Current Events and Ben's thoughts on "Reality"

Just thought I would take a quick moment to get caught up on some current (or not so current) events in the Gunn Family...

Our elder's quorum team lost a heartbreaker in the regional final against a team (technically two teams) that we beat in the stake tournament. The Foxboro wards decided that since they couldn't beat us fair and square they would combine forces and create a superteam which beat us to take the regional championship.

The last couple of weeks have been rather uneventful. After the hullabaloo around easter, we've been keeping it pretty low key, staying home most evenings and resting on the weekends. We are excited to attend the morning session of Conference on Saturday. I've never been to a live conference session, so it will be a new and exciting moment for me especially with it being a solemn assembly, having a chance to sustain a new church president in person.

I would like to take this opportunity as well to express my extreme distate for "reality" TV. It's sick, to me, the extremes that some of these shows will go to garner ratings. With nothing else on the tube last night, I succumbed to watching the finale of "The Moment of Truth" on Fox last night. If you don't know what the show is all about, basically they strap a contestant to a lie detector and proceed to air all their dirty laundry in front of a live studio audience and, presumably, millons of people watching at home. Their spouses, parents and best friends are seated on a couch a few feet away while the host asks extremely personal and probing questions. If the contestant can truthfully answer 21 questions, they win a half-million dollars. Most of the questions are prefaced with some sort of warning that the question could ruin their marriage or friendship or reputation, etc. It is sickening to me for two reasons: 1) Why would anyone subject themselves to this? (Oh, yeah, what wouldn't you do for $500,000?) and 2) Why are we allowing networks to put this crap on the air? (Oh, yeah, we can't turn away from watching a car wreck, a plane crash or a person completely humiliate themselves on national television). On this particular episode, the contestant answered 13 questions truthfully, most of which had to do with her relationship with her husband. In the process, she basically aired it out that she regretted marrying him and didn't believe that he wasn't cheating on her (Incidentally, this was a Mormon woman, which was also aired out, so now the nation believes that this is how a Mormon marriage works. Awesome!). She ended up getting ousted on a question about whether she would pose nude for $100,000. Before she had a chance to answer, they asked her mom, positioned on the couch, how she would feel if her daughter answered yes. The mother basically said her little girl would never do something like that. As expected, the contestant answered "No". The lie detector said her answer was false and off she went, with no money and a broken marriage and reputation. What is this world coming to!?

I would much rather watch "the office." Give me that same awkwardness, but in a fictional environment created by skilled writers and directors, acted out by talented actors and comedians. Put a little effort into it, Hollywood! Educated people will appreciate it!