Fame

by Karon Brandt

Created on: February 10, 2010

In our physical world, money solves many problems. Many people think, wrongly, that money can buy happiness because there is a price tag on “almost” everything.

Some things are not for sale – like my dog, for instance (and my children). Although my doxy costs me about $1,000 a year in maintenance, food and vet bills, we love the little beast fiercely, and he could not be bought for a million dollars – on most days.

You can’t buy back good health, once it’s ruined, and you can’t buy Time. All humans have expiration dates, and few can pay for even a few extra, “good days” once the Grim Reaper comes to visit.

That leaves me defending Fame.

This is why I’d choose fame over fortune.  Once we’re gone, what’s left behind is our reputation – the love, positive influence and good memories - that people remember us by. That is our personal legacy, our memorial for being on earth. Few remember us for our fortunes, unless we leave it to them.

Recall some famous people: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, former U.S. presidents; Picasso and Van Gogh, artists; Christopher Columbus, Lewis and Clark, explorers; Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe, writers; Socrates and Confucius, philosophers; etc.

Probably not a single, mentioned soul became wealthy during their lifetimes, and they probably all had differing degrees of “success” and earthly “happiness,” but they stand out in history; they affected many peoples’ lives; they changed the earth in some way.

Most of us admire these people; we envy them for their “immortality” because they live on in the history books and our memories; their names have become household words for many of us.

Many people will say things like “Confucius said,” and listeners pay attention, even though he was not of our culture or religion; he was not a movie star; and none of us ever actually met him - since he died a few hundred years ago.

We also quote Shakespeare, even in his many guises as his own created-characters like Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello who “spoke to us” more than one hundred years after Shakespeare died.  

From the time a child starts school, we ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Many kids used to respond with things like “cowboys, firemen, and cops” (noticeably mostly boy-oriented roles) from early TV influence, but today’s television has greatly influenced – for better or worse - how children perceive the world.

Today, most young kids would probably say they want to be movie stars, sports stars, or famous athletes. Even girls have teen idols like Britney and Jamie Spears, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Simpson, etc. but those girls do not have “normal lives,” and many mature girls do not idolize them.

Boys might want to be a basketball or football star, but most realize those “careers” are short-lived and involve many risks of injury or even death. That is the unwanted side of “fame AND fortune.”

Because we appreciate those who “entertain” us, many successful “stars” today are rewarded with great wealth. But those positions are earned by only a few, and once you delve into those peoples’ private lives, most of us no longer envy them, but pity their short-lived fame and huge incomes that cannot buy privacy, happiness, long-term relationships, and untarnished legends.

Many superstars have their lives exposed for emptiness, duplicity, questionable relationships (including multiple marriages), and non-real, Hollywood-projected-happiness. In fact, many of their lives include multiple divorces, isolation for self-protection, bankruptcy, and drug or alcohol addiction.

Many lives of the wealthiest and most famous end in suicide: Elvis Presley, John Belushi, Anna Nichole Smith, and Marilyn Monroe came to an early end. Their names live on in sadness and pity. Arguably, stars like Michael Jackson have few choices beyond an early death because of an unrealistic lifestyle; the need for publicity; the need for drugs to keep on going; and the huge push required to maintain their positions at the top of the world, where no regular human can live for long.

Of course, a few, like Oprah Winfrey (TV multi-millionaire), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Donald Trump (real estate multi-millionaire), Barbara Walters (famous interviewer), and others have earned big money along with fame, but they earned it doing something for the public that was an extension of themselves as real people. Oprah (think black and poverty in her childhood) registers with people for her compassion for others and trying to spread “helpfulness” and common wisdom. Gates was a boy-genius (not envied as a teenager) who made money from his “nerdy” efforts with computers.

Walters shows a compassionate side with her hard-hitting interviews, and she earned the respect of her interviewees so she gets the scoop over her peers. Trump is a genius with great timing; he is an executive who seems to make honest, brilliant deals in real estate, but he’s gone through three wives already and admits he was a lousy father.

Few of us can do it all or have it all.

I think it comes down to living genuine, good lives in our relationships with others. That is, ultimately, what it means to be human. Once we are gone, I think most of us would prefer to be remembered for our deeds, names, and reputations rather than for our money.

During my life, I was a child welfare caseworker, and I affected many children’s lives. I would love to be remembered, at least by those whose lives I touched, as one of THE greatest caseworkers ever.

I was the head of dog rescue for several years. I “saved” many dogs. I hope they, and their new owners, remember me for “rescuing” them.

I am a writer. I have been freelancing for over 50 years. It would be nice to be remembered as that “great” writer who affected others’ lives with something she wrote.

But, ultimately, if I am remembered “only” for being a good wife, mother, daughter, and as a basically “good person,” I will feel that I lived a good life; and my memory will live on through those who outlive me.

I won’t regret that I never had a fortune, but I passed on the “wealth” I had to those I loved and those who loved me. Who I was and what I did will become “famous” to those who knew me.

 No one should need to ask for more than that.

Learn more about this author, Karon Brandt.
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