Judy Garland

One night, a week or so ago, I was watching Public Television while trying to get moving on my next crochet project and was quite riveted when i came upon "American Masters: Judy Garland" program.

Like a lot of people of my generation who've just heard the name but never knew why Judy Garland was famous (except as Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, and that she sang pretty well), I didn't bother to find out more on my own until that night when circumstances arranged themselves to educate me about Ms.Garland.

What can I say? There were parts of that documentary that made me weep for her, for some of the struggles she faced, for how poorly she was treated and how many people let her down; i found part of me rallying for her, albeit too late.

I am not, nor will possibly be, famous in any way. Yet, i can see that a lot of my daily emotions are governed by people around me, my near and dear as well as people i happen to work with, despite my independent self telling me that it shouldn't matter what others think of me. I should be happy in my own right. So should every human being. But, apparently being famous, being in the limelight, ends up making some poeple a tad bit too fragile compared to the rest of us.

There is no dearth of such stories surrounding celluloid stars - thrust into limelight when they were too young to make the choice, pushed to the brink, dumped from the pedestal on which they were forcibly hoisted, eventual fall from grace, and usually a rather undignified demise.

I've read my share of these stories and thought, 'oh, how bad for them' and went about my life. But, that night was different somehow. I really felt for her - as if she was a close personal friend whose life was less than perfect, making me wish i could have done something about it. Am not sure why....