Stars

Someone made an interesting comment the other day about the people we admire and put on a pedestal and it got me thinking.  In this day and age the popular people, people we look up to, admire and use as role models are a lot different than they were 1,000 + years ago.  It seems today we like people who have money, power, or fame.  We like actors, we have baseball trading cards, we create dream teams of our favorite football players and the more money you have the more power you can get.  But it wasn't always that way (except maybe the money = power part).  In the times of the Greeks, Romans, Spartans, etc, the people you admired and built statues of were warriors, philosophers, and poets.  Actors were people just struggling to get by, there for entertainment of the rich and games were played by servants.  I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with liking actors, admiring a good movie, or getting lost in a close game; I like many of those things myself, I have my list of favorite actors, movies that I like and sports teams that fascinate me.  But maybe some of our time would be better spent if we focused a little of that energy and admiration on people who really made a difference in our lives, people who do things that go unnoticed.  Such as the men and women that serve our country and protect our freedom, that more often get ridiculed rather than praised and admired.  Or doctors that work hard to keep us healthy or get us well, that in this day and age are more likely to find themselves at the end of a lawsuit.  Just a thought from someone who herself spends way too much admiration on fluffy things.