Fame is fleeting. I mean, who even remembers Sandy Duncan? She was pretty famous in her day. She had her very own TV Show, after all. And in the 1970s and appeared in a slew of dramas, sitcoms, and movies. But then it happened. The clock ticked one more tock and she sort of faded away. I bet most people today don’t even know who she is. Ask anyone under the age of 50 about her name and they’ll probably say she’s some kind of new Girl Scout Cookie. The Sandy Duncan.
The world is full of famous people who are not so famous any longer. I wonder what it is like for them, to have all that notoriety, that attention, that status, and then to drift into quiet obscurity. Perhaps they like it that way.
These days, people are absolutely mad when it comes to fame. The ones who have really done nothing other than being rich. No singing of beautiful songs. No hitting baseballs out of parks. No acting so convincingly it brings us to tears. Nope, nope, and nope. They are just the ones — and the Kardashians come to mind — who are famous for absolutely no reason at all. What happened? Did they eat some magic soup or something? Are there really Fairy Godmothers and they got a hold of one, somehow?
Our society has an entire culture of “Influencers.” I’m not even sure what this is, but they are everywhere, making large amounts of money. I imagine they are somehow influencing young people to do what they do, look like they look, to buy what they sell. I guess I’m too old and weathered to fall for that hook. But there seems to be a whole new level of obsession with the famous and with the quest to achieve fame. This is largely due to our very connected world, a swirling superstorm of social media and online forums.
My nearest touch with this is the fringes of Facebook where old people post memes about forgetting where their keys are. Or endless videos of cute pets and kids, doing stupid things.
They say everyone has their “Fifteen Minutes of Fame.” I can tell you, unequivocally, that I have never had such a fifteen minutes. Not even a three-minute stint.
When I was pretty darn young, I used to stand on our living room coffee table and sing. We had a huge mirror that stretched from ceiling to mantle in that room. It made for the perfect place to pound out my version of “A Hard Day’s Night.” I was too short to see myself, but I knew I was there. I had spied my older sisters doing the same thing and they could see themselves. You see, even in my attempt to “act” like I was famous, I failed.
Ah, but so it goes. Sometimes, people simply never know our names, but our fame blooms on forever. Take, for instance, Yukio Ozaki. He was the Mayor of Tokyo in 1909. Many could never guess what he did, but I will tell you here. He presented Washington DC with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River. On this very date! Now, millions of people flock to see this wonder every year.
Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about.
Fame is in the eye of the beholder. Or very well, it should be.
I think now, I’m heading to the kitchen for a cold glass of milk and a Sandy Duncan.
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Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
— Henry David Thoreau
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You’re either humble or you’re not. If you were a jerk before the fame, you just become a jerk with a bigger spotlight. Whoever you are really comes through.
— Oprah Winfrey
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I had tremendous success in show business – star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ‘The Apprentice’ was one of the most successful shows.
— Donald Trump
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Fame is like cookies. It often crumbles.
