Spent a large part of tonight ignoring the news, worry over my daughter, just hospitalized with complications after a series of miscarriages, and so on, and actually found music on that TV channel I recently renamed CUM-TV.

            Reba and Kelly Clarkson were doing a Crossroads episode, and I turned the tube on in time to catch “Does He Love You?”  Reba did the song originally with Linda Davis, in a spectacular video that ends with sweet revenge.

            I’m not a Kelly Clarkson fan; it’s not that I don’t like her, it’s that I’ve avoided American Idol like the plague, and generally listen to country or the (older) romantic Spanish music when I do listen, so I really don't know her.  Reba pretty much hung the moon; her songs are great and she had horses.  Barrel-raced, in fact.  People who know me understand that to me, being a horse person moves you way up in front of everyone else, and if you throw in terrific songs, it’s hard to fall out of favor with me.

            If Reba ever disappointed me, it was on her version of “A Wonderful Guy” from South Pacific; as is often the case with musicals, the first performance we see or hear sticks with us, and I grew up with Mary Martin’s portrayal of Nelly from Arkansas.  But mostly, Reba is one of those few artists incapable of doing songs I won’t eventually love, and I even have her South Pacific songs on my perpetual play list.  And of all the Reba songs I love, "Does He Love Me?" is right up there in the top 1 or 2.

            So, I was delighted not to have missed the duet, although the irony pricked at me as they sang: does he love her?  Women who are cheated on, women who are cheated with—the question plays over and over, and the women, far too frequently, become the next Laci Peterson or Jessie Davis.

            Most women who have relationships with married men believe the man loves them, not the wife.  The wife usually wins—if you call keeping an unfaithful, lying husband at home a win.  Unfortunately, though, many women lose everything.  In Jessie’s case, it was the other woman who suffered the harshest betrayal, which happens, too.  What almost never happens is that the man changes, becomes a decent, devoted, husband and everyone lives happily ever after.

            My kids occasionally (okay, frequently) point out with some glee that while I’m a huge country fan, the music often exults in two things I abhor: cheating and drinking stupidly.  Luckily, I can just hurl their defense back at them: it’s about the music, not the message.  None of us believe it, but they’ll usually wander off and leave me alone.

            In spite of the irony of listening to “Does He Love You?” on the day Jessie’s body was positively identified, watching Reba and Kelly called me back into the music.  Much as I like the video, the duet was infinitely better—Reba and Kelly were such perfect foils.  Watching Reba do the song without costumes and make-up showed why she could wow Broadway, and Kelly had the husband-stealing other woman attitude down pat.

            So, for awhile, I let the music take me away from the message, an awful day’s night, from all of it.  That’s what music should do, I guess…take us away from ourselves.