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First Place Losers

I just set a personal record: two movies in one day! Yes, a bit embarrassing, but true all the same.  The flicks were:  VALKERIE about Hitler’s would-be assassin and NIXON/FROST about the demise of Richard Nixon.  Both of course are about ‘famous - but flawed – people.‘  I drove home from the theatre pondering fame and power.  Seems to me that—-

Fame and Power:

—- Sell well from the curb: drawing millions of people like moths to the flame.

—- Promise so much: wealth and freedom to get almost anything we want.

But fame and power:

—- Are extremely hazardous: with visibility and power come danger and vulnerability.  (Nietzsche: “Power corrupts. Total power corrupts totally.”)

—- Often appeal to character flaws: Insecurity.  Narcissism. Sociopathic tendencies.

—- Stir powerful jealousy: the famous and powerful inevitably come under relentless criticism.

—- Are fleeting at best: (Shakespeare: “The evil that men do lives after them.  The good is oft interred with their bones.”)

—- Rarely – if ever - bring lasting fulfillment.

—- Frequently end in loneliness, emptiness - even regret. 

God’s designed a paradoxical plan:
“Last shall be first.” 
“The servant of all is greatest of all.”
“The meek will inherit the earth.” 
“Whoever saves his life, will lose it.  Whoever loses his life - will find it.”
“Seek first His Kingdom and Justice, and all else will be yours.“

On the way home from the movies I also pondered a mystery: “why do we intelligent human beings almost universally look for life in what we know are all the wrong places?”

What do you think?

Lynn Anderson