Almost Famous

The hankering for fame seems to exempt no one. It is in both the rich and the poor, qualified or not. Perhaps it’s the inner human desire to matter and be counted. Or, maybe, it’s the egotistical instinct to prove one’s superiority over others.

Different people follow different routes towards attaining distinction. There are, in fact, good ways and bad ways. Some go the long, difficult process, others the quick and easy.

Beauty pageants and basketball tournaments have certainly become standard features of our national pop culture. There is hardly any community celebration that does not include these activities in its events line-up. It is common to see a makeshift stage mounted on empty asphalt barrels or a street turned into a basketball court wherever there is a fiesta or any other important occasion in the neighborhood.

What’s amusing are the great efforts poured into these undertakings, so that they may look exactly like the big shows they’re patterned after. There’s always an announcer that blabbers jumbled English, as the young neighborhood girls mimic the Miss Universe beauties and as the local boys sweat it out like the big NBA stars. Every beauty pageant contestant, like a real beauty icon, has her own make-up assistant in tow. And the local basketball players are dressed up to look like downsized Kobe Bryants or Shaquille O’Neils.

Each beauty pageant or basketball tournament is a great moment for make-believe. For a whole hour or so, both the performers and the audience pretend like it’s all for real. The “stars” shine as the crowd of family, friends and neighbors applauds vigorously. There seems to be a silent general agreement – an unbreakable suspension of disbelief. You might say it’s like a fool trying to fool another fool.

When the show is over, everyone drops back to the real world. Borrowed gears have to be washed and returned. The beauty queen rediscovers that she actually looks far more inferior under better light and without the thick make-up she wore at the pageant. And the “king of the hard court” realizes that he’s only 5 feet tall, not 7 feet like he felt during the game.  

It’s easy to blame television for this widespread folly. But, while television has done much in popularizing these new forms of amusement, there is a corresponding fault on the part of the community. A prevalent consciousness of desperation, a willingness to do anything for a fast ticket to fame and fortune, has made it easy for these apparently foreign inventions to become part of the home culture.

Old people brag of how things were different in their time. Their beauty contests before were held mainly as fund-raising activities in support of community projects. Those were wholesome events, they would say; the girls then didn’t have to strip before the crowd, down to their last pieces of underwear. The boys’ races were something that tested useful skills, like running, climbing coconut trees, hacking firewood, fetching water from a well etc. There were other contests too, which were mainly just for fun, but were all reflective of the native life and experience.

Trouble is, traditional games and amusements no longer excite the new generation. They are seeing more exciting things on TV these days.

And our people are more bored today than ever before. Bored people seek new diversions – and the deeper the boredom, the greater the craving for new forms of fun. Unfortunately, with the present economic situation, people can hardly afford better entertainment, like the ones offered at the malls at least. Whatever free entertainment crops up in the neighborhood is better than nothing.

To a very large extent, it’s about economics. Economics changes everything. People watch too much television because that’s the only entertainment they can well afford. And then they begin to embrace the things they see on TV.

Beauty pageants and basketball games definitely have practical value. At least, they encourage personality improvement and physical fitness, respectively. And, indeed, they are a better alternative to vices, like gambling, alcoholism and drug dependency.

But, still, we need to be careful. These activities can grow from mere pastimes into obsessive preoccupations and, thus, breed delusion among the young generation.

No, it doesn’t really count to just feign glory. It doesn’t do to be just “almost famous.” One has got to have what it really takes to shine. If not real genius, he or she must possess one or both of the known alternatives – great wealth or great power.

But the thing is, many aspire for fame as a means for obtaining wealth or power, or both. Very seldom is there one who expends great wealth and power in order to be famous. The already rich and powerful don’t need to do that; they’re just naturally famous.

The rest of us with only average competencies or resources may never become famous for anything. But while it may be in our shared nature to desire for recognition, it is also within the human capability of every ordinary individual to recognize his own worth and be at peace with it.

One doesn’t really need to be a celebrity to matter to his world, the world among the people that matter the most to him. She is a princess to her parents who is a good daughter. And he is a champion to his neighbors who does good for the community.

There’s danger, of course, that goes with every flight of fantasy. The more one indulges in imaginary glory, the farther one gets away from his own reality. And we all know what that means.

A disillusioned beauty queen may end up in a dimly lit room of a downtown brothel. And fruitless efforts on the basketball court may prove wasteful for a young man who had better spent the time and energy in more prudent endeavors.

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