Right Place, Wrong Time: A Concise Rant (:

In any facet of pop culture, we can find celebrities in their given fields. There's Pavoratti, Van Gogh, Mozart, Edgar Allen Poe.... And they become more appreciated as time goes on. See, Lady Gaga isn't, despite public opinion, "legendary" yet. She's current. Only time will tell if she'll go down in history or drown in a sea of names on has-beens reality tv show. Even Madonna hasn't quite made the cut yet. I say it takes a good long while before you're considered "classic".

Many influencial leaders, artists, athletes, and philosophers were highly misunderstood & underappreciated during their lifetime. They never saw their idealistic dreams or goals fully come to fruition. In fact, most died a bitter, lonely death amongst their art. (Honestly...just look up some authors if you want. The bios are actually often downright depressing.) So, what can we learn from this?

First of all, fame is pointless. In case you haven't noticed, the fundamental inner-workings of the world & humanity haven't changed much in the past 2,000 years. There were old-time "popstars" and celebs then, too. (Anyone remember learning about troubadors?) But do we study them? No. On rare occassions someone will have gained some recognition towards the end of their life, but most disappeared from the pages of history and their work perished along with them. Perhaps Emerson was more correct than he knew when he stated, "To be great is to be misunderstood".

Secondly, you'd better find something important to do in this world with your one life, and you'd better be passionate about it! You don't become great by sitting around doing nothing. Greatness takes sacrifice, perserverance, and complete belief in your cause. You need to be willing to risk everything to see it through.

Lastly, your character will determine your greatness. Anyone can commit a heinous crime and be infamous. It takes great strength of character to be remembered for the right reasons. True, this doesn't apply to all "greats" when you really study their lives, but I think it would've made a huge difference if they HAD possessed strong characters. Your attitude and thought patterns throughout life WILL influence your success.

I basically wrote this to encourage you to greatness. Don't get discouraged if you feel like a complete moron for standing up for what you believe in. I'd rather see someone strongly disagree with the laws of gravity like a fool and be passionate than NOT hear someone defend their own faith while under fire as a result of their own cowardice. Don't be afraid to BE. Keep pushing, pulling, praying, prying...... DO NOT give in.





-Chris



P.S. I just typed this at 2 am. as a result of hearing one-too-many fellow teenagers talking about how they wanna "make it big" & be seen. Like everyone else. There are probably numerous errors & I might've gotten off topic but I needed to rant a little :) Thanks for reading if you indeed did. Feel free to add on, criticize, freethink...whatever. :)