People get ready...

Lent is coming.  This weekend finds us beginning the Lenten Triodian with The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.  I wrote a series of Lenten reflections for kids a few years ago.  Perhaps I will post them each week here.  I actually learned quite a bit with that project and have forgotten most of it, so it will be edifying for me as well.

I’m sure I should post something of deep spiritual significance, with Lent being just around the corner, but, I’m not.  Instead, I’m going to confess one of my guilty pleasures.  I really enjoy reading the “gossip” pages of British tabloids. 

There, I said it. Why?  I’m not sure.  I’ve always been a secret celebrity watcher.  In general, I enjoy watching people.  I can take a book to a public park with the intention of reading, but more often than not, I end up ignoring the book and watching the people.  We are such curious creatures.  Reading the gossip pages allows me to “watch” a particular subset of people who often have very peculiar habits.

One subject has been in the headlines since, oh, last week.  Did you know that Jessica Simpson ate a cookie?  Yup, she probably had two or three.  And now, instead of looking as if she might snap in two at any moment, she looks quite healthy.  In fact, I think she looks fantastic.  Of course, the Hollywood hounds have been all over her, declaring her “fat.”

While I would never hold Jessica (or any other Hollywood starlet) as a paean of virtue for my daughter to emulate, I would prefer that the rest of the Hollywood set she is bombarded with (a la the High School musical merchandise she sees at school) have women that look like Jessica rather than the typical stick figure with hair.  Ana already worries about being fat.  If you’ve ever seen my daughter, you know how ridiculous her feelings are.

Of course, it’s easy for me to celebrate Jessica’s new found curves, being a “fuller figured” woman myself.  However, It would be really nice to see more “role models” (I use the term loosely) for girls who looked like Jessica, instead of the scrawny little things to which we are usually subjected.