Who is significant in the modern world?

Today, by chance, I noticed something which gave me pause to reflect on what it means to be significant, as a person, in the modern world. I began to type a word on Google, that began with "LEO...". Immediately, Google guessed what I was going to type. I was appalled at its suggestions. Can you guess what I saw, without actually checking for yourself, first?

So, what do you think I saw?

Well, the first suggestion was Leonardo Dicaprio. The second was Leo Burnett. The third was Leonardo da Vinci. I found this ordering of choices unsettling, for many reasons.

What sort of world puts Leonardo da Vinci - perhaps the single most creative person ever to have lived - behind an actor and an advertising agency? Why are they ordered in such a way? Well, I assumed this must have something to do with their relative fame in the modern world. Perhaps, I thought, Leonardo Dicaprio gets more Internet searches than Leonardo da Vinci. Perhaps the world is not so aware of Leonardo da Vinci, as his modern namesake. So, I checked on Google Insights. Guess what I found?

Leonardo da Vinci is four times more famous than Leonardo Dicaprio when measured by Internet search density around the world - and infinitely more famous than Leo Burnett. The search bar for Leonardo da Vinci was four units long. The search bar for Leonardo Dicaprio was one unit long. The search bar for Leo Burnett was ZERO units long.

So, this presents a big puzzle. The world's Internet searchers are four times more interested in Leonardo da Vinci than in Leonardo Dicaprio - and vastly more interested in him, than in Leo Burnett, yet, still Google puts Leonardo da Vinci after the other two. There is something sad in this. One of the world's greatest geniuses overshadowed by a film star. It isn't right. I am left to wonder whether this ordering of search results is a function of a computer algorithm or hand ordering by a human. If it is a computer algorithm, is it biased towards more recent events? If it is a human is it overly impressed by fame and commerce? (Dicaprio and Burnett.)

Whether it is a human decision or a computer decision to place Leonardo da Vinci third in the list, the effect is the same: to judge genius as less significant than celebrity and commerce. So, our world seems to value (or those behind this ordering, anyway), familiarity and money, over intellectual and creative substance. Yet, this ignores the data found in Google insights - that the world's Internet searchers are four times more interested in Leonardo da Vinci, than in Leonardo Dicaprio.

My response to this is to propose a test, which I hope some distant readers, in future times, might be able to conduct. It is quite simple really. Leonardo da Vinci's time was about five hundred years ago. My question is this: will Leonardo Dicaprio and Leo Burnett be as famous in five hundred years time, as Leonardo da Vinci is, now? So, I invite my future readers in the twenty sixth century (if the Internet still exists and Blogger is still hosted), to Google (or the equivalent) "Leo..." and see what is suggested. Does it suggest Leonardo Dicaprio above Leo Burnett, above Leonardo da Vinci? Does it even suggest Leonardo Dicaprio at all? My guess is that Leonardo da Vinci will still be one of those suggested, but that the other two will have been replaced by new "Leos" of some kind. So, the present prominence of Leonardo Dicaprio over Leonardo da Vinci is likely to be a temporary phenomenon. Google is not measuring true worth by its search results. Were it doing so then Leonardo da Vinci would be the top result for Leos...and would be likely to stay that way, even in another five hundred years time.

Anyway, please conduct the test at the appropriate time. I may not be around to hear the results...but I can at least make the suggestion that you do so. Thank you.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The deification of Arfa Karim Randhawa.

Arfa Karim Randhawa became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in 2004 at the age of just 9. This was a very early achievement. However, equally early was her death at the age of 16, following complications from an epileptic attack. Her life was filled with hope and tragedy. Yet, it is in death that the most remarkable things are beginning to happen. Arfa Karim Randhawa is rapidly being deified by her home nation of Pakistan.

Pakistan has just released a commemorative postage stamp on her birthday, February 2^nd, in her honour. I know of no other child prodigy who ever had their own stamp, at least when still a child. So, this strikes me as a particularly unusual honour for a child. So, too, the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting have announced that a book will be produced in homage to the life of Arfa Karim Randhawa.

Arfa is becoming in death, an icon, even larger than the one she was in life. Her brief days upon on this Earth, are becoming a national tale to inspire her whole nation. Now, I see in this something good and something unusual. It is good that a precocious child should be respected as much as she was, in Pakistan. It is good that Arfa Karim Randhawa’s achievements are held up as an example to inspire a nation. Indeed, there is something admirable in Pakistan caring so much, at a government level, about the achievements of an individual child. It seems that they see in her, a symbol of the striving of a nation to become great. Arfa Karim Randhawa is seen to inspire young people in Pakistan to achieve their best. She is also the source of much pride for Pakistan. There is a sense that her early achievements show the world just what a Pakistani can do. Partly, of course, Pakistan’s motivation is out of a sense of loss, that their promising child should have died so young. There is a wish to remember her life and to somehow ensure that her memory lives on, such that it would feel that she hadn’t truly died after all.

All of this wish to hold Arfa Karim Randhawa up as an example, to her people, is in sharp contrast to the way Singapore greeted Ainan. Whilst they were surprised at first, at his achievements, and covered them in the national press, in the spirit of surprise, eventually, as his achievements continued to grow, they turned to ignoring them, or, indeed, eventually, lying about him and us, to make themselves (as a state) look better than they had actually behaved in the situation. They stooped to mendacious propaganda, to defend themselves against the truthful perception that they had been rather negligent where he was concerned. At no time, was there a wish to hold him up as an inspiration. At no time did they seem proud of him. At no time, was there ever any wish to elevate him and make him a symbol of anything at all, to his people – the Malay Singaporeans. Indeed, the first newspaper to fall silent on the subject of Ainan and to begin to ignore him, was the sole Malay newspaper, Berita Harian. It was as if they had been instructed to say no more. It was all rather strange. A rational nation would have been so proud of Ainan. Yet, they didn’t seem to be. They seemed, in fact, to find him an awkward phenomenon they didn’t quite know what to do with. What, on Earth, was a half-Malay boy doing excelling so much younger than his Singaporean Chinese peers? At least, that is what I intuit was one of their concerns, since Singapore is very much a Chinese dominated state, in which the mythology is that the Chinese are somehow superior (or at least they believe themselves to be). They certainly appoint themselves to all the best positions and roles in Singaporean life. That, in itself, allows its own conclusions to be drawn.

So, Pakistan has begun to deify Arfa Karim Randhawa, whilst Singapore began to attack Ainan a couple of years ago. I find this very interesting. In a hundred years time, I am sure that Pakistan will still make mention of their wonder child, Arfa Karima Randhawa. She will, by then, have become a legend. Should Singapore still be run by the PAP however, I very much doubt whether there will be any mention of Ainan, in the Singaporean media, unless it is to attempt to put some perjorative spin on his life story, in some way. Yet, Ainan’s achievements are far greater in number and level, than Arfa Karim Randhawa’s were. So it is doubly strange that Singapore should have adopted this way of discussing him. It is also oddly self-defeating, since Ainan could contribute much to Singapore were he moved to do so, by a warm relationship with them. As ever the famed state of Singapore shows itself to be not as long term in its thinking as it might believe itself to be.

Given the contrasting responses of their home nations to Ainan and Arfa, it does seem unexpected, to me, how Pakistan has responded to Arfa Karim Randhawa. Our own experience led me to expect that negligence was the most likely response of a state to a child prodigy – or even a degree of malevolence – as we experienced – if the child should be from a put upon minority, as Ainan is. So, although I see Pakistan’s response to Arfa Karim Randhawa as unusual, perhaps, in fact, it is Singapore’s response to Ainan that is strange. It certainly feels more wholesome to watch how Pakistan are responding to Arfa, compared to how Singapore responded to Ainan. Singapore actually lied about him, in the national press. By contrast, Pakistan’s national press are being very kind to Arfa.

Personally, I hope the deification of Arfa Karim Randhawa continues. I hope she becomes an emblematic figure, to inspire her nation for many decades, perhaps centuries to come. Every nation needs such people. Perhaps she can, in death, fulfil some of her potential, through her posthumous influence on the psyche of her people. I hope so. At least, then, something wonderful would have been made out of her brief life.

Perhaps Singapore could learn a thing or two about how to value the talents of its people, by looking at the ways in which Pakistan clearly values Arfa Karim Randhawa. There is something touching in their response to her – and something unsettling in Singapore’s response to Ainan.

I wish Arfa Karim Randhawa’s family well. I hope the efforts of Pakistan to honour her memory bring them some solace.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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

My favourite Einstein story.

A Berlin music critic in the early 1920s listened to a violin performance, by Albert Einstein. Afterwards, he gave his assessment:

"Einstein's playing is excellent, but he does not deserve his world fame - there are many others just as good."

The critic was unaware that Einstein's fame was founded in Physics, not music!

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

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.)

Einstein's lost last words.

Einstein's last words will never be known. When he spoke them, the only person in attendance was a nurse, who didn't understand German. She was subsequently unable to remember what he had said, for others to understand.

It is quite a sad scene. That such a great man should be dying without any friends or relatives present strikes me as a pity. Why was it a nurse who witnessed his last moments? Where was everyone? In effect, Albert Einstein died alone for what would the nurse have meant to him?

Let us hope his last words were not significant ones.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175 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.)

Vincent Van Gogh and Doctor Who.

It feels odd to say it, but I was moved, two days ago, by an episode of Doctor Who, the saga of an immortal time traveller. Before you think me too eccentric in my feelings, I shall explain.

The episode in question concerned Vincent Van Gogh. Doctor Who travelled to visit him, at the beginning of his final year of life, upon seeing his art in the Musee D’Orsay. I will not spoil the episode for you, should you be interested in following the adventures of Dr. Who, but I do need to address one point.

Vincent Van Gogh was adjudged by all, himself included, a failure in his lifetime. His art was rejected. He only ever sold one work and that was to someone close to him. In the end, he so despaired of his life, of his social rejection, of his failure, that he took his own life at the age of 37. He died thinking that his entire life had been a failure. He died never knowing what impact he was to make upon art subsequent to his death.

None of us know what posthumous mark we will make. None of us know whether posterity will even give us one thought, or whether all that we did and were, will be lost when the last person who remembers us, dies. This is the common fate of Man. We cannot see what our lives provoke, in the time beyond our final day. We live and die, not knowing whether or not we will be forgotten.

The situation with regards to Van Gogh is particularly acute. His sense of failure was so strong, his conviction that his life amounted to nothing was so intense, that he actually killed himself. Yet, Vincent Van Gogh is accounted one of the greatest painters who ever lived. The tragedy is that he never knew it. The one person to whom this success would have mattered most, never got the chance to witness it.

In Doctor Who, Vincent Van Gogh is transported into the future, to the modern era. He is taken into the Musee D’Orsay to an exhibition of his own work. He is stunned to see that anyone would ever care enough about his works – which he was unable to sell in his lifetime – to exhibit them in a national museum. He is profoundly moved by this, to learn that his life was not a failure after all. Yet, that is not what moved him most. He overhears a museum art guide describe him as the greatest painter who ever lived. Tears well in his eyes. The failure in life, is to be a success in death.

I was deeply touched by this, for there is great tragedy in Vincent Van Gogh’s life. More tragic than his life, was that his early death deprived him of the knowledge of his own eventual acceptance and success. The greatest gift Van Gogh could ever have received, was knowledge of his own future reputation. Van Gogh, in Doctor Who, witnessed what none of us do: what the world thinks of us and says of us, when we are gone. He saw his impact on future time, long after his own death. What made it all the more poignant is that his success in death, should be in such contrast to his utter failure in life.

None of us know what final impact our lives will have, if any, on the world. Even people who are famous in their own lifetimes, may be unremembered just fifty or a hundred years after their deaths. Many a “famous” writer of the early twentieth century is now utterly forgotten. So, too, many of the early film stars. Their names would go unrecognized today, except by film historians. So, too, is it so, for those not known in their lifetimes, who may become famous in death. I find these cases peculiar, for everyone seems to know of them, except themselves: they never lived to see their own reputations blossom.

No matter what we think we know of our lives, we cannot know what will be thought of us after we are gone. Nothing is a guarantee that our memories shall endure – not even fame in one’s own lifetime. We cannot know whether, by having lived, we have changed the world in any enduring fashion. All we can do, in our lives, is to express our uniqueness, as best as we can and hope that the world and the future find value in it, even if we shall never know it. There is one mercy in all of this, however: that is, even if the future forgets us, we shall not be around to know about it. Yet, the opposite applied in Van Gogh’s case – the future remembers him – and he never knew.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

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.)

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

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