Friday, April 04, 2008

The Freak and The Families

As I have mentioned before, I DVR Oprah each day. Most times, I delete it, but occasionally, I will watch it.

Last night, it being Thursday and since new shows don’t start until next week (oh next Thursday, I am excited about your coming!) I had nothing to watch. So, I figured it was a great time to catch up on some old Oprah.

I started with yesterday’s episode. You might have seen it too.

The pregnant man.

I’m not kidding.

It was disturbing.

And that’s a huge understatement!

What is our world coming to?

I was unable to turn it off though. My friend, Clair, has an excellent explanation for why I was unable to hit delete. She calls it the “morbidity factor”.

You know, you are driving down the highway and see a wreck, you have to turn and see what has happened. You get no joy out of the collision, you don’t wish bad things happened to those involved, you just can’t help but look and see what happened.

The morbidity factor.

That is what Oprah was for me last night. It was gross, weird, not natural (you think?), and several other adjectives that fail me right now.

In short, disturbing. Click here if you would like to find out more about the freak show that is happening in small town, USA.

After watching Oprah being ultra-liberal, embracing the “man” and his current life choice and using words like transvestite, lesbian, genitals, and other very specific words (I like to keep this blog on the PG side and, while I am not uncomfortable conversing about parts of the body, I do not feel comfortable writing them down for everyone and my grandmother to read) I was about ready to delete Oprah from my DVR schedule. I mean, I love me a good "Favorite Things" show, but I was frustrated.

Before removing all signs of Oprah from my digital recorder, I clicked on what she had talked about on Wednesday to see if it had any redeeming quality at all.

And let me tell you, she has earned a permanent spot on the Henderson schedule because of what aired Wednesday.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I heard about this story two years ago. It is awful and wonderful, all at the same time.

The families involved in this are nothing short of amazing! Their faith and courage and love for one another was so incredible that I have not stopped thinking about them all day.

I pray that I am NEVER in their position, but if something ever does happen to my family, I pray that I have their spirit and their faith.

They (the dads involved) have written a book and I am definitely going to read it.

I could have spent all day thinking about gross freaky pregnant man, his psycho relationship and his warped views.

I could have.

But instead, I thought today about two families. Two families who overcame extreme tragedy to tell the world the only way they are able to make it from one day to the next is because of Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus’ love, they are able to love. Because of His death on the cross, they have hope. Hope of being reunited with their daughter in heaven.

My favorite part of the entire episode happened at the very end. Oprah was reading a quote out of the book (mind you, Oprah quoted it because the book was right there in front of her. I don’t have the book in front of me, so I will be “quoting” from memory).

“The mother of Whitney (the girl who survived) felt bad meeting up with Laura’s (the girl who died) parents because Whitney’s family was the one who had the happy ending. Laura’s dad said, “No, we have the happy ending too. It is just going to take us longer to get it (referring to their reunion with Laura in heaven).”

Wow. What faith!

So, Oprah, I still think you are way too liberal, you shout way too much, your topic of discussion is questionable a lot of the time, but I appreciate Wednesday’s show.

And I would love to be there for a "Favorite Things" show.

Now I leave you with some very unrelated pictures to enjoy this weekend.





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4 comments:

Kathryn said...

The pregnant man thing really freaks me out. My co-worker told me about it, and I thought she was joking until I saw it online! Very disturbing, and I'm not sure why he's almost being glorified for it.

The families whose daughters were in the accident are AMAZING. I watched their interview with Matt Lauer and was so impressed by their faith and closeness of the two families, thanks to a terrible tragedy. I'm sorry I missed them on Oprah!

Anonymous said...

That pregnant man story makes me mad every time I read about it or see it. I can't believe we're all being told to embrace it and hardly anyone is condemning it. Oh, it infuriates me.

On a different note (nice that Oprah is trying to bring back the religious viewers) the Whitney/Laura story is absolutely heartbreaking and amazing, and I can't even wrap my mind around it all. I watched the 20/20 story and those families are absolutely amazing. Laura's family just brought tears to my eyes, how much faith they have and how strong they are. Okay, this isn't my blog so I should stop with the novel.

Nicola said...

I don't watch Oprah very often, but happened to catch both of these episodes. I was crying throughout the "mistaken identity" story. Both out of sadness and amazement that each of the families (and Oprah on this particular day) spoke of their faith so freely.

The pregnant "man"... well unfortunately, that's one hour of my life I'll never get back.

Sarah said...

I saw that Oprah too. Couldn't stop watching it and even had to call a friend so she could see it. What a crazy world we live in.

I love the picture of Matthew asleep on the couch with Nora.

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