It Sure Don’t Feel Like Love - On Idolizing People
I always wondered at the need for people to meet a famous person. A single idol that they seem to obsess about, whether it be Johnny Depp, Michael Jackson, or Carole King. Until, of course, I found Paul Simon. Then I realized what the whole thing was about. It wasn’t about the schoolgirl crushes that make girls proclaim that they will “marry Johnny Depp” despite the fact that he is, in fact, married with children.
It’s about the desire to be better. Or to have something better than what is available around us.
I admire Paul Simon for his ability to write words down and match them to music. And the words routinely make me teary-eyed, and all I can think about is the fact that I want to make people teary-eyed, too. People always told me I could write, but those were people who knew the way I looked and the way I felt. They were the people who massaged my writing with their words, the people who could see my reaction when they criticized each un-dotted “i” and each un-crossed “t”.
Other critics, those who had never seen me and couldn’t place a face with a name, those who didn’t care about whether or not my feelings were hurt, don’t seem to believe I take my writing to a higher place. I recently went with three other students from my ex-high school (I’m an alumnus now… how weird) to Chicago for a journalism convention. Even with a near-perfect score for a timed writing editorial competition, the judges returned the scoresheet with a “close, but no cigar” type of message.
But what happens with Paul Simon is a strange phenomenon. People love the way he writes, sings, and composes. What amazes me even more is the way he speaks in an interview with abc news video (the on-line version of abc news). This quote struck me as eloquent and made me want to be able to speak with my own form of this eloquence:
No, I don’t write for the fun of it. First of all, a lot of the time, it really isn’t fun. It’s really unpleasant, and then when it happens, fun doesn’t begin to describe how great it is. But when you’re not in the ecstasy phase, you’re in something between, you know, hell and withdrawal.
That’s when I realized: people aren’t chasing after a certain idol or an icon, they’re chasing after a dream. A dream of what’s better and what they can become: the proof being that someone’s already there.
Of course, I would love to meet Paul Simon. But that’s just a small portion of the whole thing. Isn’t it?
Posted on August 20th, 2006 by Joy
Filed under: Idols, Music, Paul Simon, Uncategorized
I’d bet meeting fans would also be somewhere between hell and ecstasy. The first five minutes might be pleasureable, but after that…it goes quickly downhill.
I do believe that some of the fans of Johnny Depp (and apparently Orlando Bloom, et.all) do want to actually marry them and have their children. I speak only for the women, mainly because it’s a general assumption that men cannot give birth. Humans, anyway.
As for me, I idolize Trowa Barton, a fictional character, who I proclaim my love for. Yes. He is male. As am I. But you’re right. I idolize him above all, for the qualities that he exhibits which I so desperately wish to emulate.
On an entirely different note, I also idolize Amy Jo Johnson, but not only because she’s awesome (actually, she’s mighty morphin’) but also because she attracts me in the way that most females do. With intelligence! A joke, but you understand.
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