During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. Jeremiah 3:6-9
The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear,
nor is there breath in their mouths.
Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them. - Psalm 135: 15-18
Don’t front and act like I’m the only one here. Y’all know what I’m talking about. She was the “it” girl in Strictly Business and from then on I was finished. I was ten years old at the time and I hadn’t seen anything on earth that looked that good in my whole entire life! Who is this person? How do I meet her? Do you think she’ll make an exception on my age?
I was hopeful… hahaha.
The next thing that I saw her in was Boomerang and it took me a while to get over my anger with Eddie Murphy. First of all they tried to dumb down her looks so that Robin Givens could shine for 70% of the movie. That was a tragedy and a lie. Secondly why did Eddie’s character have to do her so wrong only to end up with her in the end?
I had her back, Jack! You weren’t gonna do Halle wrong on my watch.
I look back on this and laugh because of course I didn’t have a crush on Halle the real person. I crushed hard on my image of her. Over the years I have had many celebrity crushes just like the rest of you. And really I’m not mad at it. It’s fun to talk to your friends about who is the coolest or the most attractive and what not. My friends and I spent many hours in heated debates on these topics.
But celebrity is a tricky thing. We watch these people on movies, TV shows, and sports and we think for some reason that we know them from their art; when all we have done is deify their image.
Celebrity worship is at an all time high. Just look at the prosperity of TMZ and the like and you won’t be able to deny it. We love our celebrities and want to know as much as we possibly can about them. We like to read about their relationships and their scandals hoping that the more we know them from far away, the more real they will become. But in reality they become objects of our affection; caricatures of image and marketing. Whatever humanity they have that makes it through the media machine becomes deified.
We transform them from human beings into things.
This phenomenon is often times harmless but it does suggest a bigger problem I think. Often times we try to compare this fake fantasy world with the real world around us. We look at our potential real life mates and judge them against this impossible standard of celebrity worship and wonder why we cannot find a “good man” or a “good woman”. If we are not careful we will lose touch of reality while chasing a mythical treasure.
And when we hustle and possibly get to the end of that rainbow we will find that the treasure chest is filled with fool’s gold.
It’s fun to have our celebrity crushes and be interested in their lives but let’s put a limit on it. They are not their “image”. They are human beings just like us who have jobs that happen to be a bit more visible.
P.S. All this being said… if you are reading this Halle… I’ve had your back for years. We have a connection. I’m sure of it. And one day maybe we’ll meet and you’ll feel too. It’ll be magic!
