FACEBOOK

My life's philosophy tends to run from the skeptical to the cynical, so it is with some surprise that, when I review my list of Facebook friends, I find myself impressed with this small sampling of humanity.

We live in a world where celebrity is granted to the most useless and vile specimens of our race. We are encouraged to slow our progress and gawk at them like the carnage of a roadside accident. News programs present their antics with the same gravity they allow to the rise and fall of nations. The subtext behind their soulless, powdered façades, though, is the excitement of children watching a burning anthill.

"Look, look! The freak show parade!"

"Which one has a baby from every continent?"

"Which has the oddest artificial anatomical anomaly?"

"I think I saw that one yelling at that other one!"

"Get me their colonoscopies!"

But my little group of Facebook friends is composed of creative and intelligent folks in whose company I take pride. Among them are singers, actors, comedians, artists, musicians and writers, all with honest talent. In a true meritocracy their prominence would far exceed the greater part of today's crop of 'celebrities' (I think this word is rapidly acquiring a mocking and pejorative connotation anyway).

I hope to highlight some of them in future posts. Assuming that I actually follow through with this plan, they will undoubtedly be fictionalized to a very great degree, especially since the truth requires much more research than I am willing to do. And also because I like making stuff up.