People Don't Understand the Pressure on Me to Eat Perogies

 

Greetings Friends,

First, let me say that I do not begrudge Kim Kardashian her looks. I am all too aware that how we look is based on genetics. If I hadn't been born into my particular family, I wouldn't look the way I do. But, there's no going back on that; I'm stuck with myself for however much longer I'll live. Since I don't have a crystal ball, that could be many more years of looking the way I do. 

The problem I have with Ms. Kardashian is that she is one of those individuals who is famous for just being herself. She hasn't made a contribution to society (other than raising the bar on T&A) that warrants the fame she has, but alas, we all know her, and her family. Yes, I've occasionally watched her unabashedly scripted exploits on her "reality" show, and up until now, I really had nothing to complain about. 

I happened to spot a snippet on my favourite "news" source, People.com, that K.K. has psoriasis. The tag line for the story, describing it as an "incurable skin condition", made it sound like she's a closet leper. 

The video clip from "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" that accompanies the story includes Kim's proclamation of, "People don't understand the pressure on me to look perfect." I only had to read that once for it to make my head explode.

We all deal with pressure in our lives; sometimes that pressure can manifest itself in a physical ailment like psoriasis, or something exponentially worse, like a heart attack, stroke or cancer. Yes, unattractive skin conditions can be part of the bargain: eczema, psoriasis, acne, alopecia, hives. My personal favourite is when stress affects your intestines, leaving you emotionally freaked out and chained to the toilet. I'm sure people in that unfortunate situation would not complain if their only problem was a few patches of itchy dry skin.

People deal with stress in different ways. Some of us crawl under the covers and hide; some of us turn to medication; some of us do our best to swallow that stress by engaging in various forms of potentially destructive behaviour such as drug abuse. Some of us eat. HELLO - that would be me. 

I recently discovered these delectable perogies in my grocer's freezer that I am unabashedly addicted to. They come in a giant 2 kg bag in four scrumptious flavours: cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and potato, potato and onion, and potato, bacon and Parmesan (my personal favourite). I don't do anything fancy with them; just a quick boil and a dunk in sour cream is enough for me. I haven't yet seen a doctor for this ailment, but I have a feeling that if I continue my constant perogy bingeing, I might end up with a serious medical condition. The carbohydrate overload I am subjecting myself to might turn me into a perogy-woman; and with my family's cess, er, gene pool, that could quite easily transform me into a diabetic. 

The problem is, people don't understand the pressure on me to eat perogies. They're cheap, filling and delicious. Then again, so is chocolate ice cream and pizza. I have an addiction to junk food and it may end up killing me one day. My stressful life has never brought about an "incurable skin condition", and if it did, I don't think I'd be so willing to share it with everyone. I find myself wondering if Ms. Kardashian would be eager to share her plight if her problem were chronic yeast infections. Although, I did happen to catch a promo on E! for an upcoming episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" where mother Kris Jenner is outed for "peeing on herself". Can't wait for that one.

Reality TV has done such a stellar job of exploiting our foibles that many of them cannot be taken seriously anymore. When I watch shows like "Hoarders" and "Intervention", I see how truly destructive people can be. But these are "normal" people, not ridiculously wealthy detached-from-reality attention whores who are lucky enough to know Ryan Seacrest. Kim Kardashian is not in danger of losing her life or her home because of a little dry skin. Her delusions and a convenient script lead a segment of the population to believe that a case of psoriasis is capable of jeopardizing her life. I don't have enough time to explain what is so wrong with that. In fact, I'm going to take a leap of faith and assume my readers will understand.

Right now, I am content to go on eating perogies, family history be damned. Do you care? I didn't think so. 

Nava