Stars and Celebrity

It used to be that when you called someone a Star it meant something. It meant that they had reached a level of fame or accomplishment in their field. Think of Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig in baseball or Cary Grant and John Wayne in the movies. We knew a star because they did something that stood out above the normal. That being said I take exception to the new show NBC is touting that they call “Stars Earn Stripes”.  To call Todd Palin a ‘star’ is ludicrous. Dean Cain is a fine journeyman actor but I don’t think he is a ‘star’.  And the other participants are not what you can call the best in their fields. The exception is Gen. Wesley Clark who was once the commander of NATO. I’m guessing that he’s in it purely for the money and is laughing all the way to the bank.

I once heard the phrase that he who praises everyone praises no one. If Todd Palin qualifies as a star how do we classify Michael Phelps. People who are famous for being famous, think Paris Hilton or the Kardashians, did nothing to earn their fame. They rode in on the coat tails of family fame or notoriety. Conrad Hilton built a chain of hotels and Robert Kardashian was a well thought of attorney. The fact that they were at the top of their field should not make their progeny celebrities.

When my niece and nephew were kids and we would talk to them about movies and the actors who appeared in them we told them that some actors were stars and some stars were actors BUT not all actors were stars. Spencer Tracey was an actor who was a star too. John Wayne was a star who acted. Frank Faylen, Thomas Mitchell and Edgar Buchanan were all fine actors and none of them were stars.  

Stars had qualities the put them above the rest. We have diminished the term STAR when we apply it to people who have done nothing to earn the title. Please folks Lets be sure someone deserves title before we apply it to them.

That’s my rant for the day. You may now return to your normal activities.   

Possibilities

     Did you ever get a word stuck in your head? For the better part of a week the word Possibilities has been stuck in mine.
     The thing is we are faced with endless possibilities each and every day. The possibility we have to say 'Good Morning' to a stranger, or a friend, and bring a smile to someone's face or to pass someone and say nothing and let them continue on, feeling invisible to the rest of the world.
     We have infinite possibilities as to the food we eat, the books we read the shows we watch and the movies we see. Our choices may bring us joy, hope, love or even death.
     The dictionary defines a possibility as something that may be, exist or happen. Once upon a time we were all a possibility. What if your mother or father had not believed in the possibility of love?
     We think of about the "What if's" of life and play with possibilities. What would we do if we won the lottery? What would happen if we were brave enough to say hello to that stranger? It's easy and fun to do when we consider the future but can be sad and depressing when we play that game with the past. What if they hadn't taken that turn? What if they had gone to the movie on a different night? What if I made that phone call or had said I was sorry?
          We don't know what the future holds and the past has already happened and must be borne. But the next time you you need to make a choice think of all the wonderful things that may happen. You may meet someone who will bring joy and love into your life. And the possibility may make you brave and change your life for the better.  

"Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult." 
— Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire)
"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." 
— Anaïs Nin (The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934)

Happily Ever After?

     I recently wrote a short story and I ended it with the corny old line..."And they lived happily ever after".
     When I was a child and someone read a story with that ending it usually meant the heroine married her prince and they went off to live in happiness and splendor for the remainder of their lives. But then I started to think just what that line means these days.
     When I was in my twenties and friends were getting married it meant a wonderful wedding and honeymoon followed by the newlyweds getting out of that first apartment, moving into a home and having children.
     When the thirties hit living happily meant having a decent job, travelling and visiting with married friends and their growing families on those rare occasions when they had a free day to spend chatting and catching up.
     In my forties living happily, note the "Ever After" is now long gone, meant that parents, if you still had them, were healthy and thriving and that the teenagers or young adults in your life were interested in the world around them and not self obsessed or substance abusers.  
     By the time I reached my fifties my friends and I prayed that our jobs held out till we reached  retirement age. We put as much money into saving for retirement as was possible and hoped the people that ran the banks and stock market don't screw up too badly. My friends prayed their kids were able to keep their jobs and either finally move out or that they don't move back. We all prayed for the strength to take care of the people we love that might need us in a crisis. And we prayed for no crisis to strike.
     Once the sixties happened I learned that for me living happily meant loosing my job, collecting Social Security, and living my life honestly. For me that meant coming out. (Yes...in case you've been living under a rock, I'm a lesbian.)
     Along the line I learned that even in a life that is relatively happy there are losses. Parents and their contemporaries die. You lose friends to death and circumstances and sometimes the loss will rock you to your foundation. But you get up and keep getting up and eventually you start looking for happiness again.
     For me happiness was discovering facebook and communities of women with interests similar to mine. It means finding friends on the other side of the world. It means having time to read wonderful books. It means time to write a couple of stories of my own.
So did I get my "Happily Ever After"? Not quite all of it but then my story isn't over yet.
     I see a lot of happiness on the horizon. Friends are still falling in love so I know that the possibility  exists. My family moves into the future with my niece expecting her first child come October. And the people I love are healthy.
    You can't ask for a lot more than that.