Should some parts of celebrities' lives be off-limits to the public, or is giving up privacy a fair price for being famous?

I think that when there are naked pics of Vanessa Hudgenson online, when I konw the hospital and doctors name who delivered Shiloh and when I can see police mug shots of Lindsay Lohan after a DUI then I konw too much. I mean, we started being interested in celebrities' lives bc we were awe struck by their wealth and their clothes, etc. Sure, I want to see the pictures of dresses at the red carpet and yes, when someone has a baby, I wouldn't mind seeing a picture. I just feel that seeing excepts from celbrity divorce papers is a bit over the top. I refuse to watch E News anymore because they display clips of people walking and you actually get to see what it looks like from their point of view, you get to see the swarms of photographers and reporters, harrassing them while they shop for dog food, walk outside to pick up the mail and go to the local Starbucks. The pathetic part of all of this is that we have become so obsessed with their lives and their relationships because when magazines write articles and create headlines about their faults and failures then we can judge them based on our social, moral and religious standards and elevate ourselves above the people we so aspire to be. As a society, we have become obsessed with the social and personal lives of perfect strangers because not only does knowledge of their lives allow us to boast affinity, but it provides us with a perfect opportunity to point out the spec-sized short comings of others in a fultile attempt to ignore the pirate sized plank in our own eye.

Family

I often wonder what family is. Webster describes it as "a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head; a group of persons of common ancestry; the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children..." There is nothing in any of those defininitions that denotes affection, that speaks of any form or derivation of love or loyalty, sacrifice or selflessness, all of the things that we attribute to family. If family is what Webster says it is (an incoclusive group of individuals connected by a common ancestory), then why does everyone expect so much? Why do we all feel cheated if we didn't grow up with mommy and daddy right there with us? Why is something other than obssesively ardent affection considered neglectful or grounds for complaint? I have yet to meet a family where one or more of the members doesn't feel cheated, slighted, ignored, used or unapprecitaed. People say home is where the heart is and that home is the one place you should always be able to go to escape from the world and its judgements. Who said that? I'd like to know because in my experience, as a race humans are vastly judgemental aqnd at least moderately vapid. Ergo, everyone is constantly judging and comparing and exusing and condeming and flattering and insulting everyone else. A home is no diffrerent. The hype about family stems from the underlying belief that they are the only ones who really know you, know who you are, the resolve of your beliefs and the quirks that make you you. Sadly, in many cases this is not true. My advice is to try and rid yourself of all of those preconceived notions of family and all of the "should be's" and instead try to appreciate them for what is there rather than resenting them for their "faults". Love them unconditionally but don't rely on them, at least no more than superficially. People have a nasty habbit of not being perfect...and, as much as we would like to put them on a pedastal, overbearing mothers, absentee parents, prying siblings and intrusive family members are people to.

Irony

Hello, everyone...well, hello to whoever the few and unfortunate are. I find that blogging is a very simple and comepletely basic way of validating yourself...yes, that's what I said: validating yourself, rather than the norm where you let other people do that for you because it takes less effort. Blogging means that every day, I get to sit down and take the time to write down my opinion, and I will do this every day because by virtue of the fact that I now have a URL, I feel all important and special and get the high that comes from lying to yourself when you tell yourself that people care about your opinions. So please, comment! I need validation.