Fame V. Humility

It is an American ideal to be famous. Not even for this or that accomplishment, but at times just famous because, well, you're famous! (Kardashians, that's your cue!) People are willing to undergo all sorts of abuse, abasement and agony simply for a few moments of notoriety. even with a promise of such. We have no nobility as such in our country, but the people who have those fifteen minutes in the spotlight come close.
Of course, it is all so ephemeral and transient. Flip through those gossip mags of just a few months ago, and the chances are that most of the people therein are best summed up thusly: who? The few, the very few, who have maintained their place in the public eye through talent, determination and a well-paid publicity staff, these are the people who exemplify an American paradox: the endless quest for fame versus the virtue of humility.
Isn't that one of the consistent characteristics listed when an everyday person meets some superstar (an overused term, by the way)? He or she is just like you or me, even shunning the attention they so assiduously pursue. In fact, that's one of the things we both expect of our heroes and yet find scandalous if they prove vulnerable after all.
Maybe it is because we misunderstand what fame and/or humility really mean. Fame has come to be something we reach by our own stellar qualities, not something that happens when others come to see something worthwhile in us. In the same way, humility has gotten confused with humiliation, the idea being that we scuff our toes in the dirt and say, aw shucks, folks, it ain't nuthin'.
But in our multi-media world, no one can avoid those fifteen minutes of fame Mr. Warhol identified all those years ago. And in a life with more ups-and-downs  than a manic roller coaster,  we all are familiar with hitting bottom.
The important idea is not succeeding or failing, but what we do then.   Do we take up residence in Mr. Bunyan's Slough of Despond, or do we carry on some frantic pretense of fame as so clearly limned in Sunset Boulevard? Or do we just try to live the best life we can without seeking everyone's love and attention or dreading universal disapproval?
When we let others' approbation (or lack thereof) define us, we stop being who we are. As the old ballplayer put it, "Be who you is. 'Cause if you ain't, then you isn't who you is."