Fifteen Minutes of Fame

"You can never replace anyone because we are all made up of such small specific wonderful details."

Before Sunset © 2004

When my friend Micheal turned 40, he threw himself a small birthday party. He invited as I recall, twelve of his friends, along with his parents, who were visiting for his birthday from North Dakota. It was a hosted brunch (by his parents) at the very fabulous Il Fornaio on Levi Plaza. It was a small group so I was nervous to go as I usually am so I went with my friend Mark, who was also invited.

Everyone at the table was unknown to me, which I found to be even more frightening. What was wonderful was that his father, in his 70’s, made a point of spending a few minutes with every person at that table. When he came to me he told me this little story. A story I think of often. The story began –

“When I was in the army, I had to clean the latrines even more specifically, the sink and faucets”. He then went on with his observations of how so often we clean just what we see and not what’s underneath. Under the spout, where the water comes out, all the way up under the neck of the faucet to the handles . . . where it’s really dirty and neglected. He said, “Most people never think of cleaning underneath the faucet.” “It’s just the way it is”.

This story came out of nowhere and yet I can’t help but think about it every time I turn on the water faucet. Was it a personal observation upon me? Was it meant to freak me out? Had he read something about me that I was unaware of or didn’t want anyone to find out about. Or was it really just a way of prolonging his “fifteen minutes of fame”. Blazing that little story into my psyche forever. Prolonging his fifteen minutes into oh, probably 15 hours now that I’ve thought about it. Now you realize each time it comes into my mind it only lasts a few seconds and those seconds continue to add up. Do they add up to fifteen minutes?

Mr. Bauer discovered how to make his fifteen minutes last a lifetime. What a wonderful thing. He was an ordinary man from the Heartland, well the cold Heartland. I’ve heard said, “the heartland … where honest people say honest things and want to believe that others speak honesty too.”