7.22.2007


Tammy Faye as Ghandi

I Geniunely Love You



The mess and scandal of Jim and Tammy Faye had always left me wondering about her. How much can someone convince herself that what she witnesses her husband doing is right? However oblivious she might be to her own mechanications, it's hard not to notice a mate's actions--and, with the veil-lifting effect of time--judge them.

But Tammy Faye, having divorced Jim after 30 years of marriage, married another ex-con. She explained that her mother had always told her life wasn't fair. This can be interpreted in so many ways. In her world view--often obscured my clumping mascara applied liberally to that fake fringe--perhaps Jim didn't really do anything wrong. Nor Messner. Handed lemons, you make lemonade, extoll the media reports, as if that had anything to do with it. But seeing her on Larry King, 65 pounds, eyes done in the same mask, hair brittle and fritzed from chemo but still a reminder of her salonified style, she did seem to be--content. She said, directly to the camera (this is on the last day of her life) I'd like to say that I geniunely love you. And I genuinely care. And I want to see you in heaven someday. I want you to find peace, and I want you to find joy. So maybe it wasn't all an act after all.