Not Everyone Can Live the Perfect Life
Let’s lay off the guilt trips, shall we?
Ever watch The Price is Right? That insanely long-running game show where overly-caffeinated contestants try to correctly guess supermarket item prices in order to win lavish prizes?
When I was a kid, I hate-watched that show with a vengeance. Whenever I had a day off from school, I’d tune in to find out what the episode’s Showcase Showdown prizes would be — a luxurious dining room set? A high-end barbecue grill? A jet ski?
As the winner jumped up and down, hysterically screaming, arms flapping, I’d seethe. I was aware, even back then, that the Showcase Showdown wasn’t meant for me. Age aside (I was 10), I knew I couldn’t bring those sparkly items home.
My mother and I lived in the projects. We didn’t have a dining room for a table, let alone an entire furniture set. There was no backyard for a grill. And unless the jet ski could get my mom to and from one of her three jobs, it was pretty much useless.
It felt to 10-year-old me as if the show’s producers forgot there was an entire population out there who maybe couldn’t fit a giant California King bed into their tiny studio, or house an 80" TV in their shoe-box of a living room. The premise of the show — guess the price of ordinary household items — made it…
