I have been thinking about those stars that shoot to fame and for whatever reason they soon come crashing to the ground. They appear to have everything going for them, fame, wealth, adulation and perhaps the most important; they are doing what they love to do. I realize that I don’t know any of these people or their specific life problems, but they have achieved the dreams that a lot of us strive an entire lifetime to achieve without success.
Could it be as simple as the old saying, “Be careful what it is that you wish for, you just might get it?” I like many others would like to give the realization of my dreams a chance.
I think that these rising stars just don’t have enough anchors in their lives. You and I have many things that keep us grounded and striving to get up. We have jobs that we must do in order to buy food, pay rent, make payments on the various things that we need to make our lives tolerable. The shooting stars never have to worry about earning a living. Oh, sure they have jobs, but they are paid so well for their work, the money becomes just a way to mark their success. They have “people” who pay the bills, negotiate contracts, shop for them and run interference when life starts to get in the way.
The shooting stars have families and friends just like we do, but for the unfortunate few, the family and friends just want to grab on to the tail of the shooting star and benefit from being related. That must be an awful burden. I’m not sure you would know who to trust and if you did get burned, then you would be hard pressed to trust anyone again. That doesn’t even take into account how many people make their livings off of you. You have to keep working so that all of these other people can keep working in their jobs which are designed to keep you working. You can never stop! You and I can just decide to change jobs whenever we want or whenever our bosses decide for us.
Sometimes we all kind of lose any rational thought and decide that we need what we don’t really need, like an elephant or a monkey. I know that people do this because when you donate blood, a question on the form is if you handle monkeys. That is a bad decision and thankfully, your wife, husband; friend will tell you just how nuts you are to want a monkey or an elephant. Not so with the shooting stars, they have people who enable them in all of their bad decisions. Don’t want to upset the gravy train. Even doctors enable them, prescribing drugs when common sense would dictate rest and relaxation instead.
Speaking of drugs, there isn’t anyone to say no when the shooting star wants to lose themselves for a few hours in a drugged haze. We all have our escapes, but generally we just suffer the next day and accept it as payment for a night of partying. The shooting star just gets more drugs to smooth the effects of the previous evening’s drugs.
How do you stay grounded without anchors? How can you know what life is if all you do is to see it through rose coloured glasses? Maybe instead of having “Yes” men, the shooting stars should hire “No” men just to add an anchor to their lives. Sometimes I just wish I could talk to the shooting stars and let them know that they are living in a fantasy and sometimes a little reality might do them more good than they know.
Sometimes a shooting star just needs to burn bright and fast.