Why is it That Orange is The New Black?

Through a week binge, my computer has been surrendered to the sound of Netflix's new series Orange is The New Black. I have watched as the main (yet under-bearing) character, Piper Chapman, weaves her way through a year in prison. Of course at the time my more-than-friend man urged me to watch, he was most likely unaware of the effect it would have. Not only do I want to spend a year in lock up to see what exactly the experience would bring, but this show is changing my life.

For those struck queasy by the scenes of lesbian interaction, I am telling you now, it is natural and the smallest part of this web series' large picture. Once you look past that you are confronted with the thoughts of life, love, and how we are all the same. 

During a visitation day Piper is talking with her upper class, overly dressed mother and makes the comment "I am no different than anyone else in here." This show has done a fantastic job of  explaining that these women are locked up because they made choices, and in life we all make choices. Many of them are very real: The track star who got caught in a robbery, the woman who killed a rapist, even the yogi who accidentally shot a child in mistake for a deer ransacking her farm.

We make the choice to get an education or we make the choice to forego it. We chose to be solid in our faith, or to stray from a higher power. To walk the path of straight and narrow or do what we must to survive. 

I do believe we have the choice to make our future, but I am starting to see that perhaps there is a part left to fait. These women, they are a server case of what can happen when you are left to fight on your own. But the whole reason this series exist is because a middle class blonde got herself wrapped up in young love in the form of a money smuggling transport. 

She is no different than the other inmates, and we are no different than them. Sure there is an obvious divide, we are not behind bars and they are, but frankly that is where it ends. In the end we are all pushing for a dream, some of us just have a taller step stool to start out on. 

Life is spent justifying things. Finding the true meaning behind things. Understanding why you are in the situation you are in. But what if it was more about seeing and less about being? If we eliminated the harsh thoughts of being better than someone and started living as one. If we put chasing our dreams at the forefront, and the critique of others at the back of the line.

We are all fighting for the same thing. We are all fighting to survive.