“Who’s Who”

Do you know that publication? A quick google search reveals multiple cataegories you may fall into: Who's Who in the USA, amoung students, online, professionals? Being sited in one of these books is considered, "one of the most prestigious awards the (fill in the blank) community can bestow".

Long ago, my name appeared in one of the student publications. I cannot find the book. I cannot remember the actual category I fell into. I cannot recall if it was my high school performace or my college accolades that earned me such a "prestigious honor". Equally, I cannot recall feeling honored at all, seeing as my father had to cut a rather large check to the publisher so we could own one of these well-bound books that just so happened to have my name somewhere within its hundreds of pages.

Who would ever see me there? Why would it ever matter? How did this wheat from the chaff approach to academics futher anybody's journey through life? It didn't, not for me anyhow.

And yet, segregation within circles is what communities do. We all have our labels, or defining titles that place us within other’s minds. The teacher, the preacher, the mother, the activist, the rebel, the writer, the peace keeper, the quiet one; and then there’s the famous…

It’s the latter I’ve been thinking of quite a bit lately, for fame exists in each of these categories.

Is ‘Famous’ is a quantifiable word? In the real world it seems to be, measured by income and notoriety, number of fancy cars, and the square footage of your house, but not really by nobility for I can think of many famed personalities that reached their current status by actions considered 'less than noble'.

Fame is relative. A few well timed articles in local newspapers and neighbors joke, “Jeez – you’re famous!” A spot on the Today Show and your level of notoriety launches to the National level. And, lest us forget the coveted spot on Ms. O’s show, which will inspire or incense the world-at-large to your cause.

So, are there famous bloggers? This is the question I have been grappling with for weeks. Well, of course there are famous bloggers, but most were famous before the conception of their blog, and I would be willing bet that they don’t sit awake at 1am updating their blog because their emotional state is in such turmoil they have to purge the words before they sleep. Their blog is an extension of their pre-existing famous-ness.

So, to communitize this a bit more (are you keeping track of just how many new words I can make up in one post?) – Are there famous bloggers in the ALI community?

And, I suppose the most obvious answer is ‘yes’, as quantified by their following readership, the number of comments receive per post, or the sitemeter silently rotating numbers on their sidebar. And yet, I clearly recall my first impression of the blogging world, six.short.months.ago – as a very user friendly, equal opportunity, bring-any-and-all-emotions-here, community. This is – in fact, one of the founding purposes of the LFCA (Lost Found Connections Abound).

I have written many times, within countless posts, of the base connection I feel to my blogging friends. I have emoted about how I know very little about their real life: cars, houses, bank accounts, etc) but have no doubt that were we to hop a plane and share physical space with each other, the connection would be instant. For I do know, their losses, their struggles, their grief, their triggers, the things that lift them up. In short, I know their heart.

We are all connected. We are all important. All our feelings are valid and matter. And before this post becomes a segway for yet another tangetalized piece of Mel’s weekend,
(Um…btw – Mel, with her given title, “Goddess of Infertility”, and her recent exposé in the metro-times, certainly qualifies as a famous blogger)… I’ll get to the point.

There were three bloggers at my real-life walk this weekend. Because, I consider them famous as mapped out by the above critera and from personal perspective, I will not name or link to them. I will allow them the freedom to blog about their experience if they so choose. But I need to share mine.

Tomorrow's post will be the intensely emotional experience I encountered meeting them in person. My first, second and third meet-and-greet, if you will....

Till then, I leave you with a few questions:

What, in your opinion, is bloggy fame? How do you measure it? And, if you were given the absolute choice to become a famed blogger overnight, would you take it? Why? or Why Not?