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Dear Miss Paris Hiltonby
Peary Perry | |
Dear
Miss Paris Hilton:
Well, to be honest with you, after the events of last
week, I really wasn’t all that interested in writing anything about you unless
it was cynical and sarcastic. I think most of us feel that you are a spoiled rich
girl heading headlong into trouble and misery if you continue your recent lifestyle.
But, the more I thought about what to write, the more I decided to tell you a
couple of things that you are missing by not living what we normal folks call
the “Simple Life.”
It’s obvious to many of us out here in the heartlands
of America that fame, fortune, money, glamour and the high life doesn’t bring
true inner peace and contentment. If it did, then why aren’t you a happier person?
Why are you in therapy and having to take a number of prescription medications?
These two things alone tell me that you in spite of all you pretend to be, there
must be some trouble in paradise.
So, let’s just talk about what the rest
of us live our lives for and what you are missing. Sure we see the parties and
the red carpet treatments that celebrities such as you and movie stars attend
on a routine basis. But, having made my share of cocktail parties in the past
let me ask you, do you really think they are all that much fun? Or do you go because
you have to be seen and ‘everyone’ else will be there? Has it ever occurred to
you that the ‘everyone’ else who might be at these events would really like to
be at home relaxing instead of answering inane questions and looking as if they
were on top of the world?
No, I think if you’d ever step out of that world
and into ours, you’d find there is a whole lot more to life than what is portrayed
in People magazine. Have you ever helped a friend move? It isn’t the best thing
to do on a Saturday, but let me tell you when it’s over and all of you are sitting
down eating a called in pizza and drinking that first cold beer, it makes you
proud you helped someone. Besides you know you can count on them when it’s your
turn to relocate. Have you ever had your car breakdown and needed someone to drive
you to work? Probably not, but it tells you who your friends are. Same thing goes
for paint parties. Until you have to help paint someone’s house or have someone
help you paint yours, you can’t really tell who your friends are.
I don’t
imagine that you cook, since you have publicly stated that you have ‘people’ who
read for you, you most likely have some ‘people’ to cook for you as well. I feel
sorry for you that you probably haven’t cooked up a big pot of soup or chili on
a cold winter day and invited your friends over to share and bring something.
That’s a part of life I wouldn’t trade for all the galas and award ceremonies
they have in your part of the world.
No, Miss. Hilton the real world isn’t
about money and looks and preening before cameras, it’s about laughing at weddings
and crying at funerals. It’s about being excited when kids are born and watching
them struggle and grow up to be honest, respectable adults. It’s about sending
cards and letters to your friends and relatives when someone is hurting or needs
a few words of encouragement. Your words might be all they needed to keep them
going.
It isn’t about things or dresses or cars, it’s about people and
how we interact with each other while we are here on this planet. It isn’t about
us being seen, but about us showing up when and where we are supposed to, because
it’s the right thing to do. It’s about forgiveness when we’ve made a mistake and
admitting it to ourselves and to those we’ve hurt. It’s about life. It’s who we
really are, not some plastic figure created by some public relations person who
could care less about us and is only interested in his invoice being paid on time.
Miss.
Hilton, you have a huge amount of God-given resources available to you. You have
a chance to make a difference in the lives of millions of young women by being
a positive role model and caring for something and someone other than yourself.
These resources are not limitless, use them well or you will surely suffer the
consequences of others who were destroyed by the siren’s call of the rich and
famous.
I hope you will do the right thing and decide to grow up and make
something of yourself that will be remembered from this point forward rather than
who you have been until now. |
©
Peary Perry
Letters
From North America
June 13, 2007 column
Syndicated weekly in 80 newspapers
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