I Wouldn't Trade Places...

Yesterday I was watching a DVR. I think it was 20/20. I. thought it was a murder mystery or I probably wouldn’t have started watching it. Anyway, it was about the Sunset strip. I was telling mom about it yesterday along with some of my thoughts and she told me I should blog about it.

So, here you go. If you don’t like it, you can blame Mom. J

I really only saw the first 30 to 40 minutes of the show. But that was enough. It started out

showing the Sunset strip through the decades. Starting in the 50s. When they showed the 70s I thought to myself that that's when I started my earthly sojourn. I made a mental note of how wicked, corrupt, horrible the world had become when I was born. Obviously it's much worse now.

they followed several different stories. one was about a young man who came to Los Angeles from the Midwest. he became a writer for a magazine. he told of going to parties six days a week and rubbing shoulders with celebrities. I use the term party loosely because my definition is different . Hollywood's definition of party involves alcohol, drugs and all kinds of debauchery .

the writer told of being the middle man between drug dealers and celebrities. and he also indulged in drugs and alcohol himself to fit in. he said he was talking to Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor one time and he couldn't believe how great his life was. he also mentioned "partying" with Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, etc..

I thought to myself, "I would not want to trade places with any of those people.” even with my broken, scarred, imperfect body. I would much rather be me than them. they don't know true happiness. true happiness is only found in living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. the Hollywood writer couldn't have been more wrong. not only was his life not great , it was horrible. but I guess he never realized that.


Doctrine and Covenants 29:39 And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet—

I suppose the opposite is true also. That if they never tasted the sweet they wouldn’t know that what they had was bitter.

Another story was about an up-and-coming band in Los Angeles that played the Roxy. It reminded me of when I lived in Los Angeles and watched Michael play the Roxy with Trash Wednesday. Anyway to make a long story short (Dragon is not cooperating-- this is taking me all day) I’ve been at the Roxy. It’s like being in H. Yet, the band that was featured acted like it was the greatest moment of their entire lives. And said they could never be happier than at that moment. They looked haggard, worn and older than their years.

was that really the happiest they could ever be? Of course not. why did they think they were happy? because they felt loved, important, and admired. the Problem is that it was by plastic people who didn't really care about them. Hollywood and the Sunset strip epitomizes the great and spacious building. that's exactly what I thought when I started watching this.

sure, there's fame, wealth, and beauty but those things do not bring happiness. so I will continue to wear my Blair polyester pants and clearance shirts and be happy to be me in my broken , scarred, not even close to perfect body. and they can keep their fame, expensive designer clothing , and plastic surgery perfect bodies . and I will live a much happier contented life than they will.

no, I wouldn't trade places with any of them for anything.

that's my two cents.

[ sorry about all the grammatical errors .you get the rough draft. Dragon is not cooperating today . it would take me much too long to try to fix everything. I don’t have the energy to edit it L ]