Ephemeral Fame?

It is not what you think, drat it. It's not effing sour grapes. I'm not dissing fame because I have no way of getting even a modicum of it in any manner whatsoever and, so, want to say that it's useless to get it.

I was just thinking about the way this fame game seems to progress. I mean, first the chap who gets fame - be it in politics, cricket, the movies or whatever - can do no wrong. I mean, he could get called a saint or even God and everyone practically sings bhajans set to his name.

Then, slowly, they start finding that he has feet of clay. This stage normally occurs around the time when he ceases to either be successful or relevant. At this time, people start off saying, "Ah! Fine that he did all these things. But he also did this. Do we give him a free pass on all his negativity merely because..." Note that his achievements/sacrifices/whatever have already converted to a 'merely' thing...something so insignificant that it can be brushed aside without much notice.

The chap can count himself lucky if he stays put at this stage. The unlucky guys move along further. When that happens, all that remains of the chap is the negatives. The positives are mere accidental occurrences, the negatives are all that define his character. So, a Sunil Gavaskar will only be remembered for his 36 n.o in a 60 over ODI AND for walking off with his team when he was given out in Australia. All the rest of his batting is something even a schoolboy could do OR was useless because it was all in selfish pursuit of personal goals. And so on. 

Once you reach this stage you can have peace of mind. There is no recovering from here, your journey will only be downwards from then on, so there is no uncertainty to stress you out. From here on, the negatives in your character will keep getting magnified till one day you could find the saint being characterized as a Hitler and nod your head in approval.

Makes you wonder whether this fame game is worth all the effort. I mean, if you are obscure nobody is certainly going to praise you but nobody is likely to revile you either. Seems a far better way to live, no?

But then, it all depends. 'Praise me or blame me, just don't ignore me' is probably the way most of us feel. To be praised or to be blamed is to be acknowledged. To be ignored, though...

Unless you can live the way the Gita asks you to live...by seeking not the fruits of your labor. But then, THAT's only good for memes. Who can really live like that?

So, yeah, if you seek fame or have fame thrust upon you, resign yourself to the fact that first they'll make an idol of you; then strive to find your feet of clay; and then concentrate on the clay to the exclusion of everything else!