The Big Rant

I was watching TV last night and finally figured out that if I unhook the useless cable cord (since we don't have cable anymore) I can get two more channels. Figure that one out. The channels were just starting the new hour of shows and since Opera's "The Big Give" was on, I decided to stick with it.

At first when I had seen the ads for this show, I was weary...the thought of the show seemed good enough, contestants competing to give the most to others. Nice right? Sure. It seemed a bit weird to be COMPETING to give stuff...but they were giving things, so who's going to complain?

My fears were confirmed when I watched this finale. Three contestants were left, a beauty queen, a young millionaire and a dad of three girls. On this last challenge they had to work as a team to come up with their "Biggest Give".

During the course of this episode, the three "teammates" fought, batted for "who planned what" and who was going to get the credit for what, stomped off on their own, and then didn't even show up for the reveal of their "Give". This, to me, is completely missing the point of the giving. Completely.

Giving is to give, not because you're in a competition to give the biggest, not because someone might beat you and give bigger, and not because you friggen have to to stay in a game. Giving is supposed to be from the heart. I understand that it's a show, that it can't be completely from the heart because they're competing...but then isn't that missing the point? I mean yeah, by the end, they are all enjoying giving to those kids, providing that money etc. but the intitial thought wasn't "Wow, those kids need us, we should give them _____." The initial thought was "Quick, these kids are in need, let's give them a ton of money and a good experience and hope that it's enough to impress the judges".

And then. THEN. At the end of the show Opera says "none of these people expected anything for themselves". Yeah. RIIIIGHT. It's Opera! As if those people thought "Opera is having this show, I'm not going to get anything out of it, but let's go on it to have some fun and give a lot of stuff anyways." I'll bet you my left foot that getting something, something BIG, crossed ALL of their minds because of the simple fact that OPERA, one of the most successful women in the world, was hosting this challenge. Duh.

Sorry, I'm ranting, but this kinda bugs my butt. I get it. I get why they had the show, to get people to see the joys of giving...but it also showed people that someone else will be giving too so you better give bigger than them! That's sad. That ruins it. The dad of three nipped it in the bud when he mentioned in the show that the conflict between the players was taking away from the joy of giving.

It all just seems completely backwards to me! The thought of it is good, giving is great, everyone should give, everyone should set themselves aside and give more to others...but that's not what these contestants were doing. They were giving so that they could get the glory.

I hope this isn't what our world is becoming. A world of greedy givers.