Consider This

By LC Van Savage

Can someone out there explain to me, please, why people are in such a swivet about the $2800 price tag cost of Madonna’s jump suit, running suit (whatever they’re called now) she wore to the Republic of Malawi, Africa to negotiate the adoption of a little girl called “Mercy”? Have we so much spare time on our hands that we have to waste it making a huge fuss about things like that? Why is that such a big deal? The woman, like her or not, actually earned the money to buy that outfit, after all. And by the way, do the people in Malawi really know or care about the cost of those trappings and her wide brimmed straw hat too? I really doubt it. But apparently we do in America.

As for me, I like Madonna. She was and is a person who is unafraid to step out of the line. She’s run her life her way, all the way, offending many, pleasing more. And as you know by now, I’m impressed by people who shake off the reins and go on their own journeys. Is she a great performer? I have no clue. Her voice was way too weak to belt out the signature song in “Evita” but so what? The woman worked and works hard for the money and frankly I think she’s a riot. She reminds me of a little girl writing dirty words on the sidewalk with chalk and then running away when she thinks she’s about to get caught.

OK, so her choreography choices in a couple of her videos were maybe a little unusual, a bit over the top, offensive to those of certain faiths. But who knows? Perhaps Lady M. was railing against her own religious upbringing, which maybe discouraged free thinking, insisting that natural feelings and thoughts and open discussions were sinful. Perhaps this was her way of responding to all of that.

Yes, she did “write” a stupid book called “Sex” where she appeared non occulta a whole lot. I wonder; when her kids find it, and they surely will, either hidden or handed to them by peers, what will they ask their mother? “Hey Mom! Look at this book I just found! Is that you??? Mommy!! You don’t even let me take my socks off in public. Ma!” Hey, we all make dumb mistakes when we’re young and angry, but the book was a waste of money anyway. Badly put together, it fell apart almost immediately. Very poor binding. Bad job. (Or so I’m told.) But, we should stand in judgment of that book? Have you ever seen Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s early sketches of the ladies of the Moulin Rouge? Great art, right? Maybe. Pure porn, definitely. But he’s a famous, accepted artist now, so those sketches of his are looked at with great favor and gasps of delighted adulation. Madonna’s salacious, ragged book is perhaps no better, no worse. Art is in the beholding, after all.

So Madonna now wants to adopt little Mercy out of Africa. If the adoption ever goes through, the four year old will be Madonna’s second adopted child. (She has two bio kids.) Alas however, it appears all is moot; she’s been turned down for now. Is this a good thing or bad? Should a child be adopted and taken away from h/h native land and spend a lifetime perhaps never having learned of h/h birth culture? Don’t many adoptive parents today make sure their “kids from away” learn of their heritages? Their native traditions? Will Madonna do that if she in fact finally gets Mercy? And will she be under the microscope a whole lot more than a non-famous adoptive couple? Of course.

When and where I grew up, adoptions were very private, quiet matters. If a child was adopted, people knew, but it was not spoken about much. Some couples were extremely uptight and fearful about their secret being discovered and would never “admit” their child was adopted. I recall one family in NJ who panicked and moved whenever it became a threat that their dear little son’s biological parentage would be discovered, like being adopted was shameful or something. I don’t think they even wanted him to ever find out. Maybe back then people were ashamed that they could not conceive in the normal way. I don’t know. I have one very dear friend whose adoptive parents were tested and found to have nothing out of sorts, but their internal girls and boys just could not meet up and make a child. So they went and got my pal and she got herself two terrific parents and then they went and got my pal a great brother too, so it worked out very well for all four of them.

There’s a lot of controversy about wealthy showbiz people adopting kids from way, way away and I wonder why. Could part of the problem be that people without pots of money and who therefore have to face a huge financial struggle when they decide to adopt a child from another country, feel some anger that it is so much financially easier on the people with unlimited funds to adopt? Sure. It must. Who wouldn’t resent that?

But does that mean that when people like Madonna want to take a child into their homes and give them an extraordinary life that it should be disallowed? Do financially challenged people make better parents than very rich parents do? I don’t think so. Wealthy and not wealthy couples can make great or not so great parents. Should Madonna be pilloried for having the wherewithal to hop on a private plane with an entourage while wearing a $2800 jump suit and jet off to adopt a parentless child with whom she’s fallen in love and wishes to give a great new life? Again, I do not think so. Yes, we all know of focused, dedicated couples who have sacrificed far more than they can ever possibly afford to become parents to kids out there who need them; all color kids. More and more often we see these families, and it just simply gladdens.

Also, is it bad for Madonna to want another child from a foreign country? Considering that no one can adopt all the very deserving, suffering and terribly needy kids in the world, is it not a good thing that at least one at a time be saved? Should we not applaud those who work to save at least one child? I vote yes.

So perhaps it’s time we publish far more important things in our newspapers and blogs and stop making such a scene about Madonna’s sartorial choices. Look. Let’s stop judging Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. She’s done some outrageous things which frankly Mongo and I think were and are pretty funny, but let’s move on. The woman is in her forties now and in a new incarnation, the reinventing of The Madonna Thing. She may be the mother of the year. She may not, but surprise! She apparently thinks having and adopting kids and giving them great lives is important and good. I am fully supportive of her. Is she a great performer? Do I know? Does that have anything to do with her being a good mother? Does her clothing have anything to do with her being a good mother? Someday, if Madonna gets her wish, we can perhaps ask Mercy directly how it all worked out.