Like a moth to flame, we love Bad. As a society, we gravitate towards its particular unspoken charisma like any lustful attraction, even though our inner voice, (what, you can’t hear that inner voice over the incessant looping of; insert-any-Brittany-Spears-song- here, in your head—uh, yeah, sorry about that), tells us to just walk away. Don’t look, don’t even turn on the t.v., just step away from the car, don’t slow down and stare at the accident up ahead on the road, don’t even go for a second Little Debbie, put down that bottle, and for heaven’s sake, don’t sleep with him/her—again! (Common sense tells us that you can easily chalk up the first time to being a mistake, but the second? Third? Ninetieth? No one will buy that, I promise, ever.)

My insatiable curiosity with Bad, and why it is so attractive to so many, prompted me to ask my Facebook friends, and their friends, and so on and so on; “Why do we love Bad?”, and though I was hoping for some really juicy bits and bots, I did get some very funny guilty pleasures—which precipitates my belief that Bad, like the National Enquirer or “Saved by the Bell” reruns or any reality show on today, feeds our soul in the exact same way as eating an entire box of Brown Sugar Pop Tarts, cold, in one sitting, nourishes your body.

My favorite “Bad” of so many really good Bads, was from a girlfriend in Portland Oregon, her Bad out of the bag, is her love for geriatric crime fighters

“I can't help it. I've tried to fight it over the years but” Murder she wrote”, “Diagnosis Murder” and “Matlock” draw me back in. I used to sneak it, too embarrassed to watch during the day, not even my husband knew of my love till after we were married. I remember fondly one day when I was sick and a bit blue, I turned on the tube at just the right time.... and... the doctor from “Diagnosis Murder” was on “Murder She” wrote as a special guest... as himself… an expert witness!!! OMG that was a good day.
There, I said it.”

See, she feels better all ready, and so do I. Bad can be good, if it makes you feel good, and why, often it does, and not just in the Scheudenfruede kind of way. And though initially, I was hoping for some really nasty Bads, like why I am addicted to smack, furry mascot porn or blouses with shoulder pads, what I received was mostly “Pedestrian Bad”, and in hindsight, I really shouldn’t be so surprised. “Pedestrian Bad” is as rampant as goods made in China at Wal-Mart. It is a highly acceptable level of Bad that is almost so bad that it becomes good by default. The temptation of Bad has been around since the garden of eden, or snow white, (either or, if you buy into that kind of stuff, or if you are a bad heathen type like me) we still know historically it has been around for as long as Good, if not longer, and for good or for bad, Bad is here to stay. Maybe I just need to embrace my Bad (ugh, I did not just say “my bad” in a sentence-oh so sorry about that), I certainly like enough of it though—maybe with some practice, I can turn my Bad into good, hmm…just like turning a frown upside-down.

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