Like Someone We Knew

I was paying at the counter of a store tonight when the clerk answered the phone and got some bad news. I couldn’t make out what it was, but she was shocked and sad, and after my purchase was completed she called a co-worker over. To my shame, my ears strained to hear as I strove to hide my burning curiosity over what might have befallen one of their colleagues or mutual acquaintances. Don’t ask me why I wanted to know this terrible news that made them so sad … I’m hoping it’s just human nature, the same way rubberneckers slow down traffic as they drive by an accident – you just can’t help connecting with those hapless strangers and their fate. Either that or I'm a real sicko. :)

Upon returning home tonight, I checked some of my usual web pages and gasped in shock at the headline that Heath Ledger was found dead today. I gasped in shock – like I knew him or something.

What is it about fame that makes you feel that you know someone? Looking back, I’m sure those clerks at the store were also talking about Heath Ledger as they talked about how sad and shocked they were.

He was a wonderful actor, as far as I can tell. I think I only saw one of his movies (Brokeback Mountain, which made me weep). And he was also a devoted father of his baby daughter Mathilda (okay, except for the name he gave her, which I think is a perfect name for a bulldog, not so brilliant name for a baby). I certainly knew nothing about him that should make me feel as though I knew him, and yet I am still sad.

In a way I guess it’s good to still feel sad when bad things happen to people you don’t even know. Empathy and such. Maybe famous people are famous precisely because they have the charisma or something that makes you feel like you can relate to them without ever having met them.

Rest in peace, Mr. Ledger.