looking the part

Many of you are probably aware I am a Dancing with the Stars fan (I'm not crazy obsessive, but I enjoy it), and after its debut I've been thinking about the rigors of training the celebrities and professionals undertake to succeed on such a show. And I just think, it would be really wild to be in a profession or a situation where your professional or situational success is so very closely tied to your personal health and hygiene.

Basically, these people are doing intense cardiovascular exercise that they need to be able to sustain in order to succeed. Can you just imagine it? Can you imagine your success as a professional being directly related to how healthy you are? How fit you are? How fast you can move? Or even, to some extent, what you look like?

I actually have been thinking about this for awhile, since (ahem) in our home we watched Shaq Versus this summer. For those of you who missed this televisionary summer gem, Shaquille O'Neil was so convinced of his excellence as an athlete that he challenged other athletes -- the best in their respective sports -- to take him on. He boxed against Oscar de la Hoya, he swam against Michael Phelps, he played volleyball on the beach against Kerri Walsh and Misty May.

I first started thinking about this when we were watching Kerri and Misty take on Shaq. Kerri had a baby like two months earlier, and Misty had an Achilles tendon issue and had been injured for months. Kerri still looked pretty fit, but Misty, surprisingly, didn't. She hadn't exercised for months! And here these gals were, gold medalists, now being put back into the spotlight and expected to be just as awesome as in their heyday. They, of course, kicked Shaq's pants, but it took some time for them to warm up and understandably they made mistakes along the way.

It just hit all me so strongly: These are people who are only good at their jobs if they are in shape, fit a certain physical profile, and are not injured! What pressure!

So who fits in this category? Any athlete. Any actor/actress. Any entertainer really (even singers, circus clowns, stuff like that). Fitness instructors, mountain climbers (Bear Grylls!), lifeguards, the list could go on.

I just think for me, it would be so hard to do something like that and not take it all so personally. How would you differentiate "yourself" from "your job" ?? You couldn't! Anytime you wanted to eat a piece of pizza, you'd have to realize that you'd pay for it on the volleyball court or dance floor.

Think about actors and actresses. They are expected to play a part, to turn themselves into someone else. Yet, most of the time, the "someone else" at least has the same physique and hair color and gender as their own person. But not always! Did you realize that the actress that plays Bella in the Twilight movies has green eyes? But the movie required brown eyes, so she wore contacts. And, did you know Renee Zellweger gained like 50 pounds or something to pay Bridget Jones? I never saw any of those movies, but I read an interview with her where she said how hard it was to gain weight, and she had to make herself eat donuts every day! I mean, wow! These ladies had to alter their personal person to fit the profile for their jobs.

I just think it's an interesting concept. I go to work, I sit in a desk, and my success is based on the intellectual decisions I make that help my company make money. These people, when they "go to work," their success is based on how they look, how well they perform, how fit they are.

And, if I can say one more thing about all this, didn't Kelly Osbourne just blow you away last night? For anyone who missed it.... generally, Dancing with the Stars has its favorites, its fan-favorites, and what I'd call its "throw away" contestants. There are people who are GOOD, people who are POPULAR, and people who are there because the producers like to keep it interesting, but we know they won't win.

Kelly Osbourne, Ozzy Osbourne's daughter, would totally be put in the last category, right? She is punky, she's a rocker, her hair was pink for crying out loud. She's a kid, she's overweight, she's been in this "box" her whole life, and no one would expect her to succeed on a show like this.

But holy cow, she blew everyone away last night. What she did on the dance floor was absolutely amazing, and all of us watching could not believe our eyes.

I think Kelly is an inspiration to all of us who feel like we have been put into a "category" for our lives, and who would love to break out, but it's too hard or too strange or we'd just take it too personally. She's amazing; she's using her body and willpower to do something no one would expect. She's taking a leap of faith that for once, she won't be judged on her intellect or personality (which one could argue is brusque at best anyway!), and instead how she looks and dances and entertains.

In any case, I suppose I'm grateful I have my personality and humor and intellect to get me by. It would take a lot of discipline to be an athlete or actor or circus clown or lifeguard. But on the other hand, I imagine it's rewarding to push your body to the limits and achieve something great. Maybe that's something I would like to experience. When I've given up donuts.