It’s only make believe

I love Joan Jett.  Now to be clear-- she is not my girlfriend and I’ve never even met her—but I do love her music, songs and the songs of other artists she’s performed.  Her music is real.  And Joan Jett is real.

‘Fake Friends’ is one of my favorite short songs put out by this long time rock n roller.  It came to my mind when I heard about the Manti Te’o story last Wednesday and I’ve been humming many of her tunes for the past week.  

In case you are not aware of the Manti Te’o saga, it is a strange and lengthy story that was brought to light most notably on Deadspin.com here.  The ordeal begs many questions and offers few answers about the Notre Dame star linebacker’s fabricated sweetheart, Lennay Kekua, who was thought to have been in an automobile accident, slipped into a coma, then recovered to be diagnosed with leukemia and died the day after Te’o’s grandmother also died.

Problems arose when she turned up alive.  Evidently due to the contagiously high desire to attend the ball games played at South Bend, Indiana, and on the road, Te’o and seemingly no one else ever really visited her in the hospital or had ever really gone to her funeral services.  Whereas, I suppose, if they had made some trips they would have found out that she wasn’t in the hospital and she didn’t die.  It was a glitch that they figured out during an investigation a few months later, around the time the season was winding down.  

It’s pretty wild stuff…right? 

It got me to think that many of you who read my posts have never met me and may wonder if I am real.  After all some of you live in other states or other countries, so it’s plausible that ‘Christopher’ could be non-existent as well. 

But of course that is not the case, for I am Christopher, real and a realist.  All along I thought that fabricating someone’s existence and their death while deluding a large group of people was reserved nearly exclusively for sitcoms like Seinfeld.  Yet truth trumps fiction once again and we learn that such a grand hoax can be developed using electronic messages, a few pictures, the media and either an extremely clever or extremely inept target. 

Few in the media seem to know what questions to ask because the events are so bizarre it’s difficult to relate to or approach with sincerity.  I’ve only seen snippets from Katie Couric’s interview with Manti and from what I’ve seen Katie hasn’t uncovered much.  Making the headlines is that she asked him if he is gay.  

Forget about being gay or not I want to know how all the other people in his life were fooled down the line as well.  In my world, no matter who dies if I tell my mother she calls me back in two hours asking where she can send flowers and a donation.  Besides crying on Katie Couric’s set, what did Te’o’s parents do in the aftermath of Te’o’s and their loss?  There is more missing here than being presented.  

And the voice mails that have been released are ludicrous.  I genuinely hate to try to get inside the head of a person thinking irrationally.  But why, when Te’o himself is at least the one person who knows he never met Lennay, does he not run for the hills after Lennay leaves a crying message wrought with anxiety over another girl possibly being with him?  They had never met, she’s crying and jealous and he’s not scared?  And he’s willing to go back for more?  I vote guilty by reasons of insanity or guilty by come on already. 

If I were sitting across an armchair from Manti Te’o I would want to know why he waited until after the Crimson verse Clover BCS Title Game was played on Jan 7^th to address any of this to the public when it had actually been known back in December, as reported here and he now admits. 

Does he hate himself for loving her? 

Or does he want us to believe he was just a victim of circumstance.

 

Will he need to keep ever more focused on football and not give a damn about his reputation?

  
Maybe he even needs a break from love, for love is pain.  

Would he have liked it if someone in the studio offered to provide him with a tour and remind him that love is all round, no need to fake it?  

I really did hope that writing would provide me the distraction needed to clear my head of the tunes, but still I feel the beat.  At least I can look forward to a fresh round of melodies between my ears as I set off to get some sleep.

Can you hear it too? 

…I kiss and you kiss…and la de da de da de da…I’m in love but it’s only make believe to you…oh yeah…..

© 2013 Christopher’s Views