Celebrity

Celebrity ~ I read this recently and it quickened my observation over a growing preoccupation with celebrity status

   "Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools," the author said,

  "That's 37,000 valedictorians... 37,000 class presidents... 92,000 harmonizing altos... 340,000 swaggering jocks ... 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs. But why limit ourselves to high school? After all, you're leaving it. So think about this: Even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you.”

The point he was driving at was to get real and consider what values serve the long term success of living well.

 That it was not the deceptive accumulation of unearned compliments and half-truths. All of that as extrinsic prizes and motivations; to gain praise, even false praise, was the lifeblood of celebrity. It is more than common to hear life distilled to being opportunity. Another way of saying to mature; to develop a strong sense of self-confidence that can only be earned by recognizing shortcomings and dealing with disappointments and failures.  I found that to be true through my own experiences.  I learned very little from my successes, it was my failures that strengthened my resolve, my adaptive abilities and my innovative skills.  There is a middle ground where "how things are" and "how things can be" meet.  It is at that middle point where growth happens.

   'one of the best' is just a phrase, so we can feel better about ourselves, so we can bask in a little easy distinction, however vague and unverifiable, and count ourselves among the elite, whoever they might be, and enjoy a perceived leg up on the perceived competition.  But the phrase defies logic. By definition there can be only one best.  You're it or you're not.

Yet the advice to get over yourself goes deeper toward the importance of pursuing passions for the sake of passions, rather than seeking accolades or striking off items from an arbitrary checklist.  Accolades and list may tell us about accomplishments, but life is meant to be experienced, not just accomplished.  It is like the difference between reading books for the sake of reading books and reading books just to get a good grade.  Tell me, once you're done with school, are you then supposed to be done with reading books?

Focus less on being seen as special and instead understanding that living life is special in and of itself.

I like to remember that family and friends think the world of me-- for the most part, just about everyone else on this planet doesn't give a damn about me.  That's not mean or cruel, good nor bad, that's just the reality of life.  And that's OK-- everyone is special to someone, but no one is special to all.