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This was originally posted on the 4-HBTalk forums. It’s being reprinted here with expressed permission by the author, Naeem Randhawa.

I don’t subscribe to watching TV in any regular way, probably because I don’t usually have a regular set schedule. Sometimes though, like tonight I give in and get pulled in to something random, sometimes I’ll fall victim to the call of the mass distributed frequency.

“Biggest Loser” is on, grab the popcorn, call for a pizza – wait, what? No scratch that, forget the popcorn, screw the pizza guy! Consciously step back, the automatic triggers are hard-wired, learn to unwire them. It’s so embedded in our nature – the bombard of stereo sensory loading all day, all night – Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Mom’s apple pie, Coke, Applebee’s, Budweiser. You have to fight to evade the ever popping ads across channels, magazines, Internet, and all media. The kids haven’t figured it out yet – they get it full frontal, smack to the neural network, years later the pay-off comes.

But I digress. Back to “Biggest Loser” sans the confectionaries – the blue team is losing, the black team is winning, someone’s going home, the ousted candidates will plead their case, the old captain will be chosen – not because he’s doiong badly, but precisely because he’s doing great, and so therefore the chosen one will conclude “On the outside, he’ll do better off than the other” – there’s some sense in that – at least sense in TV reality.

Yes, it’s all set up. Yes, it’s all removed by degrees of what we mere mortals face – we don’t get the calorie-counted specialized custom diet, we don’t get the 24 by 7 trainer in our face shouting encouragement, we don’t get our own personal cheering squad. But at the same time – we can still connect with these poor wasting souls – why? Because we see our selves in them – the old coach, who was the epitome of strength, the middle age wife with kids who flashed back to her days of a striking face and figure from high school. It’s you and me. We’re faded, and we see ourselves in their struggle – nothing wrong with that, I’ll take my motivation in whatever shape and form I get it in.

One of the team’s won the chance to talk to their families over video – and each of the players is overjoyed, tears are shed, and each one is re-enforced with will and motivation to continue fighting to gain their former self. Take spirit from the smallest steps, even if it happens to be from a passing image on TV, one small step at a time to tear down the years of neglect and abuse of the faded temple.

I sit on my balcony now as I write, the moon is near full in Austin. I think of the lives of the players, I think of my boy sleeping, dreaming of what five year old boys dream about. My wife sits across our patio table, planning our holiday vacation on her laptop. I think of my family, as we do, and I echo to my self what the ex-football player from the “Biggest Loser” tells his kid…, “Daddy’s getting better.”

About the author: Naeem is a filmmaker. He also runs a travel blog with his wife. Check them out at Just Say Go.

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