy Interrupted studies how bipolar disorder drove one young boy into so much self-hatred that he couldn't find his way out.

So today I have had a love affair with real life. Now, it did start with Megan Wants a Millionaire. Reality TV makes me feel good about myself. Don't hate. We all do what we can.