Art Imitates Life

I saw this in an email forward yesterday. It's from a list that Erma Bombeck wrote, called "If I had my Life to Live Over." And I have to say, I completely disagree with it.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.

First, let me say that I am the first person to both laugh and cry while watching life--I observe people and things and happenings so often and so deeply it is something achingly burdensome so have so many emotional thoughts and reactions to everything happening around me. I find life to be an endlessly fascinating montage and celebrate all the joys and sorrows it offers us--but I do not take this appreciation of "life in the flesh" and compare it with life on the silver or the small screen. They are two separate entities, and one surely feeds the other in a symbiotic way.

Television get such a bad rep. I will go ahead and add the disclaimer that there are countless examples of very, very bad tv out there--from ill-scripted sitcoms to the reality tv phenomenon. Yet, there are so many other shows with real heart to them that do not deserve to be shunned and disdained because they simply are what they are. Erma Bombeck implies that when one is moved to laugh or cry while watching television, he/she proejcts some kind of disdain for "real life" and succumbs to a manipulation by those attempting to create a false reality and steal you away from your life's moments. But did she think of what is behind those television moments that move us?

Behind them is a slew of people that put their God-given talents to work. There are cameramen who see with a different eye and catch creativity in motion, there are sound technicians, lighting experts, production assistants, costumers, makeup artists, craft services, producers. There are writers who slave over a script word by word in order to achieve just the right sentiment, to catch just the right joke, to turn just the right phrase. There are actors who work to bring these words to life, to do justice to their characters, who step out of themselves to create another person, another story. This is not life? A cross section of individuals all creating, producing what is essentially a modern day art form? And where do these writers find the inspiration for their poignant story lines, their comic gems, the characters they create? Where do the actors go to find the emotion, to understand their characters, to create their relationships? The answer is LIFE. Underscoring all of televisions best shows is the lives of all those who craft them--their loves lost, babies born, personal triumphs and happiest memories.

So I say that it is perfectly fine to laugh and cry at television; in fact it is a necessary joy. In doing so, you are giving testament to the blood, sweat and tears of those that brought that show to you. But you are also giving nod to the very fact that life gives us so many moments, and it is a treasure to recognize and react to them--in whatever medium they happen to occur.