So, this year has not been kind to celebrities.
I suppose some of it is a product of aging. The people you grew up watching are older than you, and there comes a time when nature takes its course. Some people go long before what you’d expect, though, and those are shocking both because it’s unexpected and because you anticipated getting to enjoy their future contributions.
This year, though, has truly seen the deaths of some legendary performers. The ones that hit me most are Scott Adams, Dolly Parton, Chuck Norris, Kyle Busch, Tim Curry, Sam Neill, Anthony Stewart Head, and now, the great Sir Patrick Stewart.
Picard was my Captain. I grew up watching ST:TNG. (Of course, I was far more interested in Wesley when I was a young’un. I got over that. Wil Wheaton helped with that by being a complete tool.) It was a show my Dad and I could watch together and discuss the philosophical issues it raised. It molded me as a baby nerd. And then Patrick Stewart was Richard the Lionheart in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. (I watched the TV version first, don’t worry.) I learned about wry humor. Then he was Professor X. He was cool. I became a geek, not just a nerd.
I sometimes wonder if these things will even be relevant to the youth of today. Celebrities are a dime a dozen these days. Quite often, I’ll see the gossip magazines or a social media post about supposedly famous people, and I just have no idea who they are or why they would be notable. And so few actors and musicians are actually given room to develop a long career. It feels like you’re either a hit immediately or you’re thrown to the wolves. I doubt anyone will remember a band from this century even like the Beatles are remembered.
Part of that is just the change in culture. There were fewer avenues back in the day for notoriety, so if you were known, everyone knew you. Now, there are so many niche spaces and interests. It’s like YouTube. There are a lot of content creators with a million subscribers that I will never encounter because I just don’t go to that side of the Internet. The shared culture of yesteryear has gone the way of the Dodo.
Sadly, the current state of films kind of runs the risk of ruining certain characters. Professor Xavier has died at least four times, and he’ll die again in Doomsday. It just doesn’t have the impact of the first one. Harrison Ford has been slowly ruining all of his best characters for years now. Sure, he’s not dead, but will it hurt when he does as much as it would have if he hadn’t destroyed a lot of the reasons I liked him for when I was younger?
Social media is also ruining the aura of celebrity now. I know too much about too many of them. I could mourn the idea of someone because I didn’t have proof in their own words that they were a terrible person. Sure, it’s nice when I can see that someone I admire is actually worthy of it, but I’d almost prefer not to know the good if it also means not knowing the bad.
Wow, look at all those rabbit trails. Shocking, I know.
(I’m not even going to get into the Christianity aspect of things. I’m just going to let it be a pleasant surprise when I see some of these people in Heaven.)
Moving on.
This was another remote work week. I have been hanging out with an adorable Pomeranian. She has been a good lap warmer while I work.
First, and most important, Chinese Seed Sower training is done and published! YAY! I am so glad to have that out the door. And I hope it will be useful to many people in the future.
This was the first week for another professional development class I’m taking. It’s called the Disciple-Making Journey, and I’ve been around the edges of it forever. An opportunity came up to take the course myself, and I thought it would be good to really delve deeper into what it means to be a disciple myself and recognize more opportunities to disciple others.
I also spent way too much time trying to figure out health insurance for 2027. I was pretty sure I couldn’t continue with OMS insurance because it was costing me more than $1,000/month. (Incidentally, I told that to the broker that worked with me, and he didn’t believe me.) So, I think I have a solution that should cost less but still provide me with what I need. I will still need to work on support raising in order to cover the out-of-pocket costs.
I got to do some proofreading, which I love. There’s nothing like adding Oxford commas to a poor, neglected list of things.
We are still dealing with some technical issues that have slowed us down a bit on production, but Brian is back from Africa now, so fingers crossed, we will get those sorted soon. I spent some time figuring out workarounds, so those may come in handy in the future.
And the meetings, of course. Always meetings.
Before I go, I will share one more of my favorite Patrick Stewart performances, and it may seem a little odd. Back in 2024, there was a Paramount Plus series of commercials in the Super Bowl. The best, however, was this one. Everything about it is just perfect. Including the fact that Tua still can’t throw. (PP is definitely not $5.99/month anymore, though.)
Pip pip! And rest in peace, Sir. I do hope I see you again.
