I will put it out there that I am not a huge fan of reality TV.  At least not Survivor or the Bachelorette or anything of that ilk.  Watching strangers engage in PDA or CYA after meeting each other 5 minutes ago holds no interest for me at all.  Shows like 19 Kids and Counting or Hoarders, I enjoy.  They have a biographical bent that appeals to the amateur anthropologist in me.  Biographies are one of my favorite genres to get lost in.  I love reading about people’s lives, their happiness, their woes, etc.  Especially if they are a celebrity.  There is that whole removed from normal society, they don’t actually poop do they kind of fantasy that I find titillating.  Now imagine how my interest was piqued when Finding Sarah was advertised on OWN.  Royalty and Celebrity ! Yeah !!  Let’s see if she poops !

I’ll be honest and admit that I forgot that Finding Sarah was on and it was by the merest chance that I caught it at all.  Having said that, I’ve always found Fergie interesting.  A kindred spirit if you will.  A Royal Anne of Green Gables.  No filter, a bit flighty, a lost soul with an errant prince to rescue her.  So I tuned in.  I love a good story and with the stunts she’s pulled, I was ready for a train wreck.  I’m glad to say I was disappointed.  She is a wreck.  But I no longer think she was alone in driving the train.  There was plenty of press, paparazzi and palace people shoveling mountains of coal in to that engine.  She was headed for derailment before they placed the glittering tiara on her head.

Realizing that it’s in her best interest to put the “pity me” spin on the show, I found myself believing her.  I found myself sympathizing and wanting to invite her for tea and a hug.  Fergie may have completely hoodwinked me but I don’t think so.  I think this poor woman has been most horribly attacked, abandoned and beaten by anyone and everyone that could get a kick in her whole life.  Rather than the happy princess who finally gets her prince that we see at the end of the fairytale, she is more like a Cinderella where the evil stepmother tells the prince to smash the glass slipper and send poor Cindy back to the cinder pile she was hoping to leave behind.

There are those that will say that Fergie is a glory hound looking for more publicity.  There are those that will criticize and continue to bash her.  There are those that will make a lot more money by humiliating and excoriating her than actually trying to help her.  Less people have done more than she for 15 minutes in the spotlight.  She has no choice but to be there.  Her children are the descendents of Kings and Queens.  The light will shine on her until the end of days if for nothing more than having once been a princess who was kicked out of the palace.

If Sarah Ferguson gets an opportunity to redeem herself and receive what appears to be some much-needed therapy for some apparently deep-rooted problems – then good for her.  At least she is not flaunting her knicker-less privates (yes, I know there have been less than flattering nudes of her taken already), posing for Playboy or getting the obligatory DUI to get her name back in the press.  She’s done some bone headed things in her time but she seems to honestly own them and wants to move past it.

Will the public and press allow her to move past this ?  Will they allow her to go on this journey without bringing up every bad judgement she’s ever made ?  Will they allow her to honestly work on her problems or will this just become more fodder to vilify her with ?  While she is in no way excused for what she has done, what role has the press played in making her in to the cartoon she has become?  If someone referred to me as the “Duchess of Pork” or “Frumpy Fergie” for years on end, I think it would get to me as well.  I might also figure what the heck ? I can’t do anything right anyway so why try ?

My opinions on the Duchess of York’s personal journey will, in the end, be only that.  My opinions.  Some random blogger sitting in her living room, in a quiet little town in Ontario, passing comment on someone’s life to whom I could never hope to relate.  Will I tune in again ?  I think so.  I think there will be useful life lessons for me as well.  The first being there should only be one conductor on my life train and that would be me.  No picture-taking, paper pushing, royal butt kisser is going to be at the controls of my trip.

While I will never be Royal, though some might argue I have monarchial tendencies, and I don’t aspire to be a celebrity, I do hope to live a life to be proud of.  One that I do not have to work too hard to redeem myself from when it reaches its inevitable destination.  I hope that for her sake, Sarah Ferguson embraces the opportunity she has been given to get control of her life.  Royalty, or celebrity, or both, it cannot be a fairytale to be constantly careening down the tracks of life towards a perpetually washed out bridge.  We all need some support now and again.  Some need steel girders and others just need a hug.  When the whole world is watching to see if you poop – I’d take both.