May 18, 2009

Jon and Kate Gosselin...


I really dislike this television program. When the documentary first aired I watched it with a mild interest, to see what having sextuplets would be like. When the series came on I disliked it because of the wife's treatment of the husband. Now, it's just sad.

I perused the Internet when I heard rumors of a divorce. The stories are all the same, accusations of infidelity from both sides. There is nothing new with this, nothing out of the ordinary, indeed they could be any couple who is suffering from the woes relationship static.

There is really only one question that comes to my mind, and that is this.... I have read in several places that the husband, Jon, isn't happy with the notoriety his family has gotten.

What?

I can understand how you could become famous and then get irritated with not being able to just simply get in your car and drive around for a while to clear your head. Not being able to simply go into a store and buy something without creating a mob scene would get old in a hurry.. But.. you sort of sought it out, pursued it, packaged it, and profited from it.

Money for your children's future is a noble and understandable reason for taking on such a thing as the morphing of your life into a reality television series. Yet, somewhere there should have been a little voice telling you that if this is successful.. I may get noticed...

Now, with the family's income being derived from reality television, they have seemingly fallen into nothing more than a traveling Jerry Springer show. From all accounts I have read it seems that the wife, Kate, has been smitten by the power and money from the exposure they have had and seeks to continue the path now traveled. While Jon wishes for the ride to come to an end.

Each of us can whine about how each of them act and feel superior in our own minds while jealousy over the fortune they have made hides in the corner of our psyche, while we act like it isn't there. Yet, what would cameras record if they were to follow all of us around for the better part of the week?

Have you ever sniped at your spouse? Have you ever done anything that you wouldn't want others to know about?

This situation that has developed could be nothing more than a ratings ploy, as the new season is due to begin shortly, marketing at its typical high point..... Yet it could be a genuinely nasty familial squabble. There are siblings biting at each other, estrangement, snooping people on the perimeters, people being spotted in places they shouldn't be with people they shouldn't be with, bickering spouses, and children stuck in the middle while the junior high school bullshit plays out... In other words, the same damn lives that eighty percent of people live. The only difference is that theirs is televised...

One really has nothing more to do than flip around to a few blogs to find out that people just aren't satisfied. Whether it's a person unloading about a job, politics, or a spouse... It's all over the damn place... including here. There is nothing wrong with hopping on a soap box every now again, its good for the soul, but plain out gossip and pure bullshit are out of hand.

I have read that they have a contract that states that they can have an open marriage, that Kate is a mean woman that doesn't really care about the children, that Jon was fired from a job for misuse of company goods, that Kate didn't want anyone but them to make money from the show, that Kate will not speak to her family, that most of Jon's family won't speak to them because they hate Kate and do not agree with having that many kids in the first place, that Jon is having an affair, that Kate is having an affair... the list is seemingly endless... Yet none of us know anything about it all for certain. There lies the only certain truth.. no one but the two of them knows what is true and what isn't.

Life is meant to be enjoyed and lived, not wrapped up in drama... That way of life is fruitless and boring, playing to the lowest common denominator... While in the eighth grade it might have been fun, now, we have children and real things to deal with. Tossing about advice to people that are having problems should be tread upon lightly because they may listen to you. Music, laughter, the smiles of children and raucous noise is what life is really about.. Not who is sleeping with who or what so and so did the other night... Stay out of bars, if you're over 25 you don't need to hang out at someones house on the weekends, pay attention to your spouse and your kids, stay home, and when you're around members of the opposite sex... keep your damn pants on....

My suggestion? Don't watch it... Perhaps TCM will be showing something good that night anyway.... Or better yet... turn your damn television off...

6 comments:

HeartofGoldPlate said...

I'd clap but I'm holding up the applause sign so everyone else knows to. This is a good one.

Just me... said...

You hit the nail on the head.. If you don't want to live in a fishbowl, don't crawl in one.. If you do crawl in, you just have to suck it up and deal until you can get out.. As for cameras following you around 24/7? Couldn't handle that!!! :):)

C.S. Perry said...

I hate that show but the advice you give is good. I wish that I had heeded it long ago and I wish that others would heed it now.
But I wish a lot of things. Right now I wish I could see my son or talk to my dad or that my son could talk to my dad.

Dana said...

Wise, wise words! That need for immediate gratification often overrides common sense. It's difficult for me to find empathy, but I do know where the OFF button is on my remote control.

Anonymous said...

I can say I've never watched one episode. I can't stand documentary / reality shows at all.

boo said...

Darlin' you always have a way of putting things in perspective. When one chooses to live one's life in the spotlight, one can't very well complain that someone else is looking in all the time, can one? I don't think people stop to consider what the consequences of their 15 minutes of fame will really be until it's far, far too late. Be at peace with everything you do, alone or in public, and you'll never have that problem. Attention seekers tend to get just that, attention. Good, bad, or indifferent; it's there. Frankly, I don't understand why anyone watches these shows at all. Perhaps it's owing to the fact that I have 5 children myself that I find myself with a lack of fascination for these "large family" shows. But then, the populous must drink it's fill of drama and tension. I shall sit in my quiet corner, and thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that it's not me.