NOTHING

“Bad things are not the worst things that can happen to us. NOTHING is the worst thing that can happen to us.” ― Richard Bach, One

Celebrity deaths have certainly marked 2016. I hope their lives were as full of the joy they gave their fans. I don't really believe most celebrities are very happy people. The abundance of drug and alcohol abuse, perverted behaviours, multiple relationships, suicide: not signs of happiness. Hard to know if choosing to pursue fame and fortune was the cause or the effect.

I never actually believed all the crappy things reported about Michael Jackson. I saw him as a kid that never got to be a kid because of the fame. His antics onstage, the plastic surgeries, the masks: all things to hide who he might really be. A forever kid, like the Peter Pan character he portrayed and loved. And who could blame him for being "strange" - can you imagine being stalked every moment of your life? That would make someone quite batty, and create a less than happy life.

Robin Williams was another who hid who he was inside, and the struggles with mental illness never improved. He suffered in silence, like many, in spite of his fame opening up resources that aren't available to many. Nothing good happens when the demons are only bound and gagged, instead of being silenced forever.

Fame and fortune, things many of us wish for but can't know how our lives would really work out in the end. Those "bad things" along the way aren't avoided just because of celebrity and wealth. Would most people trade one for the other? Life is never tit for tat.

It certainly doesn't seem an even exchange, but isn't that life better than one where NOTHING happens? A boring existence: meager success, limited mobility in social and economic circles. Just the bare essentials. Life in the trenches. nose to the grist stone. Day running into night, back into day.

Maybe the neon lights aren't for all of us, but escaping the drudgery has its attractions. Would you trade the eternity of nothings for the bright trappings of fame? I'm pretty sure I don't want to grace the glossy covers of the newsstand, but I know there's more to life than sitting on the bench.