Tiger Woods and the limits of fame

Tiger Woods is famous, however I think he will not always be so. Mr. Woods will, one day, be what he once was: a “who?”.

A few days ago, Tiarnan heard the name Tiger Woods, at the dinner table. His name was mentioned in the context of the PS3 Playstation.

“What is Tiger Woods?”, Tiarnan, four, asked of the table, in general. No-one deigned to answer, but just let the question hang there, in the air, unanswered. Tiarnan looked around, expectantly, for a few long seconds, then took on the task himself: “Oh, I know, it is a LONG tiger.”

Clearly, somehow, the word “woods”, was associated, in his mind, with long objects.

Again, no-one answered or clarified for him. I didn’t do so because I was interested in his reasoning. I don’t know why his brothers didn’t do so. Perhaps they were more interested in eating dinner.

Tiarnan seemed very interested in the question of just what this Tiger Woods thing was all about. He sat alertly in his seat, his mind alive with possibilities.

“Is the Tiger woods game like Ultimate Alliance? Is it a fighting game?”

For those who don’t know, “Ultimate Alliance” is a superhero game based in the Marvel Universe. Evidently, that was just the type of game Tiarnan hoped for.

I decided to step in, at that moment, feeling that Tiarnan had struggled enough to understand what “Tiger Woods” was.

“Tiarnan: Tiger Woods is a golfer…he plays golf.”

Tiarnan didn’t quite know what to make of that. I could see the excited tension draining from him. He sat back down, less alertly than before. Golf obviously didn’t sound in the least exciting. He didn’t ask about Tiger Woods, again.

Now, this little scene allowed me to understand something. Fame is mortal. It dies with those who remember it. Thus, for Tiger Woods, only those who have seen him play, or heard news of his playing (both on and off the field!) are going to remember him. Thus it is that an entire generation can get to hear of him. However, if that fame is not renewed in the generations that follow, it will be lost. The day will come when Tiger Woods is no longer famous. This is already evident. Tiarnan is too young to have seen Tiger Woods play at his best. Recent times have been consumed with Tiger Woods’ problems. Tiarnan doesn’t watch the news, so he has no chance to get to hear of Woods, that way (and, to be frank, given the news on Mr. Woods, we wouldn’t want him to.). So, Tiarnan is in the position of never having seen Tiger Woods play –and never having seen him in the news, either. From Tiarnan’s perspective, Tiger Woods does not even exist. Tiarnan didn’t even know that Tiger Woods was a “who” and had considered that he might be a “what”. This is not Tiarnan’s failing. Tiarnan’s situation is likely to be fairly common for those in his age group. He is of the new generation that has not had the chance to yet become acquainted with Tiger Woods. In fact, if Woods stopped playing today, Tiarnan might NEVER hear who Tiger Woods is (or was).

Tiger Woods’ fame is based on something very temporary and fleeting. He hits a ball better than most people. That is it. Once people stop seeing him hit that ball, his fame will soon fade. He will be remembered, by the masses of his generation, for the duration of their lives…but the generations that follow may only be vaguely aware that there once was a golfer by that name. A significant proportion of the generation that immediately follows the end of his career, will never know who he is. As for the generations that follow, Tiger Woods can just forget about being recognized, remembered or cared for. The foundation of Tiger Woods’ fame, is something too insubstantial to last. It is not something that is renewed generation after generation. For a person to have lasting fame, their achievement or work, must either be relevant to each new generation or be reborn in each new generation. Otherwise, its creator is soon forgotten. Tiger Woods’ fame, though intense now, is of the forgettable variety. The day will come when only golfers and golfing historians remember him. The common man will not know Tiger Woods at all.
For a person to be famous to Tiarnan and those of his generation, a person from the past must impact their lives in some way. The famous person, must still have a reason to live in their hearts and minds. Tiger Woods does not truly have such a reason. Yet, others have. Shakespeare, will be remembered as long as his plays are performed: they are reborn for each new generation. Socrates will be remembered as long as his example as a thinker and teacher has power to move us to reflect. Einstein will be remembered as long as relativity is relevant to our lives and atomic power has any meaning at all. It is thus, those, whose work is enduringly relevant, that we remember. By this measure, however, it is clear that almost all modern famous people will not be famous for any longer than the duration of their lives – if that. Indeed, many modern famous people live long enough to become anonymous, again. It is not infrequently that I see the death of a “famous” person, on the news – a person whose fame is completely unknown to me, because it happened so long ago. They outlived their own celebrity and are only remembered by the oldest old.

The essential point of this post is that we must understand the limits of fame. Much fame is fleeting and built on insubstantial foundations. True fame, the kind that endures across the ages, is only accorded to those whose work is truly powerful in some way. In this way, the fickleness of modern fame, which often seems to be accorded on the undeserving, is righted. In the span of ages, only the truly worthy are remembered. Thus, it is that time distills the famous and leaves only those who were truly worthy of our attention in the first place.

This thought leaves me to wonder whom of our time, by which I mean the past century or so, will be remembered in centuries, even millennia to come? Perhaps you might like to suggest those whose present fame signals true merit and an enduring reputation that shall last the ages. Whose name will still be on our lips in centuries to come? Whose name, if any, will still be spoken several millennia hence, as are Aristotle’s, Plato’s and Socrates’?

One thing I know for sure: Tiger Woods’ name will not be among them.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Lost in the static of the internet.

My blog is just over four years old. In that time, it has been read by over a third of a million of people. It has garnered, too, some regular readers whose comments on the blog, prove interesting. What is characteristic about these regular readers is that they truly appreciate my writing and think it something special, for them. Yet, in my mind, this appreciation is juxtaposed against a modest daily readership of several hundred readers. To me, this means only one thing: my writing is being lost in the static of the internet.

I shall have to explain. By January 2009, Technorati reckoned there were 133,000,000 blogs and counting. No doubt that number has since grown. Now, this number is both inspiring and depressing. It is inspiring because so many people have taken to writing of their personal worlds. It is depressing because so many people have taken to writing of their personal worlds. You see, the vast number of blogs out there, means that any blog, no matter how good, how well written, how insightful, how memorable or how unique, is going to be swamped by the vast horde of other offerings out there. Basically, it is very difficult for any blog to find its audience, or should I say, for any audience to find its natural blog: there is simply too much out there for it to be clear what a particular reader should be looking at.

Thus it is that we have the situation on my blog about giftedness. The number of gifted people in the world is truly huge: about 2% of the world’s population, or roughly 140 million people, is moderately gifted or greater. It is difficult to estimate what proportion of those would be inherently interested in learning more about giftedness and perhaps enjoying tales of like experiences. Clearly, though it is likely to run into millions of people, out of that 140 million. So, the question is: why does my blog have several hundred daily readers, instead of several million? The answer is simple: there is no more crowded a place, filled with distractions, than the internet. My millions of natural readers, for this blog, are never likely to ever hear about the blog, or to learn that its writing would appeal to them, because it is buried in a vast ocean of other blogs, sites and random web pages.

Writing a blog is, thus, a long term investment in a future readership that may steadily grow over time, but which is not likely to be significant, over night. My blog will, I hope, remain on the net, for readers to discover, many years from now. Over time, perhaps, I will reach a greater proportion of those natural readers, as word spreads. Yet, this is going to be a slow process. I may not even be writing any longer, by the time most of those natural readers find my blog.

This fate, whilst disagreeable is, though, the common one for all blogs not written by a celebrity. I am not well known enough for hordes of people to stampede their way to my blog, finding it by active searches. At least, not well known enough at this time: that may change in years to come. Until then, I must be patient and write on, for my select audience, not knowing whether the audience will ever be much larger, despite the evident enthusiasm of the audience I do have. It is, however, in that enthusiasm that some hope lies: if you enjoy reading my blog, perhaps you might tell others of it, so that they, too, in turn, might have the chance to enjoy it. Perhaps word of mouth can overcome the nigh infinite anonymity of the internet, and point out my blog to more of those who would, naturally, find interest in it.

I hope to continue blogging in the coming year, even though my blog shall, no doubt, continue to be lost in the static of the internet, and remain relatively unknown. It may be that it will have more readers, after I have stopped writing it, than it has now. If so, then those future readers will have missed the possibility of direct interaction…but heh, I can’t wait forever. At least, I have been trying to communicate my understandings, these past four years. I can do no more, in that direction, than I already have.

Thank you for reading.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The monstrous mosquitoes of Malaysia.

Who needs comedians, when you have young children? Children, as anyone who has any will tell you, are natural comedians – not because they try, but because it comes naturally.

About a week ago, Fintan, seven, was sitting in front of the TV watching Fringe Science. This is a show filled with strange possibilities and bizarre occurrences. It was, therefore, a suitable backdrop to what happened next.

Suddenly, Fintan slapped his forehead, a little too eagerly.

“Ow!”, he yelped, “A mosquito has sucked my brain!”, he said, in a manner both shocked and fearful.

I found myself laughing very loudly and forcefully.

Fintan looked up at me, not best pleased to see his father’s reaction to his personal tragedy.

“Fintan," I began in gentle explanation, "a mosquito cannot penetrate your skull…”

He didn’t look much mollified, however, wincing still, either under the wound of the mosquito or the wound of my laughter. If he had anything to say, he kept it to himself.

He settled back down to watch Fringe Science, after a final rub of his forehead. It had, for a moment, seemed as if the surreal world of Fringe Science, had intruded into our own, and made of the common mosquito, a fearful brain sucking monster. In the atmosphere of that room, in the midst of that programme, such an idea almost seemed believable. Perhaps, in fact, that was why Fintan had so readily entertained it. The programme had entrained his mind to consider such (im)possibilities.

That night, Fintan went to sleep with a red blotch on his forehead. However, he didn't mention the brain sucking mosquito again.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year 2010

I know this is a little late for Xmas, but it has been a busy time. Merry Xmas, all, for 2010 and a Happy New Year to come.

As I expect holds true for any of you who have children, our Xmas morning was marked by the very early waking of our excited sons. Fintan, in particular, said, touchingly: "I went to sleep as fast as possible, to wake up as soon as possible". He clearly wished to push a perceptual fast forward button on his pre-Xmas morning, night. Ainan, for his part, said: "I couldn't sleep!", so his sense of anticipation came out in other ways. Tiarnan was very excited, but didn't comment about his sleep.

Seeing them, so active, so early on Xmas morning, called to mind my own childhood, when I, too, along with my brothers and sister, would wake with early excitement, on Christmas morning - no doubt to the inconvenience of our parents. It was a multilayered experience, therefore, seeing them bouncing about. In a way, I was seeing my younger, inner self, again, through them. This time, however, I understood it in a different way: I understood how it must have been for my parents, seeing me, and my siblings, so excited on Xmas morning. Thus, the day had a greater sweetness, than it would have had, had I no such remembered experience to compare it with. The sense of an echo within, gave the passing moments a greater depth. They seemed, somehow, timeless - and I suppose they are, for ever since this tradition was first invented, of giving presents on Christmas day, children must have shared in the very same excitement that my children felt, this year and I had felt, myself, many years ago, when I was a similar age to them.

Though my children were and are unaware of it, they were participating in an age old tradition, that billions of children before them, have enjoyed throughout the ages. In a way, that gives Christmas morning a sense of importance, beyond anything that is directly perceptible or intelligible. Perhaps, when my children become parents themselves, they will sense, themselves, what I felt, this festive season. So, in turn, might their children feel the same, once adults - and so it goes on: a ripple of understanding and insight, passing through the generations, as each matures, in turn. Like much in life, of course, this is something which cannot and should not really be taught - it is something that must be lived, to be truly understood. Of course, when my children understand all this, I will understand something else: what it is for my parents, to be grandparents. That is something I look forward to. Strangely, it doesn't seem all that distant a prospect, perhaps because life doesn't seem as long as it used to, when I was younger. Now, it all seems a bit of a sprint to the finish line.

Anyway, they loved their gifts. Thanks, in particular, to the ones sent by my own mother and father, from the UK. The effort is appreciated and the kids were particularly taken by those gifts. Indeed, they are still playing with them, as I write.

Have a festive time, all.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Save our vegetables.

Tiarnan is a quirky little boy, for a four year old. He sees the world very much from his own perspective and, sometimes, this leads him to do and say things which are sometimes surprising, often endearing, for there is, often, an essential sweetness to his thoughts.

Today, over dinner, Tiarnan was taking rather a long time to eat his vegetables. He studied them carefully, then picked up a peapod. Oddly, he peeled open the pod, attentively, and took out the peas, one by one, and placed them to one side. They were rather small, round peas, the pods not being the large ones I had been accustomed to, in the UK, as a child. He carried on doing this, until all the peas had been extracted, then he took a bite out of the empty pod shell, then another and another, until it was all gone.

“Why aren’t you eating your peas?” I asked him, without a hint of the amusement, I felt.

“I am letting them escape.”, he replied, seriously, as if he had set free some revolutionaries, from prison.

It turned out, from further enquiry, that he thought the little round peas, to be some kind of baby vegetable, since they were much smaller than the ones he was used to. As baby vegetables, he just couldn’t bring himself to eat them – so he had decided to set them free. His sweetness of thought, made me smile, inwardly – but then, Tiarnan is often sweet in his thought. He has such an engaging way of looking at the world. I hope he retains this quality as he grows older, even if it is transformed, gradually by a better knowledge of the world.

Though Tiarnan didn’t notice, his mother ate the escaped “baby” vegetables later. Fortunately, he didn’t see all his patient work going to waste.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)