Busy week for Hollywood Undertakers
In light of all the dying that’s been going on in Hollywood lately, I got to thinking.
Ed McMahon, really was a poster boy for what’s wrong with humanity. Not that he WAS what’s wrong with humanity, but he was afflicted with what is wrong with humanity.
Our society seems to have a collective dream for immortality, but, as a society, we have no interest in supporting the people living the dream. Fifty years ago, if you lived to be 80, that was really something! Now, if you don’t live to 80 people think you were a self-abusive monster.
Poor Ed. He outlived his bankroll, and we all just watched, gasping through clenched teeth as he was reduced to dressing up as a rapper and doing “sell your gold” commercials. It’s sad. Sure, he was living the Hollywood life, and spending with vigor, but there’s plenty of people down here who are stuck on the same treadmill. Forced out of work because of mandatory retirement, but needing to work because inflation and corporate robber-barons Madoff with all their retirement savings. Relegated to minimum wage jobs to pay for their drugs so that can live longer, so they can work more, so they can pay for their drugs, so they can live longer…. Anybody remember that PSA?
What’s the difference?
Then, there’s Michael… always living way beyond his means….and way outside reality. Hmm… what could that be a metaphor for?
Then, there was Farrah. A little bit of Ed, a little bit of Michael, and a whole lot of 70’s living coming home to roost.
Each is sad in their own way, but each is also instructive. Take this chance to see past the tragedy, to the lessons these lives have to teach.