The One Minute Blog

This is my first attempt at a one-minute blog. I am going to time it down to the second and see what flows. Hmmm...
Q. Why do celebrity deaths affect us so deeply?
A. We all believe we have intimate relationships with famous figures. They permeate our lives; our homes, our music, our televisions. We may hear or see them everyday, not unlike our loved ones and friends. I think this leads to a false sense of belief that we are connected on a very personal level.
OK - that was one minute.
Not such a great answer for one minute. How can you express yourself in such a short time?
More on this - we certainly have lost a few iconic celebrity figures in the last few weeks. Walter Cronkite was very much the respected news reporter of his time. He will remain on a pedestal for those of my parent's generation. I am part of the cloning of news programs; the cable TV generation. Every channel has some form of the news broadcast on. Some slant right and some slant left. But none holds the unbiased integrity that Mr. Cronkite had when he was the lead anchor of the evening news. He had the power to sway public thought and opinion. I certainly miss that from what is available now. There is little or no time to analyze any news so one never knows if it is sane or sensational.
Walter Cronkite became part of our home; my parents believed his stories and the emotion used to convey the events. He became a fixture at our dining table so his passing is like the loss of a family member to them. Not totally devastating from a personal standpoint, but certainly heartfelt with great sadness.
There is also an immortality that comes from being viewed through a thin pane of glass. It's as if one was real and then not real. Alive but not so totally. As though famous people live forever. So their loss makes us look at our own mortality more closely. If they are immortal, then how could they die? It brings celebrity back to a human level. We remember we are all the same; that they are not unlike us. So we are drawn in closer.
I would never want to be famous. Not me. I prefer my so called normal, low key life where few know me or care about my daily wanderings. Fame is so pervasive and destructive. And it seems to create a pridefulness that feels unGodly. If we could only be content to simply "be" - wouldn't it feel like a better world? I wonder.