The Culture of Celebrity

Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson. Kobe, Angelina, Brad and Michael Jackson. We place so much trust in mere mortals forgetting that all men rise and fall. All men have clay feet. All men have the potential for greatness and the possibility of despair. After everything, we all are only human.

We equate the ability to hit a ball into a little round hole, throwing a basketball through a hoop, jumping high with success because of the endorsements. "Eat what I eat, drive what I drive, wear what I wear and you'll be like me. You'll be able to jump and run too", is the message that every commercial our children see on Saturday morning revolves. And when one of our idols falls from grace, we take it personally. We feel wronged, personally injured. We invest emotional ties into people that don't know that we exist, have never prepared us a meal, invited us to their homes, treated us as family.

While we spend time in idol worship, we neglect the true heroes and role models- our mothers and fathers, primaty caregivers, nurses, teachers,the volunteers at the soup kitchen, the good Samaritan that helps us change a tire. We neglect those who affect our lives and the lives of our children. We are unwilling to give a teacher a wage that she can raise her family, balk at the price of daycare, all the while buying clothes and cars that we have been conditioned to think will make us appear powerful and important.

We have forgotten the one axiom that has always stood true. The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. And it is this forgotten axiom that has led to the poverty of our daycare providers, our teachers, our volunteers. The societal obligations that we place on each other are far less than those that we place upon the shoulders of men and women who are mere mortals. We place them above ourselves and somehow view them as closer to God. We watch Michael Jordan jump and hold on to the air for a hangtime of 15 seconds, forgetting that this talent is God-given. We watch Tiger hit a ball into a small hole and forget that he is a man with a family who is now an adulterer. We watch Oprah and hang on her every word and do not speak of her 25 year fornication with her lover. We forgive those that we do not know and judge those that we see everyday.

I do not believe that an actress or athlete who has the means to travel is better because s/he chooses to spend time in a war torn country is better than the woman on a fixed income that sends a check to Feed the Children or a church's missionary fund. The plight of the world's poor and disadvantaged pale in comparison when we neglect those we see everyday. When the world has a calamity, I do not care what Britney Spears thinks about it. I do, however, care what my mother would think and how she would feel about my actions or inaction.

In Islam, we are taught that we are all equally responsible for our communities. Each person has a right over another and our own bodies have rights over us. We have an obligation to care for one another. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that charity begins at the end of our hand. We start with those around us and radiate outward. We are also taught that no man is to be set above another in the eyes of God. We learn that wealth carries both a blessing and a curse and that those who are wealthy carry the obligation of assisting those in need.

I am not impressed easily by those we would consider celebrities. I recognize that they are the flavor of the week. We mere mortals are a fickle bunch and tomorrow we will have another to take their places. To assist one another in a time of need is what we are supposed to do. One does not applaud the tenor for clearing his throat.