The news reports this morning that Britney Spears has shaved her head, has been adding tattoos, and may or may not have entered rehab. Presumably, the rehab is related to substance abuse, and if she has a problem in that area I hope she gets the help she needs. But my hunch is that a surplus of hair, a poverty of skin art, and an indulgence in alcohol are the least of her problems.
A disclaimer: I am not a Britney fan. Neither her music, her marriage history, her wardrobe (or lack thereof) nor her self and social contortions in search of publicity are of particular interest to me. I have not developed a taste for her "art."
But I find myself grieving on her behalf. What began as a fetching, energetic, if not all that original step into the entertainment arena has evolved, over the years, into cartoonish parody. Fair Britney has careened from one silly and melodramatic absurdity to the next in what seems -- at least to this admittedly disinterested observer -- like a tragic grasp at significance. And who, after all, doesn't want to matter?
I haven't shaved my head and I've never really understood tattoos; I've certainly never made it into "People" magazine, but in my own subtler way I suppose I've done my share of clawing for attention. Trying to matter. Begging to be noticed. And my suspicion is that such attempts look no better on me than they do on Britney.
In my better moments, I recognize how unnecessary are the graspings. Significance, after all, is the grace of the gospel. As far as God is concerned, we don't have to gyrate in a spotlight and recklessly careen from one camera to the next. We have already been noticed. And we already matter. It has to do with that whole "image of God" idea, and the voice that we, too, might hear if we interrupted our preening and prancing and paused long enough to hear it: a voice saying "you, too, are my child, in whom I am well pleased."
Maybe, in other words, it is our idea of fame and significance -- of the opinion that truly matters -- that needs the time in rehab.
In the meantime, I'm going to go comb my hair while I still have it. I'll be bald soon enough.
A disclaimer: I am not a Britney fan. Neither her music, her marriage history, her wardrobe (or lack thereof) nor her self and social contortions in search of publicity are of particular interest to me. I have not developed a taste for her "art."
But I find myself grieving on her behalf. What began as a fetching, energetic, if not all that original step into the entertainment arena has evolved, over the years, into cartoonish parody. Fair Britney has careened from one silly and melodramatic absurdity to the next in what seems -- at least to this admittedly disinterested observer -- like a tragic grasp at significance. And who, after all, doesn't want to matter?
I haven't shaved my head and I've never really understood tattoos; I've certainly never made it into "People" magazine, but in my own subtler way I suppose I've done my share of clawing for attention. Trying to matter. Begging to be noticed. And my suspicion is that such attempts look no better on me than they do on Britney.
In my better moments, I recognize how unnecessary are the graspings. Significance, after all, is the grace of the gospel. As far as God is concerned, we don't have to gyrate in a spotlight and recklessly careen from one camera to the next. We have already been noticed. And we already matter. It has to do with that whole "image of God" idea, and the voice that we, too, might hear if we interrupted our preening and prancing and paused long enough to hear it: a voice saying "you, too, are my child, in whom I am well pleased."
Maybe, in other words, it is our idea of fame and significance -- of the opinion that truly matters -- that needs the time in rehab.
In the meantime, I'm going to go comb my hair while I still have it. I'll be bald soon enough.
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1 comment:
these people are surrounded by others that feed off of them. The people around them have a vested intersest in thier selfdestuction, ie Anna Smith . There has to someone in the entertainment industy that has the guts to say lets get these people help. but good news never sells.Its like everyone is looking for thier fifteen minutes of ame and will do anything for it.
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