MY WEIGHT IN GOLD

This morning, a feature at MSN.com is HOW TV SHOWS HIDE STAR PREGNANCIES. 

As I scroll through the article, I am humored not only by some of the gimmicks but also by the fact that with certain shows; like Sex In The City, Friends and Seinfeld; I’ve actually been a fan long enough to remember the times when the leading ladies were preggers. 

Kerry Washington "Scandal"

Sarah Jessica Parker "Sex in the City"

But alas, as it often does, my mind began to wonder toward past experiences and—of course—extraneous circumstance…

The women that were featured in this particular article are all well know and well liked and although in many instances their pregnancies did not fit their ‘character’, they were none the less embraced by their adoring fans.  But for the average professional woman, it rarely works that way.  In terms of our careers, pregnancies are often viewed as unsavory set backs—particularly the maternity leave period.  Our dependability and efficiency are automatically questioned.  And pregnancy, in allot of cases becomes a scapegoat for not performing at our optimum.  But if multimillion dollar studios can work around a pregnancy; for an employee whose performance is 100% about being visible; what separates these women from the average woman? 

In our society, we allow allot of bad habits to fester.  By bad habits I mean habits that only allow us to damage ourselves and others.  One habit in particular is holding individuals to variable standards dependent upon social and economic status.  If we know that for every cause there is an effect; then it can be determined that where we allow an elite few to remain unaccountable; the effect will always fall to the average person.  The average person; ironically; has less to be accountable for by way of social and economic status. 

So what is the cost of accountability among us?  Apparently…nothing.  As a society, accountability means nothing to us.  We are reputation hoarders. 

Reputation is a public perception of an individual.  It represents how well an individual embodies ‘general principals.’ 

Somehow, it never bothers us that our standards are seriously lacking and we ‘generally’ apply principals to other people’s lives that we ‘generally’ don’t understand.  For example, why is it such a scandalous affair when a woman turns up preggers?  Were we not made to be the givers of life?  And why would we rather praise and uplift someone who is already beyond our reach by way of their social status; before we uplift our brothers and sisters who are standing right next to us?  Why are we not worth it to ourselves?

It’s not worth it to hold someone to any standard by which they do not hold themselves.  We all err in judgment from time to time.  It continues to perplex me that we live in a society where although no one wants to be held accountable for their past indiscretions, we never hesitate to ridicule others.  Our ‘principal’ is to hide who we are because of who we are not.  We teach ourselves to live silently in shame but still praise the prideless acts of others.   

I digress to say that: I realize that some of you are often inattentive toward the philosophies of ethics and virtue.  Baring that in mind, I personally do not hold any celebrity to any standard what so ever as I firmly believe that there are much more important matters that my thoughts can be preoccupied with, such as; the people who walk beside me.  I use celebrities as an example as opposed to trying to encourage people to see things that they would otherwise refuse to acknowledge.  

My glory is more than what I make of me - my glory is what I can make others make of me.

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