Dirty Laundry

There's an expression about not airing your dirty laundry in public.  I'm not sure if people remember it.  In fact, what I've witnessed leads me to wonder if that piece of sage advice is ever shared in modern families.

The things that make it to television shock me.  I don't watch Tori Spelling's "reality" show, but a lot of others do; so, clips of it run constantly on the talk shows.  Tori and her husband are in marriage counseling because he cheated on her.  Rather than seek help privately, they have invited the cameras to their sessions and are putting it all out there for America to watch. This particular session was brutal - yelling, accusing, crying, snotty nose sobbing, whimpering, cringing. Well, I was cringing anyhow. Why are they doing this?  The obvious answer is money, but how much is the going rate for selling your soul to the devil? or the television network? I have no hope for that marriage.  If they really wanted to fix it, the healing process would be between them and their counselor.  Not them and their counselor, their director, their producers, their sponsors, their nosy neighbors - all million of them peeking through Tori's virtual windows while sitting in front of their televisions chomping on popcorn.

Facebook drama is a phenomenon that puzzles me.  Why would a person fight back and forth with family members on their pages for all of their "friends" to witness and offer opinions?  Dr. Phil, another hotbed of dirty laundry flapping in the wind, hosts all kinds of people whose families are in crisis.  Sooner or later, one of the members reveals the Facebook fight that became the snake pit of the family feud.  No wonder people are such messes.  They have all 200 of their most intimate friends telling them what to do.  Do these Dr. Phil people go back to their communities as celebrities?  Do they give autographs? Take selfies with their fans? Do these Facebook voyeurs turn the corner at the grocery store to avoid their "friends" in real life? Or do they block the produce aisle to discuss the daily drama?

No matter what you think of country music, listen to Miranda Lambert's Mama's Broken Heart.

i cut my bangs with some rusty kitchen scissors
i screamed his name til the neighbors called the cops
i numbed the pain at the expense of my liver
i don't know what i did next all i know, i couldn't stop

word got around to the barflies & the baptists
my mama's phone started ringin off the hook
i can hear her now sayin she ain't gonna have it
don't matter how you feel, it only matters how you look

go & fix your make up, girl it's just a break up
run & hide your crazy & start actin like a lady
cause i raised you better, gotta keep it together
even when you fall apart

If nobody in your family is going to warn you not to air your dirty laundry in public, let Miranda's mom and me be the first to do so.  Consider it a public service announcement.