When it comes to ideas and beliefs, I am a hopeless romantic. I stick to the images of the way that things should be and pray that they won’t be commercialized. I look at authors and read a book like “A Moveable Feast” and am struck by the awesomeness of the times. I can’t help but picture Hemingway sharpening his twenty pencils and pacing while coming up with an idea to write on his Underwood typewriter.
Today that romantic view of writing is hindered by commercialism. The Crichtons, Kings, and Rowlings of the world write because they love to write but also for the money and the sales. Whatever happened to the idea of awards and recognitions as the only reward that you need? Now the industry is driven by money.
I only wonder how long it will be before they start putting Sprite and Pepsi advertisements in the jackets of books, with a picture of Britney Spears half-naked and “innocent.”
I go to the baseball games in the summer and get excited when the players come on the field, but I am repulsed by the gold rings and fancy cars. I look to the past with players like Ruth and DiMaggio, who played because they loved the game and not for money. Now in the world today there are very few players like Griffey Jr., who would take less money to show loyalty to the town in which they grew up.
The world seems to be turning into a cutthroat competitive place, driven by the advertising giants of Pepsi and Microsoft. In the past, Elvis and Marylyn Monroe were looked at as sex symbols, but somehow little girls and boys weren’t allowed to look to them as idols, to dress like them. Today, with Britney Spears ruling the advertising world and wearing little or no clothes at all, I am appalled by the little girls singing her songs. I wonder what these girls will be like when they grow up. I would also like to ask their mothers or fathers if they let their daughters go to a strip club, and if there is really a difference between strippers and Britney Spears?
I can’t help being a hopeless romantic, and I face change as it comes. It’s just my belief that some things don’t need to be fixed. Summertime at Cinergy field and the pure act of writing or painting are to be embraced, and role models should be picked more carefully for the sake of the next generation. That is just my belief, and many people disagree or couldn’t care less, but at the same time I think the ones that don’t care are the ones who are at fault.