Anna Nicole Smith
Henry here. The media have gone crazy over the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Stephen tells me that I’m culturally challenged, but I must confess thatI had never heard about her until the news reports of her son’s death.
The Globe and Mail on Saturday the 10th of February called her “little
more than a rude joke.” Maybe that is too harsh, but the fuss about the
passing of such a person seems overdone to the extreme. It’s unfortunate that she died, but as I understand it, she hadn’t ever really done much to deserve this kind of media attention. Steve tells me that like Paris Hilton (whose name I did recognize), Smith was basically famous for being famous.
How hungry we are for heroes, and how starved we are to find people who will be these heroes. We latch onto people to look up to and critique who simply can’t live up to our expectations and then feel disappointment when they let us down.
It seems to me that our challenge is to be our own heroes. What would it mean to my piece of this world if I started living out my own genuine potential, if I started acting out my best nature, rather than looking for it in other people? Would I have less need for pseudo-heroes like Smith?
February 14th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I think we are often drawn to damsel-in-distress type figures, which Smith portrayed to the fullest. I’m not sure if one viewed her as a hero but rather watched her bizarre behavior in amazement. Smith very much lost herself in the material world.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Couldn’t agree more. Damsel’s-in-distress pull at our heart strings. We want to rescue them from themselves. But isn’t there more? Since they finally burried her I heard an old interview when she said that her troubles were because so many people had her on a pedistal. That is apparently how she saw herself. Are you sure that a certain group of females did not see her as a heroine?
Henry When Reality Knocks