Pop Stars

A pop star visiting My Bangkok

In my Bangkok, one pop star at a time is enough.  During this past week, I had a most happy time with my pop star for the week, a niece visiting from back home.  While she was here, the big announcement was formally made by the Thai Church that the Pope is coming to Thailand in November.  This led to the sudden rise in my Bangkok of what I have named as the 'pop star' syndrome. 

There is all the understandable hype and excitement that accompanies such an announcement, especially when the present pope is more than just a pope.  He is a man well loved and respected by the everyday citizen, a man readily seen as a world leader when the world so lacks leaders at a time when it so needs good leaders.

So, on learning of his upcoming visit, the questions immediately arise-
Where will he be?
When?
How do we get to see him?
In a short time, it all gets too much and you realize that you have a pop star on your hands, or that is how people are superficially treating him.  It just is he isn't a pop star.  He is a simple and humble man with a simple message.

In the midst of all going on around me, it is about keeping the perspective of who he is and respecting who he is. As for me, I plan to quietly respect the man who is my hero.  I will not rush for a front row seat but go to a coffee shop in my Bangkok and sit and wait in hope that some local citizen may ask me who is the guy that they are making all the fuss about.  I will gladly share then about the man who is not my pop star but my hero - a man of and for the poor; a man who shows us a way to living a better life.   

My niece would be shocked to hear me name her as a rock star as she would just see herself as one of the everyday citizens, a good person living life as best she can. 

People are fickle.  They have very short memories and generally lack creativity.  My niece and the pope both deserve better than being the recipients of the simplistic adulation of the crowds.  They can get on and do what they do best - live life and in the process make their contribution to humanity.