A new Dawn

Some of you may remember my dear friend Dawn on Survivor a couple of seasons ago. While I was in England for seven weeks shooting Austenland, she was in the Philippines for seven weeks shooting Survivor. Though we didn't know it at the time. She was super secret.

Well, she's back in this season's Survivor: Caramoan! They're several episodes in, but if you want recaps, I love what Dalton Ross does at EW.

I love watching the show and rooting for a friend, but the most interesting part for me is reading what others (viewers, contestants voted off) say about Dawn. It's cool and it's heartbreaking. And a good reminder to me that what we see on TV isn't the whole story. Dawn is one of the best people I know. She is the first person in the neighborhood to notice a need and go rushing in to help. She genuinely loves and cares about people. She and her awesome husband adopted six awesome kids. She's very intelligent and funny and witty. But from watching a 45-minute show edited for some other purpose, you can't see her whole personality. You get an incomplete and sometimes false picture. This realization has made me less inclined to judge anyone I don't know by what a TV show or article or books shows me. I always wonder, but what's left out?

Of course this isn't only true of those visible in the media, is it? I mean, how well do I really know anyone? A few minutes here or there, edited out of their whole life. I have no right to judge anyone. I can't see their whole picture. I can't understand all that's going on inside their head.

Just my quick musing on a Monday morning amid a crazy book deadline. Time to go get inside my characters' heads...