Why Not?

Not a big Shania fan. Nope. Maybe that’s because her star was on the rise while I was changing diapers and heating bottles. My fave song back in those days ended in, “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?”

I’m sure it didn’t help one bit that she was so dang pretty and I was carrying around 30 pounds of extra baby weight.

Anyway. No love lost.

And then I happened to catch the showing of American Idol when she was the featured guest mentor. She cracked me up. She was funny. Vulnerable.  Sarcastic. Still too darn pretty, but hey, I guess it’s not her fault she has superior genetics.

This year, I live in a house with a television. The only night I am ever awake long enough to watch it is Sunday. But guess what? Shania has her own show called, Why Not? On Sunday night, no less!

It’s cheesy.

Utterly and ridiculously cheesy.

I hate it.

But I am glued to the set as I watch her and her sister and her new husband traipse across the country in search of wounded hearts in need of healing (and a little splash of celebrity). I listen as normal people tell their tales.

Parents died in a car crash leaving behind a houseful of orphans.

Husband unfaithful, wife left in lurch.

Kids gone astray.

Shania listens. Sometimes she talks too much, I think, but that’s okay. She’s only human.

It’s like Reality TV meets Prayer Chain.

Last Sunday, as Shania described the choking sensation that had overtaken her during the year of her divorce, describing it as ‘that feeling like you have a lump in your throat, like you’re going to cry…,” my hand crept to my neck. For four years I have struggled with that exact malady. I lost the ability to speak. I sometimes struggled just to breathe.

And I realized why I love/hate this show. I hate it because it serves me no purpose to watch it. It’s a complete waste of an hour of my life. But I love it because it gives voice to so many people who just want to say “I’m hurting,” and not be told to suck it up, get tough, get over it.

And… okay… I admit that I totally want Shania’s hair.

Totally.