Sunday, December 28, 2014

Goodbyes at the Ending of the Year-The Rights and Wrongs of It.


In the ending of the year it seems as if every single program I watch is scrolling a list of the famous and infamous who have passed away in the 362 days since January 1. Each year will lose some notable. The facts are immutable, our corporeal bodies pass through the birth canal and drop into the light of this world. If lucky we age and then die. Star or serf we all pass through this world feeling love and pain, hope and despair.

This year a couple of comedy performers seem to top the lists. A jazz musician, a poet and several politicians fill out the middle of the most recent list I have seen. Two noble laureates ended up a the bottom of this list with hushed reverence from the narrator.

People like my brother in law John Davis don't make these lists. John lived in metropolitan Chicago. What did he accomplish. Well coming from a youth filled with challenges he married a good smart and talented woman and raised some great kids. Because he wasn't in the public eye should he be any less mourned? I think not. We all live lives that can have merit. My thought is that we should compile our own lists and turn off these TV programs.

American has for many years had a cult of celebrity. It is a nasty business. In order to forget about our lives for a moment, and I guess our struggles, we turn on TV and watch programs that tell us about the stars stints in rehab. We are bombarded by images of their infidelities. We are told of the misdeeds of their youth and their current loutish behavior. Why do we need to look at these images? When we are drawn in to this celebrity watching we are no better than people gawking as they pass a car wreck with bodies beneath tarps.

I have no problems with reading fiction because it requires time and discipline. I don't have any problem with seeing a movie or a television series. A movie forces me to sit for just about two hours and relax. Images fill my brain and I turn off my worries and struggles. A good television series can do the same thing but when you put in on the DVR you steal more and more of your free time. Life must have some diversions, it absolutely must.

What I have a problem with is that I don't need to know a damn thing about the writer or the actor. Let their work stand for itself. I don't really care if the creator of a moving tome is a chronic public flasher. That issue is between him, the law and his psychotherapist. And when a actor, a hockey player or a politician dies that take no more of this world with them than each of our sisters and brothers do when that pass.

Will the lists at year's end stop, well no. Should we walk away from the cult of celebrity and the industries that feed on it, yes. Will we? No. However I allow myself the hope that someday we can come to a sense of perspective and that EW, People and Entertainment Tonight will fade from such prominent view. Someday I hope we spend more time with those about us honoring them.

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