Rosie O'Donnell

I discovered at Blogger Buzz, the new blog discussing Blogger, that Rosie O'Donnell has started a blog called "Once Adored" that I think is pretty cool because it's very human.

Now, I've never been a huge Rosie O'Donnell fan in terms of her comedy, her acting, or her TV show. If anything, I admired that a woman who isn't a size O made it in front of the camera. There was nothing I particularly disliked about her but her personality just seemed a little tough for me.

However, Rosie the person who's emerged into the public in the last handful of years is someone I admire more. I certainly don't agree with her on everything and her style is still not one I'm thrilled with (caveat: my style grates on me, too). Yet none of this takes away from the fact that she is a courageous woman who puts her energies where her loud mouth is.

With her TV show, she had a very good thing going. It took a lot of guts to decide that she would stop when she did, that she was no longer content with being one person "on screen" and another in the rest of her life, and continue that stance even after she became the butt of many jokes. She made an enormous amount of money and could have simply taken the money and gone into obscurity. She didn't.

One criticism I've often heard repeated about Rosie is that since she came out, she "pushes her sexuality in our faces". But I don't think that's true. After the "secret" was out of the bag regarding her homosexuality, the media was eager to talk with her; it was a curiosity. After all, if she shut up, she might have kept riding the gravy train. The media was the one who treated us to non-stop lesbian discussion and if Rosie had refused to play, they would have pursued this regardless.

Yet practicing an alternative lifestyle (now there's a phrase) is just one part of the whole woman. She believes in peace. She obviously cares very much about her role as a mother to four children and about being a decent citizen of the world. She clearly considers her life a journey to learn more and she's struggling right along with the rest of us who've decided to take that path rather than just sit home watching TV. Just like the rest of us, she soars at times and sinks other times.

Yeah, I think Rosie O'Donnell the human being is a whole lot more three-dimensional, interesting, and deserving of respectul attention that Rosie the celebrity was. I'm glad she's blogging and I expect to stop over there once in awhile.