I'm Gonna Live Forever. Light Up the Sky Like a Flame!

Fame! It's been a recurring theme around my house lately. First, and somewhat randomly, it came up in my 14 Things list (or was it my appended 25 Things list?) on Facebook, when I wrote that I've never had any desire to be famous. I'm sticking by that, by the way, but we'll get back to that later. Next, it has been an ongoing topic with Mia, who definitely wants to be famous. For what? you might ask. And, being 7, she doesn't really have an answer. She just knows she wants to be famous.

Finally, it came up on the radio today. Listening to our local public radio station on the way home from the gym this morning, I heard John Aillei say something that baffled me and brought all my recent fame musings bubbling to the surface.

So, Aillei is talking about a cello performance that's taking place this weekend in Austin--and he mentions that the program will be made up of cello sonatas by Mendolssohn. And then he says something along the lines of "By the way. I heard a sad story about these cello sonatas. They're all dedicated to Mendolssohn's brother Paul, who played the cello. Of course, we all know Felix Mendolssohn's name, and his sister Fanny was somewhat famous as well, but nobody has ever heard of Paul." Then Aillei moves on to his next topic, and I'm thinking WAIT! What about Paul? Did he die a tragic death? Did he suffer from a wasting disease that made him unable to play the cello he so loved? What about the sad story? And then I GET it. That WAS the sad story. Paul Mendolssohn wasn't famous.

Now as many of you know, I have no great love for John Aillei. I don't often listen to him because I know his pretentious prickishness is bound to tick me off in one way or another. But what the hell? Do normal people really think it's "sad" that someone wasn't famous?

So what's the deal? Am I in a minority because I have no interest in fame? Am I missing some natural human drive? Or are we divided? Do some people have some base desire for fame and others don't? And why?

It's not that I don't want to be "known." I absolutely do have that drive. I want to the people around me to know me and to understand me. And when I'm dead and gone, I would like to be remembered by my friends and family. I've also had dreams of being a performer of some sort--but that was more about being really good at something and less about "fame."

But the thought of strangers recognizing me and talking about what I do and when and how I do it? The idea of people broadcasting details of my life to the whole world? Having to hear and read about the details of my mistakes and failures in newspapers and magazines? That all sounds truly awful to me. I honestly don't understand why anyone would want that.

But try to explaining that to a 7 year old. . .

And Because I'm Apparently in Touch with My 12-Year-Old Boy Side

This headline on MSNBC today amused the hell out of me.

How to know if the stimulus is working

Unfortunately, the actual story isn't nearly as funny. . .

Bored

I think I'm bored.

No, not this very minute. In general.

Maybe that's why everything I think I might write about strikes me as too boring to merit the cyberspace.

YAWN.

More later.