One good thing I like about this pandemic is that it has dimmed the spotlight on the “self.” The obsession with “I, me, myself” is being put into the background, albeit for the moment at least. Although I wish that it would be part of the new better future after this whole thing is over.
Only recently, we had an American president who lost the elections because he was the star of a movie in his mind. He couldn’t step aside. Everything about what was happening was all about himself. After all, his whole life was about being the star of his reality TV show. Good riddance!
An irate viewer who got exasperated with a camera hogging television journalist commented: “Spin the camera toward the furious crowd—there’s the real story.”
Our small group of senior retirees dreads the presence of one member because when he starts talking about his past achievements he always manages to magnify his role in incidents he relates. Like a good film editor, he would edit each story, prune out the unflattering scenes, leave only scenes where he has speaking parts, delete other characters to give himself more scenes and in the end, he is the one who wins it all, in spite of the odds, whether it’s a girl, a project, or a business deal. As another friend puts it: “A legend in his own mind.”
The said friend is OK otherwise but he is just one of the list of people I know and met who are always performing as the star in their own biopics. Such individuals remind me of Norma Desmond’s classic line in Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard: “You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!… All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
A few months ago I chanced on this story in a recent Fr. Jerry Orbos column. The scene was a vehicular accident and a woman brusquely pushed aside a man attending to the victim to make way because she announced she took a short course on first aid, only to learn that the man she was pushing aside is a full-pledged doctor.
I believe it was T. S. Eliot who once acerbically commented: “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.”
This is exactly the problem we have as we fumble our way out of this pandemic. Many in the government who ought to know better don’t want to get out of the spotlight. Everybody has been screaming “leave it to the experts.” But no matter what, two non-expert Laurel and Hardy are suddenly claiming they have just the medicine to prevent Covid or to lessen the length of convalescence. And they brag about the anecdotal evidence to prove it, even to the extent of undermining the credibility of institutions and the profession that rely on scientific evidence. The more they hog the headlines, the louder they get. Foolhardy or not, they get the close-ups they want on the evening news. Come election time, they’re hoping people will remember them as “heroes” who saved the day for all of us.
Oh, it’s not really whether the medicine they are giving away with complete disregard for the law is really effective. It’s really about themselves.
Just a few days ago, the local twitterverse was aghast by the sight of a well-known toady posing for the camera, appearing to be consoling victims of a helicopter accident before being rushed to the hospital. Based on the several shots distributed on social media, the ambulance must have been held from leaving immediately, wasting precious minutes, so the poseur could be seen to be at the center of the action.
But these are just the exceptions. Over all, people seem to be content to give the spotlight to others who deserve the attention. I see celebrities and known personalities who are now applauding the efforts of medical frontliners, volunteers, do-gooders in playing valued roles during the pandemic.
We who have always craved being heard for our opinions, we need to tone down our volume. Let us learn to listen and give the megaphone to others who know better, for the sake of the greater good. After all, we are all in the same clinic, rich or poor, powerful or powerless, and we need to have the humility to listen to what the doctor is saying.
Watch, observe and reflect. This plague continues to cut down doctors, politicians, executives, wealthy individuals, and media personalities. Many used to be in the spotlight, relishing the status of being the center of attention, playing a central role in their respective fields.
It’s time to shut down the lights and the camera on our selves. It’s time to move them to where the real story is.
The real story is other people. Think about the famous quote attributed to the writer Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
It’s not how much “I” have achieved. It’s how much people have been changed by what “I” did to them.
Who were the people who got us to where we are now? How are the people who are supposed to be in our care? Did we thank them enough? Did we help them enough in their hour of need? Do we think about how they’re doing during this pandemic?
Shakespeare likened our world to a stage where we are all players. If indeed living is just like performing in a play or film, be guided by the great Russian theater director and theater mentor: “Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art.”
Consumed by delusion, Norman Desmond at the sunset of her career acclaims: I am big! It’s the pictures that got small!
Well I have a message for people with delusions of being the big star in the narrative of their own lives.
Take the moment to get yourself out of the biopic of your life now. See the big picture. Focus on the small things, those seemingly trivial things that need our attention right now. For small things in this surging pandemic can spell the difference between life and death.