I have a friend who gave me a list of TV shows and movies I should watch.  I could sort of “catch up” on some of the good writing that took place in television over the past 25 years.  I should preface that with the admission that I haven’t owned a TV for twenty-six years.  Hooray for NETFLIX!  Now, someone who hasn’t watched TV for that length of time is rightfully shocked at what is now permissible.  However, my friend suggested I start with the basics: Friends and Seinfeld.  Much could be avoided altogether, but I was told I might enjoy these two shows if I gave them a chance.  I haven’t watched an episode of Seinfeld yet, but I am into my third season of Friends.

The whole idea of watching a sitcom made me a little sick at first.  I had heard of TV shows depicting women as fools; or characters cast simply because they were fun to look at; or female characters superior to the men in their lives (the men being complete numbskulls); or those shows where both men and women are pure eye candy and good at all they do.  Of course, sexuality was a very real undercurrent in almost every script, even with teenage girls.  I was nervous.  I liked not comparing my life to TV dreamland where no one has real trouble they can’t later laugh about.  It wasn’t just that the shows made everyone look their best.  The Networks catered to what I believed to be the base sector of society: those that watched TV instead of living their life.

I’ve come to realize it probably is the people who need to escape who are watching TV.  (We will exclude sports, because that is in a whole different realm which I care not to approach at this time).  If watching beautiful people in roles where, in reality, everyone is not so remarkably easy to look at, makes people happy, so be it, right?  Where nipples are always prominent; where woman never have acne scars or ugly legs; where men are handsome (even villains) or endearing in some sweet way; TV is a good way to spend your time “people watching” instead of being the person that you are.

Life is hard to live on a full-time basis.  I have gone through the best years of my life laboring to please everyone.  It is exhausting!  Now, I lie sleepless at night wondering if I could just have a semblance of the ease I see in the lives of these sitcom icons.  Everyone looks so “polished”.  They are having fun in their Hollywood misery.   And I am so tired…

I had a great deal of hesitation and aversion to watching the colossally popular sitcom Friends.  I had to watch half of the first season before I allowed myself to laugh.  It’s true that some of the characters are better actors than others, but laughing feels good.  It’s actually one of my favorite things in all the world.  Now, well into the third season, I can laugh even when the acting is bad because some of the acting is good and all of it is designed to be funny.  It’s a little racy, and far from the moral high ground I fell from, so I just don’t let my children watch it with me.  It’s for times after tears or distress or life as it hits me right in the gut.

I got interrupted from writing this post with another blow from life’s arsenal.  Maybe I’ll, get back to this…

Okay… I’m nearing the end of the sixth season.  I had to tell my friend who recommended this show how grateful I am.  It’s so easy to laugh again.  I didn’t think it was possible.  Maybe I will get through this time of transition and be myself again. when laughing came easy and from deep within.  I’ve always believed laughing is one of the most important things in my life. It erases all sorrow, soothes pain, makes you feel young…  When everything falls apart the first thing that goes is laughter.  I’m beginning to wonder if we all encouraged ourselves to laugh more, maybe we would feel stronger when we are at our weakest.  Its sort of amazing to me that I can forget my pain completely simply by watching a silly sitcom…