The Duggar situation is nothing short of a bizare tragedy. My head spins as I consider that Jim Bob and Michelle really thought that they could have an honest reality show with such a secret in their history.  I believe the reason the fall has been so hard and so fast is because their entire enterprise is based on the pretense that reality TV is actually real. It just isn’t.

Real is what the Duggars dealt with when this horrible thing happened in their family. It’s the nasty stuff you and I deal with in the midst of the beautiful and magnificent in our own families.

Real is understanding that having a child is a big responsibility and if you choose to have loads of them, you may just not end up living like the Duggars. Your real may mean you will be poor and on welfare rather than living in a big house, driving Hummers and going on expensive vacations.

Real is falling in the midst of succeeding.

Real is living in a world that is often horrible but just as often utterly amazing.

19 Kids and Counting isn’t a REALITY show but the Duggars are real people.

The show is a production – with producers and those running cameras and arranging sets and planning the script (yes, there is one)

The show is pretending that this really bad thing wouldn’t ever surface because it was dealt with. Real is that it did.

Real is hard.

BUT here’s the hope for these people with souls just like yours and just like mine.

If the Duggars can fully process these events of their life…

just maybe,

like Florida Scott Maxwell says,

they may…

“become fierce with reality”.