Brangelina No More

You may or may not have heard the shocking news featured on every tabloid and celebrity paper recently but Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt broke up. Something about how they didn't feel compatible anymore--according to one source, Brad's treatment of their children wasn't up to Angelina's expectations. This bewildered the entire world because so many people (including myself) saw Angelina and Brad--Brangelina--as the power couple. They were the couple in Hollywood that everyone swore would be married up to the day they died. I'm sure people thought that they would be holding hands the moment they drew their last breath--together.

When I heard the news about their impending divorce from one of my friends a few days ago, I was, of course, stunned. I don't follow Hollywood events very often but even I knew about the great romance of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. As the day went on, more and more people found out. When my friend Ally learned of the news, I remember how her wide eyes filled with surprise. No one could believe it. It caught us all off guard and for some reason, saddened us.

But why is that? Have you ever wondered why a break up halfway across the country should make us sad? Why do our hearts break when we hear this news and why do we feel slightly disappointed as if the couple has let us down? Why should it matter so much that two people we don't even know are leaving each other?

It got me thinking that ordinary citizens, like you and me, invest so much of ourselves into the lives of celebrities, people we don't know. We see them as perfect stars, something we can never really measure up to. We memorize useless and small facts about them, absentmindedly gathering facts about their lives, habits, and family members. We marvel at what they do--their charity, their generosity--and scramble to know everything about them. They become our role models, our heroes.

What we forget is that they are human. Celebrities are not infallible--they are just like us. They may be prettier, nicer, wiser, or more talented but they are nevertheless human. We, the ordinary citizens, are the ones who make them to be more than they are. By giving them attention and fame, we require celebrities to be paragons of our best beliefs. And in doing so, we forget that they are human. And that humans make mistakes. This forgotten fact is the reason for the constant pouring over tabloid articles and the dismay in our gut when we realize that our favorite couple was not as in love as we thought.

What Brangelina's break up did was crack the belief of celebrities' perfection. It showed us that things may not always be how they look and that it is easy for us to believe in the facade. So is it better to believe in the facade of a happy marriage or the truth? I guess it goes back to the old adage "Ignorance is bliss".

I don't know.

Not Simply Paper and Ink

For those of you who know me, you know that one of my biggest passions (now and for the rest of my life) is books. I think the first time I opened a book was the first time I felt true joy. Believe it or not, I didn't start avidly reading until second grade. I'd like people to believe that I've always loved reading and that I am a born natural at it, but that would be a lie. 

In fact, I originally hated reading. I much preferred movies to books. To me as a child, books were a waste of space--why would you want to read something when you could watch it on the big screen? To feel the action and be completely immersed in the movie characters? Movies did all the work for you but books required you to do half the work: it required you to imagine. If you couldn't imagine, all you were left staring at is bound pieces of paper with black ink on them. For some reason, I just couldn't get into books--they bored me as soon as I flipped them open and every time I forced myself to read a novel, I would be gazing raptly at the TV within five minutes of opening the book. 

For my fifth birthday, my aunt bought me a children's novel about cats. You may have heard of Erin Hunter's series Warriors. It's basically about a bunch of talking wild cats that live in the forest. Yeah, that sounds dumb but to children? That's pure genius. Anyways, when I received the book, I tossed it in the nearest corner because like come on, it's a book. 

It wasn't until a year later that I, lazing around in my room and bored out of my mind, picked up the book and decided to give it a shot. I didn't plan on getting past the first page. In fact, I thought I would quit after the first paragraph. 

But something strange happened. I felt like was pulled into a completely different world, a world where I was with the main character. I could feel what they felt, I could see what they saw, and I could do what they could do. I ended up finishing up that novel within three hours and hungry for more, requested the rest of the series from the local library. 

Something was awakened in me. I wanted to read everything after that first book in the Warriors series--everything. Books were no longer simply paper and ink. No, those pages were alive with action, adventure, and romance. My imagination was alive. I wanted to launch myself between alternate universes and live the lives of very different characters. I wanted to experience what they felt, do what they did. But perhaps what I craved the most was the epiphanies that really good books gave me. For example, after I read The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (a book about the Washington college boys who went to the 1936 Olympics), I felt enlightened and wiser. Going through the journey of how the boys got together in the beginning, their individual lives and habits, their goals and wishes, their victorious win at Berlin, and finally, their passing into the next world, made me feel like I got somewhere. Like I somehow took in the life lessons they learned as the book progressed. 

I still love reading. It will forever be an escape and a solace when I'm feeling down or upset. Of course, anything in excess is not good for you and that probably pertains to reading, too. (So maybe reading three full-length novels in one day is not good). But it's comforting to know that I will always have something to run to for the rest of my life.