#1365, Tuesday, February 10: Celebrity disconnect

Post 1365, Day 41 of 2015
- 1,502 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

When I was a young man looking for a permanent identity, I was interested in celebrities. Now that I've given up finding a permanent identity (nothing is permanent), I don't think about who I am so much. It's just a matter of accepting who I am.

I have a mistrust for people who put themselves in the public spotlight. More accurately, I suspect that what I think I know about a celebrity is manufactured, and has little to do with who they really are. At best, it's bread and circuses, a distraction from things that are relevant; at worst, disinformation that can lead you to wrong conclusions.

What kind of wrong conclusions? Well, that someone else's life is more interesting or better than your own. Any time I think that, I have to look at how I am defining interesting and better. Then re-define it in terms of what I know to be true, and not just somebody selling me something.

For instance, a celebrity like Beyonce (somebody I know is famous, but have never seen outside of her performance in Cadillac Records; to the best of my knowledge, I've never heard any of her own music). She seems to have a lot I don't (or don't have as much of): Beauty. Talent. Wealth. Business sense. And so on... There's probably a long list, since she is so commercially successful.

But the fact is, I don't know her, and have no idea what she is like in person. No idea how much of the little I know about her is true. As such, I don't know if she is more interesting than I am. I don't have any idea how anything about her is relevant to me. As self-absorbed as I am, probably not much.

I gather she is interesting to people who pay attention to news, current events, new things.

Which are things that don't get much attention from me these days.

In the past, music, movies, TV, and sports took up a lot of my recreational time, and there were celebrities I knew in those areas.

But nowadays, I make my own music, with people who aren't celebrities, and don't pay much attention to people in the music business, or, for that matter, to the music business.

And I don't watch that much TV, or care who the actors are. Going to the movies has become a special occasion thing, and I find myself much more interested in the characters (almost always fictional) and story lines than I do in the 'real' people who make the movies. And I have cut out sports almost completely.

Still, you can't exist in this world and not be aware of celebrities. I know their names, but, for the most part, have no idea what they look like or what they do, let alone what brought them their celebrity. I don't understand why I know their names.

I believe this: Celebrity doesn't equate to happiness. Historically, it would seem the opposite is true.

Food and Diet Section

Today's Weight:                   201.8 lbs

Previous Weight (2/9):            202.2 lbs

Day Net Loss/Gain:                - 0.4 lbs

Diet Comment

Yesterday, with its preponderance of Quest bars, was a lighter-than-usual day. Today, might be the same, thanks to a rushed morning with no time for breakfast, plus a little hunger!

Food Log

Breakfast
A Quest bar.

Lunch
Sauteed onions, peppers, kale, chard, spinach with scrambled eggs and spicy tomato oil.

Snack
A Quest bar.

Dinner
Grass fed burger with cole slaw, and a Quest bar for dessert.

Snack
Pepperoni and Dubliner cheese with celery and home-made spicy mayonnaise.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 90+ oz.  And some kind of craft-brew nut brown ale 

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