NOT EASY TO IMPRESS FAMILY & FRIENDS
By OLIVENE GODFREY
Most people discover it isn't easy to impress the home folks. No matter how high a person may rise in the world, often the people in his hometown,even his family, aren't very impressed with him or her. There are probably many reasons why people are slow to recognize the achievements of their own. Maybe they still remember the famed person as, "that skinny kid" or the "shy child" or that the person was "always sorta eccentric". So, they find it hard to believe the person could be capable of achieving greatness.
I remember when I told a schoolteacher aunt that I was working on a novel she scoffed and asked, "How could YOU write a novel?"
If I hadn't been raised to respect my elders, I would have replied that I was writing about our family which is straight out of a Southern Gothic novel. I've read of how some persons who have achieved fame have found upon returning to their hometown that old friends' treat them a certain aloofness.
The old friends sometimes claim the "celebrity" has a "big head". But, some of these famed individuals claim they are the same people, that its the old friends' attitudes toward them that have changed. I suspect that often the old friends are a bit envious of their hometown celebrity.
Many actors start out in life as very shy people, afraid of others, and what others think of them. They compensate for their initial shyness by taking up a profession in which it is necessary to face people constantly. And often after they become successful, these people remain timid and unsure of themselves. So, they gain a reputation of being snobbish. But, psychologists tell us that snobbery is a kind of wall built around themselves and behind which they often cringe to keep others from finding out what they are really like.
Some people, whether they or famous or not, need someone to help bolster their self-confidence so that they will dare to take down their own wall.
Oscar Wilde said,"Anyone can sympathize with the suffering of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success."
See you next time.
By OLIVENE GODFREY
Most people discover it isn't easy to impress the home folks. No matter how high a person may rise in the world, often the people in his hometown,even his family, aren't very impressed with him or her. There are probably many reasons why people are slow to recognize the achievements of their own. Maybe they still remember the famed person as, "that skinny kid" or the "shy child" or that the person was "always sorta eccentric". So, they find it hard to believe the person could be capable of achieving greatness.
I remember when I told a schoolteacher aunt that I was working on a novel she scoffed and asked, "How could YOU write a novel?"
If I hadn't been raised to respect my elders, I would have replied that I was writing about our family which is straight out of a Southern Gothic novel. I've read of how some persons who have achieved fame have found upon returning to their hometown that old friends' treat them a certain aloofness.
The old friends sometimes claim the "celebrity" has a "big head". But, some of these famed individuals claim they are the same people, that its the old friends' attitudes toward them that have changed. I suspect that often the old friends are a bit envious of their hometown celebrity.
Many actors start out in life as very shy people, afraid of others, and what others think of them. They compensate for their initial shyness by taking up a profession in which it is necessary to face people constantly. And often after they become successful, these people remain timid and unsure of themselves. So, they gain a reputation of being snobbish. But, psychologists tell us that snobbery is a kind of wall built around themselves and behind which they often cringe to keep others from finding out what they are really like.
Some people, whether they or famous or not, need someone to help bolster their self-confidence so that they will dare to take down their own wall.
Oscar Wilde said,"Anyone can sympathize with the suffering of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success."
See you next time.
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