Celebrity Chic Leaves Me Cold

Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from the Florida Track Club, an organization of which I am a nominal member. The announcement was that Jeff Galloway, a long-time, famous marathon runner whose philosophy on the sport has greatly influenced me, would be visiting Gainesville. He was even planning to go out with any interested FTC members for a group run in the late afternoon. It turned out that I had to work that day and couldn't meet Mr. Galloway in person. But truth be told, had I been off, I doubt that I would have anyway.

I respect Jeff Galloway and have adopted much of his advice about running. I even bought one of his books on the subject. But the fact that he is a celebrity does not impel me to divert my activities in order to meet up with him. Nothing against him personally, but I feel this way about ALL celebrities.

A couple of years ago, I took my daughter out with her middle-school level flag football team to the University of Florida to watch the Gators football team do a spring practice session. All of the big stars were there, including Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, future NFL star receiver Percy Harvin, John Brantley, and even Cameron Newton (now a Heisman candidate playing for Auburn). After the practice, fans approached different players for autographs, and they responded to the requests with patience and friendliness. But around Tebow there was a kind of irrational, even creepy fan frenzy, with children and adults alike crowding around the big star to get his autograph. The whole scene disgusted me, especially when I saw a woman crowding out children to get to Tebow, and I fervently wished at the time to be somewhere else. No, this celebrity chic leaves me cold.

I could make a list of many famous people whose accomplishments I greatly admire, and it would be a pretty long list. But I can't think of a single soul among them whom I would want to seek out as a fan would seek out a celebrity. I can think of quite a few with whom I would want to "sit a spell" at Starbucks over coffee and chat (my version of Obama's beer diplomacy). But that would entail a dialogue between two complex human beings with each having something to contribute and something to learn, not some kind of role-playing game involving someone fawning over the image of another. That's just me, though, and I really don't want to get into judging those who are more in sync with this society's bizarre (to me) celebrity mania.