Celebrity? You Have My Sympathy

I don’t know how many funerals occurred last week, but it is estimated that, worldwide, 156,000 people die every day.  Many of those happen in obscurity and have no memorial service of any kind.  Certainly very few memorial services are televised and watched by millions.  Is it unfair or unseemly that a celebrity’s death gets such attention while brave and honorable people die and are buried in near anonymity?

My answer is, "no". A celebrity’s death gets all the attention for one simple reason: a life lived in the spotlight of public consciousness.  The death is “newsworthy” precisely because the person lived a very public life.  And the more controversial the public life, the more newsworthy the death. Such media attention at the death of a celebrity does not in any way minimize or trivialize the lives and death of “real” people.

Who’s lives are more trivialized: those who have fans who love them because of their talent or those who have friends and family who love them because of who they are?

Two funerals happened last week that affected my life much more than the one on television.

 One was the 30 year old son of long time friends.  In fact, this young man’s father officiated the ceremony where Mrs. Sweetie became my Mrs. I have not seen the young man in years and did not get news of his death in time to attend the service.  But my grief was real because people I love were saying goodbye to the son they love and their lives matter to God and to me.  It caused me to want to make the most of every moment I have with my own grown up kids, to pray for them more diligently, and to send more of those “I love you” text messages that seem to be our most efficient means of communication.

The other was my son-in-law’s father, who died suddenly of a heart attack at age 57.  He lived in Iran and the last time he was in the U.S. was 14 months ago to attend the wedding that brought us into an extended family. The first time I met him was four days before the wedding.  The last time I spoke to him was a month later when he called me from the airport to thank me for all I had done for his son.  We talked about how we looked forward to his next visit.  Our worlds and our worldview were very different, but the love we have for our children brought us together as friends.

We gathered over the weekend with our “Persian family” who were unable to go to Iran to say goodbye to the father, brother, uncle they loved. It caused some of the same emotions and desires for me because their lives matter to God and to me. I will pray more diligently to make the most of every opportunity to demonstrate the ultimate reality that gives me hope (1 Peter 3:15).

I wonder how many people felt that way after watching the celebrity’s funeral.  My point exactly.