Fame

Hey, Bud... I'm finally both healthy enough to write again and unfrazzled enough to squeeze ten minutes out of my day for a note. (Accounting in January is wall-to-wall work, and if you knew all the things we did over the Holidays with James and Jon and their friends, you'd know how much cleaning Sally and I have been doing at night.)

Anyway... today's topic.

Sprebs have an odd fascination with fame - we'd like to be famous for our prowess, yet we're a generally shy and retiring lot. We shrink away from anybody we don't know well, which doesn't exactly win over a largely anonymous fan base. Such is one of the many paradoxes of the Sperb.

My advice as a Sperb Elder (as well as your father) regarding fame is that it should neither be pursued nor avoided. Why it shouldn't be pursued: Fame is rather easy to achieve these days with the myriad media outlets (television, radio, newspapers, magazines, internet, movies, etc.), so it no longer immediately comes paired with it's old buddy Fortune, and free/unpaid fame often comes at the expense of dignity [insert any reality show name here]. Why it shouldn't be avoided: Those who become famous without making a total dork of themselves are likely worthy of adulation at some level for whatever talent/ability makes them famous. This is acceptible because (a) you earned it and (b) it's a great way to meet like-minded people from whom to learn and with whom to form friendships.