Reality Show

You will never see me on a reality show. Not because I don't agree with the idea of reality, but because my reality doesn't fit.

My wife and I jokingly question each other on why they don't make a reality show about us. Two middle aged lesbians that work forty hour a week jobs, parent children and do household chores. You wont see us, because its boring. Everyone does that. Well maybe not the lesbian part, but that in itself doesn't seem too appealing to anyone else but another lesbian. That decreases my viewer potential drastically. However, if I looked like the 'lesbians' in porn films or music videos I might stand a chance.

That's my point. People are only interested in things they can relate to, even if they don't realize they can relate. Most reality shows can be traced back to just a few common themes; match making, fitness, power struggle, or medical anomalies. They sugar coat the theme with something that appears to be a human interest story and call it by a different name than the one before. Toss in your 'token' whatever in each show and voila! We watch the same show again and again. Different people, same stories. Hardly a representation of reality.

Reality is not just a couple of topics revisited different ways. Reality is a million people living a million topics every day. So why do we not embrace that? Because my reality is so far removed from yours the risk of your disinterest is too high to chance. This is where we fail as whole. If we don't understand it, we don't seek to learn, we ignore it. If it makes us uncomfortable, we look the other way and focus on something we know. If it doesn't 'fit' into a familiar category we pretend it doesn't exist, or worse yet, make a decision to hate it.

I know I am interesting. I am complex and full of stories. I am engaging and willing to share. I am not just the middle aged lesbian living the typical life. I am a fighter, and a survivor and someone that still battles both physical and mental challenges on a daily basis. I have life experiences people cant even fathom. There are things that can be learned from me. However, I am different. I don't fit the reality mold. I am unfamiliar and uncomfortable to some. And because of this I have tucked myself out of most people's sights. Sharing only what people ask for.

My life will never be a reality show. People will never learn that my diversities are not threatening. That they can embrace people they don't understand. That if they just sat back and 'watched' they would find commonalities and relate. They might just find they have more patience and love than they thought.