Fame

If you remember the tv series, Fame, give yourself 50 bonus points. 

Oh my, Fame was so removed from my own life as a 23-year-old wife and mother back there in 1982, but still, you'd always find me sitting on the couch, all avid and rabid, in front of the tv each Thursday night for Fame. 

I loved that show--its characters, especially, and the singing, dancing and plot lines, too. Everything.

Fame's School of Performing Arts' teachings hit squarely on my own ambitions. In high school, I'd been a gold medal gymnast (tiny, school--do not be impressed), so the dancing fascinated me. And I'd been known for my poetry,too, so during Fame when they'd talk about never giving-up and doing whatever work necessary to achieve your dreams, I was so there. I'd envision myself as the next Emily Dickinson, though of course, hoping my own drawer of a thousand poems would be discovered and appreciated before I died, not after. シ

Every much-anticipated episode, Fame fed my ambitions, causing them, sadly, to grow too big to fit inside my little house. So, well, I mostly became dissatisfied and frustrated with my perfectly-fine-God-given lot in life.

But it wasn't Fame's fault. Those kids were doing what they were called to do--and they knew it. And in my tiny home, I was doing what I was called to do, yet I didn't know it. At least, not for absolute certain--it was a come-and-go, wispy kind of feeling.

Way back during those years I still believed that fame, (the thing, not the show), was something that could fix the wrong and missing parts  inside of me. I thought if everyone knew my name and appreciated me and my talents, well, that would made me truly happy.

Wrong. At least, wrong for me.

Later, in my mid-thirties I finally had the 'fame' and appreciation I'd craved years before, but oh-so-fortunately, it came after something new happened between God and me. It came after friendship with God and paled by comparison. 

Also by this time, I didn't want to be or do anything apart from Him.  The credit, the appreciation would always belong to Him because every idea and word and ounce of strength came from Him to enable me to do anything of lasting value.

In finding closeness to God, I finally found my 'fame.' And it was enough--and will always be.


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Oh and Fame (the series) finally came out on dvd. I was scared, though, to buy this series, since I'm such a different woman now than that earlier one. Would I still love the series?

Oh yes. The love is still there.

But really, Fame is like watching tv from a different planet. Fame still makes me laugh, dream and remember what being young felt like it was like being young, just beginning adulthood. And it still greatly inspires and motivates me, only in different ways. 

It's as though I'm watching Fame through totally new blue eyes. And actually, I am.


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To read more about Fame, click here. Scroll down.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17


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