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Journalism of Courage
Why the millionth ‘‘lifestyle’’ channel, late-night party show on TV?
It starts out innocently enough. You’re encouraged to dream the dream, to reach for the stars. And then you grow up. And realise that you have to be grounded, in touch with reality, to figure out what you stand for and how to make it in life.
Make what exactly? The perfect life, with the perfect partner, the gorgeous house, charming kids, the whole package. All this without losing sight of who you are. We all know that good guys never end up ahead but that doesn’t mean we have to completely change ourselves, just to get ahead. Get ahead of who? Of what? What is it that we’re all constantly comparing ourselves to? What are we turning into? A bunch of obsessive, angst-ridden losers, if you ask me.
What are the things we value in life? The things that make us who we are? The things that make us unique?
Unique? Now there’s a laugh. Most of us are so run-of-the-mill, it’s scary. Remember Mena Suvari’s character in American Beauty? I mean what worse curse than being normal, right?
What a shock it is, then, to realise that you’re just a regular average Joe or Jane. That the world isn’t going to rest at your feet. That you’re not a Brad Pitt or a Nicole Kidman and never will be. That you might just about scrape through life with a side-order of happiness, but don’t even begin to take that for granted.
Average. That’s what most of us are. Just going by the definition of the word. How can the majority of people be anything but average, when the average is determined by them?
In today’s world, with its emphasis on the extraordinarily beautiful or intelligent or just plain rich, one of the hardest things is to live with the fact that you are ordinary. Average even. To live with that every day and not drive yourself insane, to not get suicidal. Just digest it and try and move on. That’s what’s tough, really.
The cold realisation that you’re just one speck, that there are six billion people out there, that millions of them share your dreams, but will have to settle for the ordinary life.
Perhaps, that’s why the millionth lifestyle channel or late-night party show on TV.
Guard your remote.
