Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a coworker while I was pacing the floor (as is my fashion) that involved a singer who was quite popular in the days of my youth for a brief period and then had a long struggle with the problems of celebrity, who had gotten involved in a bit of an online controversy with a much younger singer who was unwilling to accept her input or to learn from her experiences for her own profit. The whole argument itself is not very important, and neither is the identity of either of the entertainers themselves all that important, except to note that the older singer herself is a person who despite her struggles is a conscientious and reflective sort of person, whose survival within the celebrity culture with at least some of her dignity intact was not an easy matter, especially given the fact that she is somewhat of a sensitive soul.

I can certainly relate to that. I have to say that for myself, my own sensitivities have certainly hindered my own enjoyment at whatever modest levels of fame and recognition I have received over the course of my life. Rather than being someone who seeks after the limelight and personal glory, I tend to be alarmed at being part of public spectacles as well as uncomfortable with others thinking they know me better than I know them because of rumor and gossip and hearsay, or from knowing what I have written without knowing me at all as a person. Considering this is true with the extremely modest degree of recognition I have in very limited circles, I have little appetite to strive for any sort of personal publicity seeing as it gives me little pleasure and a great deal of stress and anxiety.

Yet there is a tension between creative and sensitive souls between the often compulsive need for honest and soul-baring confession and the level of recognition that occasionally follows the art that springs from authenticity and candor. There is a sort of raw beauty that often comes through in the creations of wounded or damaged souls struggling to make sense of life in a fallen world, and the fact that there are often many other wounded souls who are able to appreciate the skill and creativity of their fellows without feeling themselves able to create such works themselves means that those who have such an ability to create beauty out of darkness and tragedy are often thrust into more fame and visibility than they themselves are comfortable with. The fact that they are talented and immensely creative does not in any way negate the fact that such people remain deeply sensitive souls.

To be a sensitive soul in savage times is a difficult matter. Our celebrity culture delights in building people up, putting them on pedestals, and turning them into idols for the adulation of the masses, and then tearing them down with constant harassment and abuse. We are all flawed beings; we all have sensitivities and weaknesses; none of us deserves to be seen either as a demigod or as a being devoid of worth as a human being created in the image and likeness of God. When people who are themselves wounded and damaged souls and who have the compulsion to bear their scars openly and visibly find themselves placed in a position where they receive both a great deal of unmerited praise as well as unmerited scorn and contempt, the results can often be deeply tragic. Such people may not find any enjoyment from the excessive praise that they receive, given the damage to self-worth that comes from living a difficult life. However, such people are very likely to suffer very greatly from the abuse and insults that they receive as a result of their visibility and celebrity. I know that is the case for me personally.

For the sensitive soul, the best way to survive is to escape that celebrity as soon as possible, not out of any sort of introversion or hostility to people, but simply because it is difficult to endure such treatment no matter how many benefits one may receive in money and cultural influence. The costs of such matters to our own peace of mind (as fragile as it often may be), as well as to our ability to cope with life’s demands and our own fears and longings, are often too great to bear. All too often the abuse of drugs and alcohol or workaholic tendencies result from the desire to overcome the stress of having such unwanted and such malign personal attention directed at ourselves. The benefits of celebrity simply are not worth it for someone who feels compelled to be authentic and open and who simply does not have the sort of thick skin that would allow one to survive constant character assassination with any degree of indifference (either real or feigned).

What can we do about this? Try as we might to be separate from the world, it is all too easy for us to follow the same patterns of character assassination and savage mistreatment of others because of the examples that we see around us. It is far easier to mimic the debased and corrupt culture of our times than it is to struggle against it and (God willing) overcome it. What we must do for ourselves to not become part of the problem in these savage times is for us to focus on a variety of important behaviors that we can exhibit to avoid condemnation for hounding the sensitive souls that are around us. For one, we can avoid making idols of other people, which can help prevent from a lot of disappointment later when they inevitably show themselves to be fallible human beings like the rest of us. Also, we can make a firm commitment to avoid accepting rumor and hearsay without making heroic efforts to gather as many sides of a story as possible before passing judgment and condemnation. We can also make a firm commitment to treat others with kindness, friendliness, and respect, and even love, regardless of what we think about them or their conduct, seeking to keep ourselves free from any sort of injustice in our own behavior. We may not have the power to do very much about the savage times that we live in, but we can do a lot to keep from becoming savages ourselves.