Martyrdom

The word martyrdom has been popping up around me lately and I have never seen a more poignant example of martyrdom then in a recent episode of MTV's reality show, "True Life" , which showcases the sorted lives of teenage angst.

In this episode they featured a former big kid who got gastric bypass surgery to start a new life. He was a big guy who managed shed at least 200 lbs from his frame, the only problem was that after his weight loss he was left over excess skin that drooped from his legs and arms. He was happy that he lost the weight but still really unhappy with the left over excess skin. In his journey, he decided to have plastic surgery to remove the excess skin, he was warned by his doctor of deep scaring but still went for it anyways. When all was said and done, he was still unhappy with the way his body looked afterwards. Knowing this, "True Life" , set him up with a life coach to help manage his anxieties. That episode was really tough to watch because he was putting himself thru so much mental pain just so that he could look, "normal" .

If the younger viewers of MTV ever got their wake up call to watch what they eat, that was it, even after watching this show I was, "scared skinny" .

But wasn't that the point of the show, don't we use martyr's to avoid personal tragedies in our lives?

I'm not a proponent of using someones personal tragedy to be the motivating factor to make my life better but it is effective, just think of how many lives were saved with his life story.

Recently in the news, there is an article about how the country of Cuba is able to keep their rate of HIV infection low because they hand out a lot of condoms and do extreme education by showing examples of the infected to the younger people. It must work because Cuba boasts the lower rate of HIV infection in the world.

I suppose the circling theme in this blog is the motivating factor of fear. I don't support using, "fear" , to motivate anyones life for the better because all you're doing is setting them up for a lifetime of insecurity and strife.

We need to find more positive ways to change peoples lives and trust me, I will be looking.

xoxo