"Well wasn't *that* the swellest long weekend" he says sarcastically...
Best Easter weather on the east coast EVER and I spend most of it inside...packing for a trip to Toronto and packing for my upcoming house move.
But given what I learned, the hours of basement dwelling were well worth it (and if I say that enough times, I might even start to believe it).
Discovered amongst the dozens of boxes of personal effects were mint-condition business, showbiz and news magazines from 10 years ago. While most of the bold predictions made in 'em are, now in retrospect, overblown, naive and ultimately laughable (including my fave: the November 26, 1999 Canadian Business cover story "How The Internet Killed Television"), what really struck me were the people who made 'em.
The majority of 'em ain't front-and-center anymore.
Indeed, the world now travels at Internet speed, but going from feature story, full-page pundit to Men In Black memory-erased (ask your parents) in the space of ten years is an off-putting trend.
It's not like these folks have died off or burrowed deep into a rainforest. They've moved on with their lives; saw their companies close or die off or be merged with others; chose another career, what have you. They're still the same people.
It's just that, as quotable, photogenic media darlings, their time is up.
And was up a long time ago.
Warhol was right; today, everybody is famous for 15 minutes. Fame has become a commodity. What matters is not if you get it; what matters is what you do with your quarter-hour when you do.
The problem I've witnessed, being around so many of these spotlit people (and one may say being one myself from time-to-time) is that most of 'em don't realize they're on the clock. Once the spotlight hits, they think it stays on forever. The "Here Yesterday/Gone Today" lesson is one that's rarely learned without a letdown, or worse yet, without pain.
Undertaking the "Where Are They Now" exercise with my basement magazines taught me the following--
There are three things you can do with your time in the sun:
1--Enjoy it humbly and don't be a putz; memories of bad attitude behavior sadly and lengthily out-live the fame that creates them.
(To wit, this quote from job seeker Dave Morris in a Time Magazine 'net boom-era article called "GetRich.com": "I'm being careful who I'm handing my resume to. I don't have the bandwidth to meet with everyone." And then there's Britney Spears, who was Yahoo's top female search in 2000, and still ranks high up on the search charts today...albeit for different reasons.)
2--Reinvent yourself often for more chances to shine.
(Meg Whitman of eBay is now Meg Whitman the gubernatorial candidate. And 1999 Justin Timberlake of 'N Sync becomes 2002 Justin Timberlake the solo artist becomes 2008 Justin Timberlake the fashion designer becomes... )
3--Do something so incredible and spectacular that you become a Super-Nova and thus impervious to media fickleness and the whims of Warhol's clock
(Jeff Bezos was Time's "Man of The Year" in 1999, while Steve Jobs and Stephen King, two cover boys earlier that year, still seem to be at the top of their games).
Silly way to end this perhaps, but as a kid, one of my favorite songs was "Puff The Magic Dragon." Even back then, I was taken with the bittersweetness of the lyric:
"A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar"
If you're time isn't up yet, it's coming soon.
Use it wisely.