So...I have a couple guilty pleasures that I'd like to tell you all about. I am not a perfect person, so I'll throw that out there as my disclaimer. I love God, go to church (not always every Sunday, but often), I read my Bible, and I try to live as drama-free a life as I can. As I always say, there is no need for unnecessary dramatics in my world, and I'd like to keep that way for as long as possible.
But there are a few things that might be considered not so Christian that I either enjoy watching, reading or doing. The first thing I enjoy doing is going out with friends for food, drinks, and karaoke. That may or may not be a good combination but I tell you what, it makes for a rip-roaring good time and I walk away feeling totally free and uninhibited. I enjoy being with people that don't take life too seriously, and I think once you've been in the church for a long time, people start to assume that you aren't supposed to enjoy life, laughter, and singing 1980s R&B.
My next "indiscretion" is something I am reading right now. The thing is I have been waiting a long time for either a movie or another book from Sister Souljah, and when I saw in either Essence or Ebony (more reading indiscretions) that she had a new book out I was really hyped about the whole thing. So, when I went to the library last week and saw her book "Midnight" on the shelf I almost broke down dancing right then and there.
(Let me just say this: Here in Port Huron, Michigan (or Port Boring, as it is so affectionately called) where I am temporarily residing until something better comes along, the library very rarely orders books by African-American authors. So when they do I am very pleasantly surprised. The library gods must think that Black folks don't read. Well, honey, let me tell you - I DO read. A lot. And I read several different types of books as you will hear about in future posts. But...I digress.)
Anyway, I am reading this book right now. I am amazed that it is 500 pages. It has started out a lot different than her first book "The Coldest Winter Ever" which I happened to love, by the way. That book was great, but the problem I found out later, is that it paved the way for a lot of poorly written "ghetto" books that landed on bookstore shelves much to my chagrin (a writer that is fighting to get two books commercially published right now). Again, I digress.
"Midnight" is my book indiscretion, sitting alonsgide Erwin McManus' Soul Cravings, Barack Obama's "Dreams From My Father", Stephen Mansfield's "The Faith of Barack Obama", and last but not least my worn Amplified Bible. It is living on my bed's headboard bookshelf in obvious mixed company. But the reality I tell myself or the excuse I give anyone else is that I am learning something life-changing from each book. I will give a more thorough critique of "Midnight" and the other books I am reading right now when I finish them, but I had to give some sort of explanation as to why this book is being read so voraciously by the Church Girl, right?
My next indiscretion is something I liked to watch on television. I say liked because the season finale just aired Tuesday, although there is one more show next week that will uncover some apparent dirty laundry and one more delectable tidbit of drama. The wierd thing is my godmother actually hipped me to this show and she is a pastor herself. She liked it because it showed Black women that didn't live in the hood and had money to boot. I do get a bit tired of seeing Black women on television that are standing in the welfare line or having babies out of wedlock with every Tom, Dick, and Harry. That being said, there isn't much else to be proud of in a Afrocentric kind of way with this show.
I just flat-out enjoyed this crazy mix of weave-wearing, sassy, rich femme fatales on this hour-long laugh fest. The Real Housewives of Atlanta became a guilty pleasure of mine the last few weeks of the show. I even started engaging myself so much with NeNe, Sheree, Kim, Lisa, and DeShawn that I started declaring to anyone that watched the show and would know the characters who I liked or disliked more. I very rarely get that involved with a television show (except Grey's Anatomy and sometimes Keyshia Cole's show).
I could not STAND NeNe. A lot of people said they liked her because she kept it real and she seemed the most down-to-earth. (What kind of real are they talking about?!?!) I personally thought she was the fakest, most two-faced one of them all because she kept up so much dissension with all the women - women she was supposed to be friends with. She reminded me of women (females) I have known both in high school and (dare I say) in church (but I won't talk about that) where I came face-to-face with the rawest qualities of humanity. And I am being real here when I say that I will not befriend (at least on a deep level) a woman like that. She will keep up too much chaos.
NeNe is the type of female that thinks (in layman's terms) she is this angelic representation on earth and is ignorant enough to believe that gives her the license to talk about other people as if she is better than them. She is the person that can be the loud-mouth, the life of the party, but can also be the one that everyone wants to fight. I literally wished I could jump inside the television and whup her tail and then jump back out before she could understand why she was lying on the concrete.
(I know...that is not a very lady-like or Christian attitude, but I am being honest here.)
This type of female was personified in many girls in my high school back in Grand Rapids and it makes me wonder if they still act like her today. I know back then I would not deal with them. NeNe was superficial and fake because she would smile in her "friends" faces and then would run them down in the next breath - once she got a few drinks in her. I know I said earlier that I like to go out and have drinks but not to the point where I am saying something I will regret later. I don't believe in getting twisted and then letting it all hang out. Once again, I apologize...I digress.
To me NeNe was not a viable symbol of true womanhood (not that the rest of them were in all areas; she just stood out the most). She is the person I point out to my nieces and say "Don't be like her. Somebody will want to beat the brakes off you if you turn into THAT. And it just might be me."
She is a symbol of a woman out of her element that does not fit in the classy world her marriage evidently placed her. Her attitude exemplified the fact that money certainly does not buy class. I think a real woman is born with a certain pedigree, a certain quality, and NeNe did not have that and she certainly was not trying to develop it.
So those are my little indiscretions. What are yours?
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