The Celebrities Around Us, Including Me

You see it on the news - many women, men, or crowds of both chasing after someone who they just want to say hi to, or get a signature. But, oh no, not me. I don't want to be known as one of them.

Fortunately, I do not have to go far to meet many. Heck, I could almost go as far to say that all I have to do is look in the mirror. LOL! There are certain celebrities I see not on so much a personal level, but in passing.

Take for instance...church. Believe it or not, I attend church with a well-known celebrity from Blazing Saddles. Burton Gilliam, Lyle, passes by me between services. I say "Hi" every time, and get nothing in return but silence.

One of these days I am going to shock him with, "Good morning...Mr. Gilliam."

There was another church I attended before the one I currently attend on Sundays. It is over in a town south of me. My sister and brother-in-law invited me there when I moved to Texas over six years ago.

I sat in a couple of Sundays in the couple's Bible study class before going to the morning service. This just made me feel more uncomfortable, so the third Sunday I attended the single's department. Wow!

There had to be over a thousand people in that auditorium listening to the speaker. Pardon me, Bible study teacher. His voice sounded so familiar, and so did the manner in which he spoke. Surely we had never met before.

As the lesson went on I looked down at the study program. I could feel my eyes almost bulge out of my head as I read a certain name. Quickly, I looked back up, studied the person, and confirmed it was he.

This person was none other than Zig Ziglar. I just sat there in awe as the words went on past me. What did I do to deserve this? Of all the motivational speakers in the world to become a Man of God, Zig Ziglar stood a ways from me unaware that I began paying more attention to what he was saying.

It was all I could do to keep my mouth from dropping to the floor. He eventually got around to asking questions of us, putting his 'feelers' out there to see if we were really listening to what he was saying.

Then along came a question of which I felt comfortable answering. Oddly enough, I began reciting something from one of his books as well as the Holy Bible.

Mr. Ziglar, looked over at me with his right hand over his eyes as if he was trying to remember me from somewhere. His reply to my answer is something I will never forget. "Now there is someone who has read a few of my books," and he laughed briefly to get back to the lesson.

After the class, I went over to him and thanked him for teaching the lesson. I also expressed to him of what an honor it was for me to hear from him first hand without a cassette player. We talked a little more, and parted our own ways that day.

This became a brief ritual for a few more weeks, and then I moved on to where I am now. I am still grateful God crossed our paths. To find out that Zig Ziglar was ministering was such an inspiration to me.

In a more distant past, my family had the honor of witnessing the key of Oklahoma City given to Hoyt Axton. That Sunday was named Hoyt Axton day, and the few that attended were all given a chance to talk with him. This man is a very humble man.

Sometime during 2003 to 2004, I became friends with someone whom I thought was an average Joe. He would come over to visit my roommate and me, and once in a while I would visit him.

We chatted about so many things. It never occurred to me that he was related to someone else, whom I have heard of. One day we were talking about poems. He asked me to look at some he had been working on for a while.

I read them over a few times, looked up at him and said something like. "These are so well done that they are perfectly matched line by line in syllables."

He replied back stating these were actually songs he was working on for different musical groups around the United States. The gears in my head went to spinning, and then I asked, "Are you related to Joan Jett?'

His answer was a resounding, yes. They are first cousins. I just let out a big laugh, and he joined in with me. Who would have thunk? Sad to say, but we don't keep in touch anymore since I left Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Granted, I know I am not the only non-famous person in the world who knows people like these. It is odd how some of us cross paths like this from time to time.

I could move to some out of the way place in Colorado, and live right next door to someone like Sandra Bullock or Selma Hayek, and would never know because of my blinder style walking. Oh, well.

You never know whom you will meet from day to day, or what sort of impact you will have on someone's life. Be the best person you can be to others, and it will come back around to you.