Drama queens

With all the fake drama on big and little screens, as well as real drama going on in the world - the war in Iraq, one child dies in the world every 3 seconds from starvation and preventable diseases, the pathetic job done by the federal government rebuilding New Orleans, the lack of health care for millions of Americans and billions of people around the globe - it always amazes me when I see people creating completely unnecessary drama in their lives.

Gossip, spreading rumors - true and not true, betraying friends, lying, controlling others willing to be controlled, creating unnecessary conflict and wreaking havoc where there was none. All ways to create faux drama that unfortunately, actually dramatically affects and generally hurts others, sooner or later.

Including the drama queen himself or herself when he or she is found to be responsible for upending a life or two for no reason other than fear of losing control.

You can spot the drama queen because he or she usually moves in serial cliques, where he or she is seen as the Queen Bee. When the drama queen's mind games are discovered by the current clique and the DQ is rejected, it's time to move on to the next clique rather than understand what s/he needs to learn to stop this negative, hurtful behavior.

Interestingly, many drama queens aren't defined as drama queens because they appear to be so normal. Even attractive.

That's why I think it's great that Susan was finally unveiled as a drama queen on Desperate Housewives. She simply appeared to constantly be in a state of consternation over one romance or another. But in reality, she - and her drama queeniness (think: truthiness) - was the source of most of that broohaha.

Her need to maintain control of situations and other people in an effort to keep them from getting too close - and also to feel that good old familiar adrenaline rush when she pulls the strings to other people's lives, making her own more exciting.

The tough part comes when we feel we're to blame for all the craziness - the easy part comes when we realize who is *actually* responsible!

I prefer confining my drama to my scripts; my work is exciting enough for two people; my personal life is as boring as dishwater and I love it that way. Somehow, we still seem to stay pretty happy around here.

As I've pointed out so many times, all that stuff you see on the screens - big and little - might be intriguing and even funny entertainment at that distance, but it is absolutely no fun close up in real life! Me, I prefer to have fun in my personal and professional relationships.