Reality can be a bitch. Reality TV, on the other hand, isn’t really REAL; it’s like a stuffed bunny you can place in any position, ears back, head up and now pour all your painful yearnings onto its fake fur. Fancy housewives all over the country rarely actually flip tables, giving us a glimpse into their true selves. But Anthony Bourdain was somebody everybody liked without knowing him personally – his TV personality and his writings were so authentic, so real.
Yesterday, in a storm of furniture shopping for Great Grandma Ada’s new digs, the Bride and I paused for lunch and sat in the sweltering heat outside of Whole Foods. It was better to glow a little than freeze to death inside the store. We watched as two young people with headsets kept putting grocery carts in the parking spaces right in front of us, talking to their own heads all the while. Finally the Bride had had enough, she asked the purple-headed girl what they were up to, since she could smell a film crew.
They were setting up for a reality show!
Not wanting to be a backdrop for their fantasy, and speculating on just which reality show, we proceeded to the next store where I fell in love with a chair. Yes, this thing can happen with me. Bob just doesn’t get it, he could live out of a suitcase in a hotel anywhere and be perfectly happy. Which is exactly what we thought of Bourdain on his reality travelogue “Parts Unknown.” We all watched with awe as he ate Vietnamese food with President Obama. We saw him dive for shellfish that he discovered had been planted just for his camera by a fisherman.
Here was a guy who pulled NO punches. He was fearless and indestructible, a Hemingway of a man! And like Hemingway it seems he took his own life at the age of 61 in a hotel room in France. Coming on the heels of Kate Spade’s suicide, aka Katherine Noel Frances Valentine Brosnahan, we mere mortals are left wondering just what makes life worth living? When does our public persona stop aligning with our true selves?
Great Grandma Ada will be moving to parts unknown soon, and although I sense she is ready, many of her friends and extended family are not eager to relinquish her wise and comforting presence. She will be missed. But a long time ago she lived in the South and raised two little boys here when her first husband, the one who shall NOT be named, was serving in the military. And her family lives here, in reality and with alacrity! With basketball games, hockey teams, the ballet and symphony a short Uber ride away. The Frist Art Museum is right down the road! http://fristartmuseum.org
We are always asked to reinvent ourselves as we grow, to adapt to new surroundings. To bloom where we are planted. I have no doubt our matriarch, with the true love of her life the Grand Marshall Great Grandpa Hudson, will make Nashville home.
If you or someone you love has been experiencing suicidal ideation, you can text:
HOME to 741741 or call 1-800-273-8255
MountainMornings 
Your writing is always outstanding!