World Famous

Everyone Has A Shot

As I walked back to our last winter’s condo in California, I passed this car every day.

Tempting to make fun of California’s endless list of world famous everything.

But it set me wondering if there’s not something in each of us that longs to be exceptional. Those of us raised in the northeast may raise our eyebrows at such overt lusting after fame, but we love the uninhibited embrace of those more daring that we are. More willing to “let it all hang out.”

I don’t know if I might be more likely to buy a car from a world famous dealer, but I could get an adrenal rush to shop where movie stars shop for their cars.

Do they shop at Beverley Hills BMW?

All the introspection and therapy in the world is no match for the hidden persuaders, who for several generations now, have learned how to worm their way into our appetites we aren’t even aware are driving us.

I’m old enough to remember when we had no TV. With the advent of the internet, and Google knowing our secret longings, when they are still secret to us, the sophistication of those hawking things, is unmeasurable.

And now there’s AI.

We are in the deaccession stage of life. Time to trim down, make life more manageable. Take some of the burden off our children when we die. Smaller, simpler living.

You’d think we’d no longer be susceptible to those subtle invasions of our desires. We’ve had no TV for the past 40 years, meaning to spare our children, and ourselves, from having our longings exploited.

Our children love to tell us how they went to friends and watched a lot of TV.

We use our 13” MacBooks to tune into tennis tournaments, sitting at the kitchen table, squinting to try to follow the tennis ball.

So we’re not only just as susceptible as everyone to the hidden persuaders, but we pretend to ourselves we’re not.

Maybe I’ll check out Beverly Hills BMW.