CARRIE ANN INABA: engagement

"One of the challenges of watching television is not to become cynical, and hard hearted. In the wake of the loss of moral compasses it is impossible for immature people to navigate through television programming and advertisements and find themselves, and have a solid grasp on the complexity of American life. They usually are tightly wrapped in mummy cloth with too many pieces of truth, and lies, and not enough analytical abilities, education or discernment and no control over the images threading through their minds into action. One of the losses of the soul for many American viewers is the profound conditions of covenant within marriage, and the ritual of covenant now dead to Christian practice and theology, but fundamental to the relationships between men in the old days of the nomadic Hebrew tribes, and important to women because it was part of a woman's survival mechanisms..."  ©Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Carrie Ann Inaba kissing fiance on Regis & Kelly show after his proposal & her acceptance !!!!

Carrie Ann Inaba's engagement story was a beautiful surprise on the Regis & Kelly show. If I hadn’t learned how to watch the Regis & Kelly show I would’ve missed it. For most of its time on television the show turned me off. It was a show for older white middle class Americans to be amongst their own with their white hair entertained by someone who reflected their value system. Every group deserves their own and I wouldn’t begrudge them that. It just wasn't for me until a few years ago when Kathy Lee Gifford was co-hosting and her effervescence caught me up in Tinker Bell dust and her enthusiasm, and the fun she exuded tasted good. It felt good. Regis Philbin himself remained uninteresting though not as dull, conservative and predictable as Wheel of Fortune host, Pat Sajak until Regis' wife, Joy, hosted the show one day. My God! I couldn't see the man until I saw his wife!

Elegant, fine, beautiful, articulate, intelligent, supportive, understanding, cultivated married to a man who, for me, symbolized an era, and body of white male energy cloaked in the smart sophistication white men enjoyed in Jim Crow days. Flaunting their masculinity, and silently condoning socially inappropriate modalities that did not benefit Black people, for example, Black men had to employ defense mechanisms to psychological combat the social expectations of their manhood. In the light of these times, the 21st century, simple-minded people cannot grasp what I’m saying, but it takes a man to see another man through the woman who married him. She carries the story of who he is at the deeper levels that are behind the image he projects into the mind of another, and the world, if he is a celebrity. ©Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Joy Philbin & husband Regis at premiere of SEX & THE CITY 2010