Thursday, June 3, 2010

Fame vs. Achievement.

In some intrinsic way, everyone has a desire to be known and recognized. I think people don't openly admit their desire to be famous, but in some way or another, society has condemned those who do not achieve recognition as purposeless.
I can safely say that my family has dealt with fame. If you didn't know, my dad was a famous chef back in the 80's or whatever, before I was born (and when I was young). His significance is more than just a few paragraphs on Wikipedia. He is my inspiration in a lot of ways.
My dad was running six different restaurants when I was 3, as well as appearing on various television programs. I hardly ever saw him. We had a Jamaican nanny for a while (until she took my brother to the park on a rainy day without telling my mom and disappeared for 4 hours), otherwise, my mom was at home with 3 children alone. She had dreams of becoming an artist, but, I'm afraid, motherhood clogged those dreams. Anyway, as my father was in the height of his fame, he saw his home life and decided he wanted none of it. He didn't want people knowing about his children or what he was doing, so he openly told the press to back off. They still pursued him for a while, even after we moved out of New York and into suburbia, but the press moved on eventually.
I think that shows how fame is. It's like that two-faced friend from middle school, it pretends it loves you, when, in fact, it was just looking for something to fill a hole for a brief moment. In life, I think achievement is worth fighting for, not fame. Thanks for listening.