A different look at Honey Boo Boo

  
 Back in the 90s, when I was in middle school, I had a pet turtle named Rex, and instead of memorizing basketball or Football stats like my classmates, I was more concerned with keeping up with the latest issue of Spider-Man, or finding out ways to pay for Uncanny X-Men when it would go bi-weekly in the Summer (those books cost a lot back then for a kid with no job).

You can imagine that people thought I was strange, and if my life was a reality television show back then  - well, I probably would be very much the laughing stock of the country. Did I mention, that I was barely over 100 pounds. I was more like 98.9. Yup.

Now fast forward 20 some odd years later, and enter the show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.   For those of you who don't know, the show revolves around the life of six year-old Alana Thompson aka Honey Boo Boo, and the antics of her family.

After reading about the show in an entertainment article in the AJC, I decided to watch an episode. When I looked at it utter horror spread across my face. This is terrible I said. This is trashy, how can people live like this. I immediately began asking friends if they had seen it, and in my worldliness I began to formulate an opinion about this young girl, who kept a pig for a pet.

Then, something hit me. More specifically, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and rather quite loudly. How could I, pass judgement or criticize the way these people lived without first looking at myself, and my upbringing. My best friend was a turtle named Rex, and my uncle's idea of a good quick meal was a fatback sandwich. I could be considered just as strange.

And then the point really hit home with me for the show. These are people that are living their lives. They aren't bothering anyone and what they show eachother on the show is there own type of love. It might be different, it might seem strange to some but who are we to mock it or even question it? So while the critics might slam the show, and other's might use it as a guilty pleasure to point out and make fun of the differences, I'm going in a different route.