"Excuse me, but are you famous?"
May you... be famous in Bethleham." Ruth 4: 11
You know how some people stick out from a crowd? And suddenly you know that they have to be someone famous? Well, I saw three beautiful women with the widest shoulders and biceps I have ever seen. Two were tall, one was quite tiny, but she looked just as likely to be able to bench press her own weight. Two muscular men, one tall, and the other quite short joined them. Were they movie stars? A rock band? Athletes?
I had to find out. Because what's the good of seeing a famous person when you don't know who they are? I had one moment to go for it. "Excuse me," I asked, "but are you guys famous?"
The woman looked at me like I was crazy, but then she smiled. "No we're not famous," she said, "but you might recognize us. We're members of a circus troup." And suddenly it all made sense, as I pictured the short and the tall, standing on one anothers shoulders, doing back flips and flinging each other through the air from one trapeze to another.
"I can't believe it," I said. "I'm meeting people who did the very thing my parents said you could never do. You really did it. You guys actually ran away and joined the circus!"
The word "famous" has two definitions: a) widely known, and b) honored for achievement. In the second definition, you can be famous among a small group who understand what it is you do. So in that sense, I had just met someone famous.
It was so worth stopping those people. I mean, you could live a lifetime without meeting one circus performer. But I had just met five of them.
God places so many interesting people in our paths. Life is short. Just ask people who they are.
Dear God, thank you for acrobats and jugglers, for stars and for extras and for all the famous people who make life interesting--including those we have never heard of. Amen.
Lillian Daniel is Senior Minister, First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
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