Guru of the day

Since I seem to have dispensed with all of my gurus - religion, ashtanga, shrink - it's comforting to once in a while discover another source of knowledge, a provider of light in darkness. Today, I found a guru. I am no longer naive enough to believe that this guru will remain "MY GURU" for any length of time. But for today, I was riveted. I learned. Light was shed.

Would you like to know where I found my guru (of the day)?

Wife Swap. The television show.

I'm not a big television watcher, and ever since my kids were born, I have shunned daytime television because the commercials are too depressing - diet pills, disability lawyers, those little carts that fat people drive around the mall because they are too lazy to walk and too fat to stop being lazy. But today, a super-bad hangover kept me couch-bound. And there was a Wife Swap mini-marathon. And I was riveted.

What did I learn? That every family could use a little overhaul. That extremes don't work (extreme authority, extreme laxness, extreme order, extreme manners, extreme fun, etc.). That everyone is passionate about the way they run their households, but everyone could use a little perspective. That with a little perspective, even those who insist there is zero reason to change will find something they want to change about their lives.

Rereading what I just wrote, I can see that it's all applicable not just to families either. Good stuff, that Wife Swap.

YC