Pretty Sure It's Not For Me

Before I get started, I have to give a shout-out to Norman.  He is my first comment by someone I don't know; thanks for de-lurking Norman.  Now Blogger said you were spam but I decided that he/she was wrong; and if he/she was right I don't want to know.  I like living in my little world.  I was beginning to think that no one other than Harmonica was reading this thing.  Thanks again and I hope that I hear more from you in the future.

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I am constantly amazed at what amazes me.  I have always thought that people can't surprise me but it happens on such a continual basis that I know longer think I am as liberal as I portray.  Last night I watched Sister Wives On Demand.  It's a new reality show that focuses on a plural marriage between one man and three women.

I spent the first ten minutes wondering why someone would want to commit their self to three separate women and why someone would want to commit their self to one man and two other women.  I'm still trying to understand.  There were a couple of things that bothered me about the whole situation.

1. The husband kept talking about how stretched he was for time and he kept a schedule to make sure that his wives got to spend time with him.  He talked about how he had to be fair so that no one wife got jealous because of lack of attention.  I'm not sure but I think that if he had said he kept a schedule so that he could fit himself into his wives schedules then I might have been able to stomach it better.  Let's face it, he is one man and they are three women; who is the one who needs to make himself available?  I'm just sayin'.
2. There was a big family meeting (16 in total) to discuss bringing another wife into the fold.  Now according to their testimonials, all three marriages were in place before the first child was born; sixteen years later, he wants to bring in another wife who already has three children.  This would bring their total to twenty-one.  It seems as though they are trying to best these people ** in an unconventional way.  Again, I'm just sayin'.
3. One of the wives wasn't all that happy about bringing another woman into the family.  When she stated that she had feelings of jealousy, the husband looked incredulous.  I would think that if he was truly as attentive as he portrayed himself to be he would have been aware of the jealousy and corrected wife #1 when she said it was something she would have to work through.  I would have preferred to hear him say that it was something they would all work through.
4. I didn't notice any true affection between the husband and his wives.  Yes, there were a couple of cheek kisses but mostly all they did was side-hug each other.  Also, the husband seemed to be extra attentive to his children, almost as if he knew that there were cameras and he wanted to make sure he was picked up for another TLC season.  I understand that this is TLCs goal but I can't understand why anyone would want to have a microscope on their lives; especially with all the bad publicity that plural marriages have gotten over the recent years.  On a side note, the husband was quick to point out that he was not LDS or involved with "that Texas group".

Now, I'm a firm believer that you should live your life how you see fit and you are only accountable to yourself and those who depend on you.  I do not follow any type of religious life style but that does not mean that I belittle or think ill of those who do.  I simply believe that you worship your God, Allah, Mohammed etc. in your own way and I'll worship in mine.  I believe that the world was created many, many, many millennia ago, unlike this Christian group or this organization.  I do not believe that the bible is the actual (read that again people, I said actual) word of God.  I do believe that the bible is a group of interpretations of stories of God & Jesus written by men (not that different from Jesus himself), many of which came many years after Jesus was crucified. Unfortunately for me, I live in the South where if you are not a Confederate, Conservative Christian, you are going to run into many people who are bound and determined to tell you how you are wrong, what you need to do to become right and how you should agree with the party line.  This group, I believe, would also include some members of my extended family.  Hey – it’s family, so what are you going to do?

I guess the whole point of this run-on thought is that I may not understand why some Mormons believe in plurality; why Catholics believe that only priests can talk to God; why Holiness believe in talking in tongues; why Muslim Extremists believe in sacrificing people for the greater good; why Jehovah Witnesses believe that only 144,000 people with be with God in heaven; why Jews believe that the Messiah has not come; why Native Americans believe in reincarnation; why Scientologist believe that psychiatry is destructive; why Buddhists believe in Karma etc.; the point is that each group believes what they believe and I believe what I believe and in the end I am only accountable to myself, my family and my interpretation of God.

**Speaking of the Duggars - Last night I was watching TLC while working on an afghan and I was horrified to discover that I can name all 19 of the Duggar children...in order.  Heave help me!