Imperial wealth in the eyes of a child.

Today, we watched Dan Cruickshank’s Adventures in Architecture. This episode concerned, among other structures, The Catherine Palace, the Rococo summer palace of the Russian Tsars.

Tiarnan, five, watched as the astonishing interiors of this unbelievably ornate palace paraded across the TV screen. Gold and amber, and every possible variation on the word “opulent”, assailed our eyes. Not that alone, but the sheer vastness of the place, was astonishing, with one corridor being 325 metres long, before the Empress could be reached. Throughout it all, Tiarnan watched in silence. Finally, however, he spoke up.

”It is no good to live there.”, he began, quietly, with an authority out of proportion to his size.

All eyes turned to him for explanation.

“It is not a good place to play.”, he elaborated, his eyes flicking to the screen where the story of splendour continued to unfold. “Too much glass.” He looked utterly unimpressed with the wealth on display. Indeed, he seemed to think it silly: after all, who would build a house that couldn’t be played in?

“Should Daddy rent that house, to live in?”

He looked across at me, his eyes growing all very serious and shook his head, slowly, from side to side.

He had no words, but his expression was enough.

Even when given the option to live in such a palace, Tiarnan would choose not to.

At that point, Fintan piped up: “Choose somewhere else, Daddy. Not there.”

So it was not just Tiarnan who thought The Catherine Palace an inappropriate place to live – even Fintan thought so too.

This moves me to reflect: I wonder what little Tsars thought of growing up in such surroundings? Did they find them impractical, too? Or were they too busy being alone, in a very fundamental way, to care about where they lived?

It is lucky my kids don’t feel the need to live in a several hundred metre long palace. In fact, they tell me they rather like condominiums...a much more affordable accommodation.

It is funny to see my kids’ response to Imperial wealth. It left them rather unimpressed. This would have surprised the Empress Elizabeth – for her palace was expressly designed to awe and impress with her divine status. Well, in the case of my children, at least, she failed. It left them wondering at the silly impracticalities of it all.

Do my kids see more truly what matters, than some adults do? I would think most adults would be awed by The Catherine Palace and by the very thought that it was once someone’s home. Yet, if my children are any guide, kids see it very differently. They see it as a place barren of any fun...a place that cannot be played in. In a way, I think my kids see something adults miss. All that majestic wealth might impress some...but does it bring personal joy? Fintan and Tiarnan certainly thought not. What do you think?

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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The tragedy of Macaulay Culkin.

Macaulay Culkin is, in my eyes, a tragic figure - but not for any reason that anyone else, would necessarily know, before I write of it. Indeed, he is doubly tragic. I shall explain.

Firstly, there is the obvious fact that Macaulay Culkin's greatest successes are behind him. The peaks of his life all lie in childhood. Unlike some who achieved renown, whilst very young, Macaulay Culkin did not go on to an adult career the area of his initial expertise. Once the cuteness of childhood was gone, so was Macaulay Culkin's great career.

Imagine, if you will, what it must be like to have been so gloriously successful, whilst still a child - and then to be so notably unnotable, as an adult. In a sense, he has lived past his life, as most people think of life - a time of aspirations and achievements, strung together from birth until death.

We cannot know what he may be aspiring to do, now, for he is nothing but quiet. There is not a word of his doings, as an adult. He seems to create nothing and do nothing that would amount to creative work. But then, he doesn't need to work, for he is rich. How rich is a matter of speculation, but a couple of years ago, I read estimates that he was worth 30 million US Dollars. Whatever he is actually worth now (and if he was invested in the wrong things, in the recent turbulence, it could, of course, be a lot less now), I am sure that he is worth enough to be considered "rich" by the common man and even by the quite uncommon one.

I have come to view Macaulay Culkin as tragic for a reason known, most probably only to me. This reason is simple. Ever since I posted once on Macaulay Culkin a year or two ago, I have had a lot of traffic for him. Indeed, about 2 to 3 % of the traffic to my site concerns Macaulay Culkin. The former star might be pleased to learn this - but I wouldn't, if I were him - because ALL of the searchers have had the same set of search terms - or variations on them. They have only ever been looking for one thing about Macaulay Culkin. The search terms are always, in effect: "What is Macaulay Culkin's net worth?" or "What is Macaulay Culkin worth now?" I have never, once, not even once, seen a search for ANYTHING else about Macaulay Culkin except his net worth. It appears that no-one is interested in anything, now, about him, than his net worth.

This seems to me a very sad situation. After a childhood of great and globally renowned filmic achievement that established him as one of the great child stars, as an adult, he has no discernible career or creative outlet (that I have ever heard of...which probably means that it is not happening). The only thing that people find of interest, now, about him, is how rich he is. That is it: how rich is Macaulay Culkin? That is the only question they have arrived on my blog in search of.

I wonder at what motivates these searchers. Are they people who have met him and wonder if he is worth trying to sponge off of? Are they fans who wonder on what financial pedestal to raise him? Are they financial workers, seeking background on him, in an effort to gauge what they might be able to sell him? I have no way of knowing...however, I know this: they don't care about his work, about his films, about his past greatness - they only care, now, about his money. Macaulay Culkin has become, in their eyes, nothing more than a rich adult, worthy perhaps of befriending solely for his money, or perhaps attempting to scam in some way. Nothing Macaulay Culkin did as a child has left a mark on these people. Now, that is sad. Macaulay Culkin, former child star, is now nothing but a great, big wallet, to all the searchers who have arrived on my site, in search of him, these past couple of years.

In many ways, I think Macaulay Culkin's fate is rather worse than being forgotten. He is now remembered as someone who should be rich - and nothing more: what a fate.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)