real vs. fake

This morning on the way home from worship services I was riding with Drew which for any of you who know my brother, you know that means that the radio is blaring country music.
I'm not really a big fan of country music so I'm not up to date on the newest songs in the country world. But this morning a song came on the radio called Real by James Wesley. I fell in love.


500 Channels and there ain't much on tonight
But reality shows about some folks so called lives
A pretty girl cries cause she don't get a rose
But she'll find love next year on her own show
And they call that real

Real, is the hand you hold 57 years
Real, is a band of gold trembling with fear
And it's the first long tear down an old man's face
Watching his angel slipping away
His heart so broke, it's never gonna heal
I call that real

Where I live, housewives don't act like that
And the survivors are farmers in John Deere hats
Our Amazing race is beating the check
Praying that the bank ain't ran it through yet

Real, like too much rain falling from the sky
Real, like the drought that came around here last July
It's the damn old weevils and the market and the weeds
The prayer they prayed when they plant the seeds
And the chance they take to bring us our next meal
I call that real

Real, like a job you lose ‘cause it moves to Mexico
Like a momma and a baby with no safe place to go
Like a little dream house with a big old foreclosed sign
Like a flag draped coffin and a 21 gun goodbye
I call that real


I think he hits the nail right on the head.
Having 5 younger brothers and sisters I now see more than I ever did how much things today influence them. Things like music, television and the way their friends act.
On tv and on the radio people's lives are portrayed in a way that isn't reality. But kids these days think that since the song is recorded by a certian artist or a tv show or movie as some actress/actor that they love, then what they are seeing must be real and they must live their life and act the same way that famous people do.
Yeah, songs are catchy and tv shows are addictive and entertaining, and I'm not saying that all songs and tv shows are bad, I just think that we need to be careful how much we let entertainment today make us into think that we have to do exactly as they do.
In order to be popular you don't have to waste your parents money on the most popular brand of clothes, or date every person you come in contact with, you don't have to have premarital sex to be cool and you don't have to cuss and drink in order to fit in with all the other losers.
Oh. And being disrespectful to your parents....kids were stoned for that years ago. I'm just saying.

Just be yourself. This world is so boring when we all try to be the same.