by Mark Saltveit
The golden idol is raised above the people’s heads.
They worship it, love it, invest their dreams and fears and loneliness because it is epic, perfect, beyond human. Then, inevitably they turn. They want it to fall, to be redeemed by the idol’s weakness, to see that the star is human after all.
300 million hopes and fears create a tide. Big waves! Only a few can surf them.
Most celebrities can’t even deal with the rewards – they are swamped by the money, the sex, the drugs, the adulation. People who don’t think they deserve their rewards often punish themselves with self-destructive behavior.
Do you really want to be rich and famous? Can you achieve it? Can your ego accept the blessings?
Can your soul handle the backlash, the concentrated scorn of a disillusioned nation when you’re slammed back down to earth and sacrificed on the altar of fame?