Marie Osmond

I have not yet decided on what will be Ope-book #2, so for today's episode I didn't even take notes. And that's probably for the best. I could write about Marie Osmond's ridiculously over-plumped lips, or Oprah's heinous gold outfit (which a friend of mine said she thought was an "ode to Osmond's Vegas show"), or how I thought it was lame of the Oprah team to keep in the moment when Marie had to start over with the song she was performing in honor of her son. Such an emotional moment couldn't possibly have been trimmed out of the episode, right, guys? That would be just as bad as ditching the fog machines or the starry backdrop with the gauzy white curtains. Just not an option.

I could write about how I think it's weird that 100% of the proceeds from Osmond's new album will be going to the Children's Miracle Network. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to go to some sort of suicide hotline or something else related to the cause of her son's death? I'm glad she's not making a profit, but she's putting out an album (available at Wal-Mart!), and on it is the aria she sang on Oprah, which she apparently did for her son, because he loved that she sang opera. So how about honoring him further by donating the money to where it might help prevent another mother from going through the same thing you're going through?

So, yeah, I could write about all of that. But suicide doesn't really call for much more snark than what I've written above. It's affected the lives of a lot of people, and it's an awful, awful thing to deal with when it happens. And I speak from just the smallest amount of experience: Two weeks from today will be the eighth anniversary of my sister's childhood best friend's suicide.

I wrote about Lisa's death back in 2006, so I'm just going to end this with an excerpt from that post. And given that so many kids these days are driven to suicide because of bullying due to homosexuality, I also want to share the link to Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project. Someone, somewhere has to tell these kids, gay or not, that what they're going through right now will pass.

From "Lisa," posted on November 26, 2006:

Al, Lisa and I went to the mall at some point that weekend in Newport. I don’t know what we were talking about, but the conversation turned to the idea of perception. Al pointed to a blue sweater and said that we could all be seeing it as a different color, since there was no real way of knowing what someone else was seeing.

As I try now to come to grips with Lisa’s death, the only thing I can think is that maybe that problem of perception is what got to her. Maybe the shade of blue Lisa was seeing in her world was too much for her to handle. And maybe I just can’t understand because I don’t know what it was like to look at things through her eyes. I just hope that things look a little different to her wherever she is now.

Tomorrow: Part Two of the 200 Men (& Tyler Perry) saga.