Let's Hear it for the Woman Who Has Everything

When did television news become so idiotic? I find myself watching it out of obligation. And I sit there with such a stupid look on my face. The look is a mix of shock and disgust. But in a twisted way: I must watch-I must watch- I must watch. Sharita and I are amazed that they even let the Today Show stay on the air. Now keep in mind we watch it everyday. What I love is that obligatory “news” segment about the woman who has everything. You know the one where they find this poor woman: she’s beautiful, has the clothes, the car, the career, three children, this husband with this look of despair hiding just behind the “curtain of his smile”, she has all of these wonderful aphorisms and saying about success and living life. And the news anchor with words shape by their own desires for completeness says of her: She’s the woman who has everything! Really-- everything? I know one thing she doesn’t have: Rest!!! When does she get to sit down, contemplate the beauty of her children, the contradictions and illusions of success and failure, the craftsmanship of the handmade shoes she’s wearing. Where is her time for God? But what’s worst everybody, men and women alike, watch this and are suffused with this feeling of discontent with their own lives because they don’t have what she has. And the people that watch never see her tears, her anxiety that chokes her, the paranoia that haunts her steps. Let’s hear it for the woman that has everything and the news people that celebrate her.