Celebrity Worship Leaves Us Empty And Unfulfilled

Why are we obsessed with celebrities? Why do we follow their lives and keep track of their every move, when after all the time we spend watching them, we're left feeling empty and unfulfilled?

We follow celebrities for a number of reasons:

1. To Live Vicariously Through Them:
• Many celebrities live glamorous lives, which many of us don't, and they do things many of us would never get the chance to do. We follow them to live vicariously through them.
• When we compare our lives to theirs, we feel simple, plain, poor and unimportant, which simply isn't true. We're all important and valuable. Remember, glamour doesn't mean happiness.
• We need to simply our lives and focus only on meeting our basic needs - food, water, clothing, shelter etc. Less is more, and true happiness comes from having good relationships with others, from being connected in mutual bestowal.
2. To Have A 'Friend':
• Celebrities 'invite' us to their weddings, baby showers, into their homes etc. We feel as though we're a part of their lives/family, that they're a 'friend', but it's all an illusion, a marketing ploy. Plus, we love weddings and babies and we become captivated by these celebrity events.
• When we compare our lives to theirs, we feel empty and unfulfilled because we don't have what they have. Plus, they're not a real friend.
• True happiness comes only from connecting with each other in mutual bestowal - it's not about superficial friendships or having things.
3. Escapism And Distraction:
• We follow celebrities as a form of escapism. They're a distraction from the problems in our own lives and from boredom. It gives us something to do, we can focus on something else - someone else's problems, someone else's 'perfect' life etc.
• We have to face our own lives. Eventually, we'll come to realize that our own lives are already PERFECT and we won't need to escape them or be distracted from them.
4. For Entertainment:
• Celebrities entertain us with their family drama and personal adventures. This makes for captivating stories and salacious gossip.
• We love good stories, but soon these superficial, shallow and egotistical stories will seem meaningless. We'll become captivated by stories of people who are seeking to benefit others instead of themselves.
5. To Keep Up With The Latest Trends:
• Many celebrities have the latest fashion, cars, homes etc. So we follow them to keep up with the latest trends.
• Our focus on materialism will soon come to an end. Instead, we'll focus on having good relationships with others and this will become our primary concern.

The egotistical celebrity culture will soon come to an end. Instead, we'll value people who do good to others, people who help others, and people who seek to benefit others and all of nature. In this way, we'll be inspired to do the same.

True joy and happiness comes from having good relationships with others, from being connected with each other in mutual bestowal. In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.

Copyright © 2014, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.

Idols

The Creator is the quality of bestowal, seeking to benefit others instead of yourself. Idols are whatever you appreciate besides The Creator.

If you remain immersed in selfishness, seeking to benefit yourself, this state is known as worshiping other gods, worshiping idols.

The quality of bestowal is alive, whereas the quality of selfishness is dead. As it is written in both The Bible and The Quran:

•  "3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; 6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell ..." (Psalms 115:3-6, NKJV)
• "71 They said, "We worship idols and remain to them devoted." 72 He said, "Do they hear you when you supplicate? 73 Or do they benefit you, or do they harm?" 74 They said, "But we found our fathers doing thus." (Quran 26:71-74, Sahih)
• "You only worship, besides Allah , idols, and you produce a falsehood. Indeed, those you worship besides Allah do not possess for you [the power of] provision. So seek from Allah provision and worship Him and be grateful to Him. To Him you will be returned." (Quran 29:17, Sahih)

 In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.

Copyright © 2013, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.