Ali Campbell weekly column
Monday 03 October 2011
Well, if you are reading this then the prediction of doom and gloom and the end of the world on September 26th must have been wrong... Again! This 'end of the world' was actually postponed from earlier in the year, I think it was put back due to a lack of interest. I'm not sure whether the promise of global annihilation is just too weak a marketing message for anyone to take notice or what, but I would have thought that if there had been the merest 'hint' that it might be true then we might have heard a little more about it. I mean, what's more important Cheryl and Ashley, Brad and Ang or the end of civilisation as we know it?
Perhaps however the two are not quite as mutually exclusive you you might think. Does the fascination on the Cole Pitts et al serve as a far more obvious pointer to the imminent demise of civilisation than a big ball of ice 10km across ever could.
As I write this I am sitting on a flight to LA LA land. Home of the fantasy where it is said that dreams are only a heart beat away. It's true, they lie broken and bitter, littering the sidewalks, cafes, street corners and every fast food joint in Tinseltown. 'Do you want fries with that' is the opening line of many an 'actor' in Hollywood.
So what is it about our fascination with big pictures that makes the even bigger picture of our own life seam somehow less important, less deserving, less glamourous than the veneer that is celebrity?
I know that if you are reading this then not only are you alive but that you have a keen interest in the comings, goings and doings of the stars. It is not my intention to say you are wrong, or that reading about celebrity is just mindless nonsense. But it is my absolute intention to remind you that those you choose to celebrate are chosen by you and that you hold the power and that you should never ever feel the need to either crave their apparent 'success' or belittle yourself in their shadow.
In reality Tinseltown has 2 things in great abundance, broken dreams and therapists. More per head of population than anywhere else on the planet. So if the pursuit of fame and fortune is such a worthy and fascinating goal, why does it have so many casualties? Good people with good intentions chewed up and spat out by a machine that is of their own making, by the thought that 'when I just get to "there" then I'll be successful, then I'll be ok.' And in doing so keeping themselves in the game long after they have run out of talent and opportunity, slipping into an ever decreasing spiral of desperation to hang on to the dream, to the fantasy that is only and was only ever real in the cutting room of their own mind.
You are already a star, you can be a star that can shine so bright as to show the way to everyone around you and all you have to do is to allow the real you to shine through. No matter how you a feeling right now you are only ever one thought away from feeling better and only a heartbeat away from catching your dreams and making them your reality so long as you do not become a prisoner to your own hopes, thoughts, and fears. Stop and allow your own wellbeing to come back into your life, you cannot chase it, no one can give you it or cast you in it, It is already yours but whether you allow it and feel it is up to you. It's just a thought away... Always.