Pedestals

What is it about human nature that has us putting people on pedestals and then being so surprised, disappointed, and, if truth be told, often secretly gleeful, when they fall off? That question is what I remember word for word of the couple of hours I spent writing before my IPad died. That's because most of what appeared on the screen were unrelated thoughts and some of those are what follows. I wrote about the issue of expecting someone who excels at one thing to be great at everything. About people coming to believe their own hype. About wanting people to be worthy of admiration but they better express their worthiness humbly.

One piece I drafted was something like this: Now, I’m not famous, but there is one thing I do know about pedestals because there have been a couple of times in my life when someone put me on one. It can feed the ego for a short time, but then it’s very uncomfortable and actually made me feel excluded and alone.

The original piece ended with some of these thoughts. I appreciate and want heroes. They give me something to strive for. I can also appreciate and want celebrities. Like heroes, they, too, can inspire me. When either a hero or celebrity screw up publicly, as I also do, it is a reminder that we may have more in common than one might originally think. With the famous falling off pedestals like dominoes – okay, that’s mixing too many metaphors – we don’t know who will be next, but I have one prediction. Soon, one will be a woman who has misused her power, and the conversations and reporting will get nastier.

Marilyn