What is famous simply for being famous? We have celebrity chefs who put much more emphasis on the celebrity than the chef, rappers who don’t write their own lyrics and singers who can’t sing!
With a significant percentage of high school children (yes, they are still children) believing that they will someday be famous. In a recent MTV poll (because when I think ‘Accurate polling’ the first thing that pops into my mind is MTV!) 25% of teenagers think that they will be famous. Stunning. I wonder how many of them think it will be for hard work they are doing now.
Schwarzenegger was already bulking up by 14, many Olympians are facing ruination towards then end of puberty and song/dance sensations frequently have peaked and disappeared into reality TV by 30. It would seem that those things most likely to lead to fame would be evident and marked by the teen years. Sure, nuclear physicists and brain surgeons haven’t even started on the core of their training until well past the legal age to buy a bottle of brandy but how many of them can you name?
Fame, itself, as a goal seems most peculiar. Notice that more and more fame seems to be a goal instead of a side effect of excellence. Fame was, at one time not too long ago, a consequence of some quality or combination of qualities pursued for their own sake. To be the best baseball player or to be able to entertain through some skill was the goal and fame frequently followed. It is almost unheard of today to find a talented individual who has no ambition to take their chosen practice no further than an intimate jazz club or local park. Total domination of the pop charts and early draft choices would seem to be the only worthwhile conclusion if we listened to our youth.
How did an entire generation come to celebrate fame rather than excellence? It is like taking a medication for the side effects. “You know Bob, I don’t care if it keeps me from being depressed or not, the hair loss and burning diarrhea are the real benefits.” Can you imagine?
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Fame
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna live forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly
High
I feel it coming together Fame
People will see me and cry
I'm gonna make it to heaven
Light up the sky like a flame
Fame
I'm gonna live forever
Baby remember my name
(Music and Lyrics by Ray Boltz)
I was a teenager when I first heard the song “Fame” and I still remember how it connected with what seemed like all my friends’ dream at the time - to do something, be something, something, or leave something behind that would be remembered forever.
There’s something in the song that connects with all human beings. We want people to remember our names, don’t we? I know I’ve never met anyone who said, “I hope my life turns out to be a meaningless, purposeless collage of failed attempts to be remembered for something.”
But how does one go about lighting up the sky like a flame? Do we have to have mad music and dancing skills? Do we have to attend a special school and look like Abercrombie and Fitch models?
Well, that would definitely rule me out.
I understand that even the highest level of recognition and celebrity status will eventually fade away, so that all the attempts to live forever will eventually be thrown into the dump bin of human history.
It’s too bad that so many people believe the lie that fame equals happiness and desire to leave a mark on the world and use it for themselves.
Here is my advice:
Take fame off your agenda and instead live to somehow enhance the human race. It is then you attach yourself to something great. And if you do have special abilities, you can use the applause of the crowd to bring attention to the imperfections of human interactions of the world and help eliminate them.