Others

 

I sometimes wonder what it is like to know that millions of people want to meet you, or think they love you, or draw picture after picture of you, or even write stories about you.

Before the days of mass media this was reserved for heroes, villains and gods. People shared stories and other people tried to imagine what these others looked like.

Today we see them in movies, in the news, on the Internet and occasionally in person, but do we really know any more about them than before?

For example, if I looked at their bedside table, what book would I see lying there, bookmarked to the last page they read? And what movies does a famous actor choose to watch when they are relaxing? 

Is their life one of the luxury and ease we all think it is, or do they eat like a Spartan and exercise like one too, to keep that body everyone dreams about? Are they surrounded by people all the time, or do they prefer alone time when it's available?

Are they kind to the people around them, or even to strangers when no one is watching? I wonder all these things and then I think it would be exhausting to live a life that lacks the anonymity and freedom to live a private life without all the hoopla. Even though it is the hoopla that puts the bread on the table and the pool in the yard.

Because at the end of every day, these others are just people like you and me. They may be living their dream, but they are often working sixteen hour days so their dream time is limited.