Being Anonymous – Sunday, January 27, 1985
There are among us those whose names are household words, whose lives and actions are common knowledge to all: movie personalities, sports heroes, politicians and tycoons. These are the rich and famous.
But, for most of us, relative obscurity is the rule. We live out our lives known to or associated with a few hundred neighbors, friends and associates. Perhaps once in a while our name finds its way into the hometown newspaper. And, when we die, our paid obituary appears in section D, immediately preceding the want ads, along with countless others of our kind—the anonymous, the great mass of people for whom the bell of fame and fortune never tolls.
But the rich and famous pay dearly for their notoriety. Their lives are not their own. Like sharecroppers, their time, their skills, indeed their lives are owned by others. Many have lost the one thing that can never be replaced—themselves. Forever under the media’s microscope, slaves to public scrutiny and private ego, the famous know no day of rest.
We who live obscure lives should consider well the joys of being anonymous. For happiness and a contented heart take root more often in soft, protected places, away from the direct light of the burning sun and the full force of the wind.
To be anonymous is to be free from the vain ambitions which haunt those who seek contentment solely in the admiration of others. It is to drift safely and serenely in the eye of the world’s social hurricane. To be obscure is to be in control of life, to have close and lasting relationships, to be oneself at all times…eating supper with one’s own family, attending little league games and piano recitals, chatting casually with close friends, watching gardens grow. These are among the many joys of being anonymous.
Perhaps only the anonymous discover the deepest lessons of life, that a caress is more important than a career, that being happy while alone is one of life’s greatest achievements, that simplicity is grandeur in disguise.
There is something else—a paradox of sorts. It is that greatness lies in giving up greatness. We can never achieve greatness while greatness is our goal. For charity and character, the building blocks of true greatness grow best in the absence of notoriety.
Thus, when time is no longer measured and all, but truth has slipped away, many anonymous soul will find that the seeds planted in the obscure dust of daily life will have flowered with eternal blossoms.
January 27, 1985
Broadcast Number 2,893