Desire for Transformation

I've been sick this week. I think I had a touch of the flu – headache, body aches, fever, and chest congestion. I've had a rather unproductive week, especially Saturday and Sunday. I spent the majority of both days on the couch, surfing channels and watching whatever was the least offensive programming at the moment. As I was looking for things to watch, I was struck once again by the number of reality TV shows on these days. There are shows about everything. Just when you thought they couldn’t come up with another show about people living life in unique (but not necessarily newsworthy) ways, you find a show about people bidding for abandoned storage units. Or you come across a show about two guys traveling around looking for other people’s junk to buy so they can sell it and make a profit. As I started to consider the various reality series on these days, I began to see a common theme. Think about shows like Intervention, The Biggest Loser, American Idol, even Dancing with the Stars. What do these and many others have in common? I believe the common denominator, and what makes them appealing, is transformation. We love to watch people being transformed. We root and cheer for folks who have made a conscious decision to change for the better, or who are going after their dreams, and we like watching that transformation process. Why is that? Does it give us hope? As twisted as it sounds, I believe it does.  It speaks to the longing rooted in our hearts – we desire to be transformed. Somewhere deep inside whether we know it or not, we get that we’re all in a broken state and we want to change. Watching someone else do just that, even if it’s in a way we don’t need transforming, brings hope and communicates to us that what we all want does happen. Of course, when a star becomes a Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers, or when a piece of junk gets salvaged and given a second chance, it’s more or less an empty imitation of what we really desire. But it’s something, so we tune in and silently shout from the deepest parts, “It can happen!”

Transformation is what we all seek, because we haven't reached the realization of our existence yet. Only through a deep transformation process can we begin to see who and what we were made to be. The problem is the transforming process is usually a difficult one, and it’s much easier to sit and watch another show about someone else doing it instead.