Tuesday, April 25, 2006

"Somebody's got a case of the Mondays..." or why I watched this show about priest wannabes.

It's official. There is NOTHING good to watch on Monday nights. And yet, they pack Tuesday nights full of all sorts of television goodness. It is wholly unfair.

Speaking of holy, due to the lack of anything worthwhile on the tube, I decided to watch the finale of "God or the Girl," that I had DV-R'ed on Sunday night (Sundays - another night chock full of my favorite shows...). Did anyone else watch this show? It was on A&E all last week. I watched most of the eps - I think I missed two of them. It was a truly fascinating topic. The show followed four guys as they went through the discernment process to decide whether they wanted a "married life" or the life of a priest. These guys were some serious Catholics.

One guy, Joe, had been "discerning" for about 10 years. Holy crap - 10 years. Either shit or get of the pot, buddy. Yeah, I'm not really very religious, can you tell?! Anyway, his dad was on the verge of being a priest, his mother, a nun. They got married instead, and had eight kids. It was up to Joe to do the priest thing for the family. Well, sorry, Mom and Pop. That guy made the decision to not become a priest...but apparently, has made it his goal to get himself a wife. Well, good luck with that, Celibacy Boy.

The next guy, Dan..I liked Dan. He kind of had a Josh Groban-y look about him and is a youth minister at some college. He is waaaaaaaay extra Mandisa Catholic. Like shout it from the rooftops and make Kelly P. really uncomfortable Catholic. But that's cool tho' - the dude loves his God, and more power to him. Anyway, with all of that shoutin' and praisin', I really thought he was going to make the priestly plunge. But, nope - he's got a girlfriend, Amber, and is going to continue to minister to his youths (yutes?) and live with his brothers at "Fort Zion," a fraternity of sorts, full of celibate college guys eating spaghetti together.

One guy - whose name I don't even know b/c he was only featured on the show for about a night and a half, made the decision right away to stay with his girlfriend - Aly (see, somehow I got her name) - and be a teacher at a Catholic elementary school. Rock on for him. As the wife of a Catholic school administrator, I have to give it up for the parochial school teachers. They have a tough gig and don't get paid squat. But Nameless Guy will certainly be a spiritual guide for his students, and....well....he can still get some lovin' on the side. Good on him.

The last guy, Steve, was my favorite. This dude graduated from UVA and went to make craploads of money as a consultant. He bought a fat condo and a car and had a girlfriend. Then, one day, he read a pamphlet called "The Mysteries of the Black Suit and White Collar" or some shit....and gave everything up. The guy was actually CALLED. He rented out the condo, sold the car, and went to work as a campus missionary. His supervisor there decided that he was still kind of a puss about the whole priest thing so she sent him (and he agreed to it) to Guatemala to work with Father Jorge who worked with about 60 Guatemalan villages. Steve was not all about the village thing at first. He thought it was kind of dirty and smelly and no one spoke English. (Really? Huh.) But after a time there, he was sad to go. And he had made his decision. He made the announcement during mass at his family parish in Arlington, Virginia. He was going to be a priest. Gosh, I had hoped so, because it would be really freakin' awkward to get up in front of the congregation and say, "You know what? This priest stuff is cool and all, but what I really want to do is....DANCE. Or have sex with women."

So, all in all a great show - glad I invested in it a bit. I hope they find some more guys that are going through the process and continue the show. However, I am not really sure how many of those guys are out there. So, good luck, A&E, finding more interesting, young, cute guys that are thinking about the priesthood!

(After that was over, I was forced to watch "The Apprentice," something I have never watched. And now I know why. If I could, I would kick all their asses...including the Donald. What a bunch of idiots.)

No comments: