Marquette recently held a celebrity golf benefit, complete with a banquet, auction and tournament at Greywalls.
Great golf, delicious food, companionship and of course, most important, it all goes for a wonderful cause–the Beacon House, which houses patients and their families when they come to Marquette General Hospital.
It took a lot of time, effort and devotion by a lot of people to make it happen.
The key here, of course, was getting the celebrities to come to Marquette to help out. We’re not talking Michael Jordan and Peyton Manning here; we’re talking mostly about ordinary professional athletes and ex-athletes–but still they’re names that most sports fans would recognize.
And virtually all of the celebrities were gracious and friendly, but unfortunately we did hear a story or two about someone acting less than gracious. Try rude, even obnoxious.
It makes you think, “What the heck are they thinking?” Yeah, you play or played a professional sport, but you’re just another human being with a very particular, very limited skill. And you’re up here in the UP, being very well taken care of by smiling, accommodating hosts looking out for your every need, you’re eating good food, and you’re spending five hours on one of the best golf courses in Michigan—AND you’re doing it to raise money for people in need.
And yet, despite all this, you find reason to be arrogant and obnoxious?
Hard to understand.
Me, I’ve never understood this obsession with celebrity, especially sports celebrity. I’ll absolutely pay money to watch these men and women perform their sports at the highest level, but pay to rub elbows with them? Or get an up-close look at them? Or buy their jersey or an autographed ball? That sounds like kids’ stuff. Seems to me when you hit adulthood, you should be focusing on something other than childish, big-eyed idolatry.
When I was a kid, I LOVED Mickey Mantle. Worshipped him. Couldn’t get enough of him. In my teens, that idolatry died as I started pursuing my own interests and adventures. And now as an adult, having just read a biography of Mantle, I’ve learned that Mickey was really a jerk the entire time I loved him.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, of course. These athletes are just ordinary people whose view of life may have been skewed by their celebrity.
You just hope it hasn’t been skewed so much that they feel free to act obnoxiously toward us rubes up here in the U.P., who are just trying to raise some money for sick people and their families.
It doesn’t seem like too much to ask, does it?