When I grab a coffee from the machine at work,I generally choose a café latte, or a macchiato if in the mood for something a bit stronger. The hot milk pours in first and then there is the froth, but as the coffee pours, I will make some kind of pattern by moving the cup.
If no one is around.
Because that is embarrassing.
The other day, I walked in to get a coffee and I must have been quiet enough, because I surprised our lawyer making her coffee. She turned ad looked embarrassed, as she explained that she likes to make a pattern in the froth when the coffee pours.
How embarrassing.
I let her off the hook and told how I do the same. But I also found it funny how two mature people, will still create silly little games for ourselves. At least I am in good company, as she is a very talented and experienced lawyer. But, what is her excuse to behave like me?
I have actually known her for many years prior to working with her at the company, and we headed to lunch today to enjoy dumplings together. I had never heard of this place before, but I enjoy trying them because I rarely get to go to new restaurants because my wife and daughter's allergies limit us. We end up going to where we know there is a selection and the food is okay.
Perhaps this is why I make patterns in my coffee.
My life is so ordinary.
This isn't a bad thing at all, but it just makes me wonder if the billionaires and celebrities would have similar silly quirks, playing little games to make life somehow a bit more interesting.
We don't really get insight into their day to day lives, even though we see a lot of what goes on these days through their curated stories. With the odd peek behind the curtain however, we often see that it is a utter freak show, like what has come out from the P-Diddy stories from his personal life and the parties he threw.
We often look to achieve glory by association by trying to place ourselves close to celebrity of some kind, even if it is buying their branded perfume or a label they wear. However, there is also guilt by association too, right? All those celebrities at the "White" parties he threw, aren't they somehow complicit also?
Making coffee patterns probably doesn't cut it at that level.
What has been made pretty clear over the last years where there is more personal information leakage from celebrities and politicians, is that a lot of them seem to be pretty extreme in what they enjoy. There are many likely reasons for it, but I reckon a big part of it comes down to boredom and access. They get whatever they want handed to them for free, with people looking for glory willing to do whatever they want just to be close, and in the end, the only way to keep the excitement is to ramp up. And there is always another person willing to sell themselves to get close and have their own taste of fame.
Sick world?
Sick audience perhaps. After all, these celebrities are voted by us, supported by us, paid by us. We enable then to live a life of opulence and availability of all things luxury, that we can only dream of experiencing. And then it seems that inevitably, they end up getting more and more extreme with their preferences.
Yet don't seem embarrassed at all.
While I worry about people seeing me "get my freak on" by making patterns in my coffee, there are people throwing heinous parties, or running casting couch auditions, without shame. And, there are people willing to do what is asked of them for a chance to have access to that kind of life in the future.
Money corrupts.
But while people talk about the rich, what people don't often consider is that not having money also corrupts. If those abused starlets were independently wealthy, would they have gone through with a Harvey Weinstein "audition" because they wanted to be an actress so badly?
My intuition says, no.
But we all want what we don't have in some way. And that means that when a person has nearly everything and can buy or get nearly anything, what is out of reach or hard to obtain becomes the premium demand.
I wonder, if we suddenly had full transparency into celebrity lives, how many of these people would live up to our personal standard of being good? Would we respect how they reached their current status? Would we like how they treat people? Would we want them in our lives as role models for our children?
What percentage pass our individual standards tests?
It is a hypothetical question, because we don't have that transparency, but I suspect not too many would. But, given the opportunities they have had open to them, how many of us would act differently to them?
Another unknowable.
We all want a bit more of something in life and I think it is healthy to do so. However, it is also good to note that there can be too much in our lives too. Having too much doesn't mean we pare back, it means we ramp up. We always want to advance, even if it is on a slippery slope downhill.
We all play games to entertain ourselves.
Some people just have a hell of a lot more with which to set their field of play.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
