The pedestals are ready

The pedestals are ready. The marble and granite are polished. The base is strewn with flowers. The only question is who we should put on them.

Culture and media do that for us of course. Lift up the overpaid athletes and entertainers who model excess and triviality. We'll hear about their latest album or concert or injury or transgression and marvel at the significance of it. Put them up there so we can live out our daydreams and fantasies.

I looked on the pedestals for serious poets, artists, Nobel Prize winners, great humanitarians and I didn't find many. Of course, no fantasies there. Only hard work and serious engagement. Just dogged effort to make sense of the world and make it better.

So the Medal of Honor winners, the Teacher of the Year, the winner of the Pritzker Prize will all have to settle for their media minute. They are probably too busy to stand still on a pedestal anyway.