There are sad days when you set out to look for something beautiful and all you end up digging out is dirt. I turned the TV on to look for news and features to touch on, and during the first 15 minutes, all I got from 3 different networks were these: One, people will pay good money to read about other people's dirty secrets, two, demented drivers and three, a sad tale of an unwanted young child.
Oh, Come On . . .
In my book, unauthorized biographies are right up there with privacy-intruding paparazzi photos. Making money out of other people's private lives, secrets, dark pasts and pains is not only in very, very bad taste, but just cruel and wrong. So, shame on you, Kitty Kelley. Today, her tell-all book about Oprah Winfrey hits stores. In this unauthorized biography, Kelley promises to reveal loads of information about the Winfrey's 'secret past.' She went around talking to everybody except Oprah herself, wringing hard-to-get information through 'reportorial discovery.' According to David Drake, spokesman for Crown Publishing, "It will reveal Oprah as she has never been seen before." In all likelihood, the book will be 'literary' version of a tabloid feature, a tell-all of the things somebody, even Oprah, would prefer for the whole world not to know. Whether the information in the book are all accurate or not, it is the intent that matters. Integrity in intention is something that's clearly missing here. What can a reader possibly gain from learning that Oprah Winfrey, billionaire celebrity and media-mogul, is not all that she seems? Why are people obsessed with that "Aha!" moment that there is a dark side to everybody? Cutting people down to size is a sad habit and it will never make us feel better about ourselves.
Drivers Wanted for Miss Daisy
The American Academy of Neurology just came up with "New Guidelines for Drivers With Dementia." There is something quite disturbing with this phrase. It has the words 'drivers' and 'dementia' in a sentence that also has the word 'guidelines!' Wow. Here we thought all we should be afraid of are drunk drivers. Now, we should also be more careful of 'demented' drivers! According to the news, "citing new evidence that 76 percent of drivers with dementia could still pass on-road skills tests, the AAN changed guidelines that previously discouraged any driving once someone was diagnosed with mild dementia or Alzheimers. Accordingly, this is supposed to give the families of these elderly groups some latitude and also because an elderly person's social life and well being is connected to the liberty and freedom of being able to drive around. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/AlzheimersNews/guidelines-issed-elderly-driving-dementia-alzheimers-diagnosis/comments?type=story&id=10355282
A Story of Fear
One of the most shocking things I've seen in recent history is witnessing a very pregnant woman smoking a cigarette. It was at the Irvine Spectrum, the lady who must be in her third trimester, was walking by herself near the carousel area, not even bothering to hide in some dark corner like other smokers do. I mean, really? Now we have these adopted children on the news, who are apparently 'damaged' beyond repair because they have been exposed to alcohol and drugs in-utero. Human beings are fragile creatures. From the time of conception, we are all vulnerable to the things happening inside and outside our mother's bodies. Fetuses are susceptible to poisons imbibed by their mothers, and infants and young children will develop temporary or permanent behavioral and emotional disabilities and disorders when they are passed from institution to institution, without the loving care of a parent. Somebody once told me that fear is the opposite of love. When we are gripped and paralyzed with fear, we cannot love. That is the overriding factor here I think. It is a sad story of the a young child, already possessed with emotional baggage enough to cripple even an adult, afraid and distrustful of a world that has not been very kind to him. This is also a story of a woman, who clearly started out with noble intentions, but could not continue to do so, because she feared for her family's safety.
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