Originally, this column was going to be a commentary on the recently published book “Through the Storm,” by Lynne Spears, mother of Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears.

I bought the book. I read it. I underlined comments and passages that I found hard to swallow. I had a catchy headline: “Through the Storm of Being Lynne Spears Daughter;” and a controversial angle: How can a mother proclaim her innocence when she’s exploiting her own daughters to prove it?

But here I am, sitting in front of my laptop with the soon-to-be bargain-shelved book beside me. And as easy as it would be to call out Momma Spears for being naive, I’m unable to let go of a much deeper subtext hidden within the pages of this superficial story about the downside of fame.

I’m about to take a huge jump here, but stick with me. The underlying message of this poorly written tell-all says a lot about our country’s economic crisis. I know, how can I leap from Lynne Spears and Britney shaving her head to the $700+ billion bail out?

Here’s a mom who wrote a book that reads like a ninth-grader’s “What I did for summer vacation” essay. It’s filled with shallow stories and a lack of self-awareness.

Besides the constant dialogue about her ex-husband’s alcoholism, there is no exploration into the why and how things came to be for Lynne and her family. Things just seem to happen to her and to her children. Throughout the book, Lynne appears to be unable to acknowledge ownership of the circumstances within her life.

In the book, Lynne compares her commitment to taking Britney on TV show auditions to parents who are constantly transporting their kids to academic and athletic competitions. Lynne writes, “I wanted to help our child along the way, just like any parents who have driven hours to a soccer tournament and sacrificed their own weekend plans over and over again for a child. You tell me, what’s the difference? I sure wish I knew.”

The difference is that Lynne uprooted herself and her two daughters for months at a time to live in NYC and Orlando, leaving her son at home in Louisiana with an alcoholic father. Her youngest daughter, Jamie Lynn, was a toddler; Britney wasn’t even 15. She continued down this path, claiming that her biggest mistake was leaving Britney’s career — and life — in the hands of people who couldn’t be trusted.

It’s this lack of ownership that sticks with me and gets under my skin. You can’t expect to live a content life without owning the choices you make.

Just like Lynne helping her daughter chase the fame and fortune in the empty world of show business, we are a nation of consumers who spend beyond our means and borrow beyond our credit to create lifestyles full of image but devoid of substance. Our lives our defined by the cars we drive, the square footage of our houses and the stuff we have. And I’m not pointing fingers here — I’m using the word “we” as the collective whole, me included.

I’ve made the chase too, spending as much on a purse as I’ve spent on a week (or two?) worth of groceries; recklessly piling up things I want without a lot of digging into why I want them.

My point is that we have to own these mindless habits so that when the bottom drops, we can find our way out of making decisions that affect our peace of mind, mortgage loan status and credit report. You have to know where you started to have a realistic view of where you are.

“Through the Storm” offers very little in the way of explaining why things took such a dramatic downturn for the Spears family. The book is a glaring example on a personal level of what is happening to our society on a public level. It’s a clear reflection of how we suffer from the same rampant lack of awareness about the world around us and the choices we make.

We have become too comfortable with claiming an image over gaining any substance; we bemoan consequences without acknowledging or owning our own role in what led to the consequences.

Our national economy is in ruin. Financial numbers are being thrown around that are so astronomical we cannot grasp the weight of their worth. Nobody seems to know (or agree on) how we get out of this mess.

Maybe the best start is something Lynne Spears should have done years ago. Maybe it’s time to take responsibility for the choices we make and the people we trust, especially during an election year.



Amy Gesenhues lives in Floyd County and is a freelance writer who blogs daily at www.AmyWroteIt.Wordpress.com. You can e-mail her directly at amy@amywroteit.com.