Fame - remember my name

Earlier in the week One News delivered a story about a 23-year-old man named Jason Napier. Soon Jason will undergo complex surgery to correct a life-threatening bleed on his brain. The report was not about his condition. Nor was it about the intricate surgery required. It never mentioned his chances of recovery either.

It was a story to make Jason Napier famous.

You see, Jason has set up a facebook page aptly titled 'Make Jason Napier Famous'. The reason he has done this is because he has "always craved the spotlight" and this is his chance to fulfil his dream of attaining fame.

I have a few issues with Jason's wish. But because Jason is facing death, these issues and opinions of mine make up a very dangerous territory. Before I leap into this risky subject by addressing my concerns with Jason's wishes, allow me to first provide a disclaimer: I sincerely hope with all my heart that Jason pulls through. I cannot come close to imagining what he must be going through, to be at a point where death could be just around the corner.

And maybe that is why I can't get my head around his desperation for fame.

Surely at this very dark time, Jason should be aspiring to achieve something that is quite far removed from pointless notoriety. The French writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne once said, "Fame and tranquillity can never be bedfellows." Perhaps there is something in that quote for Jason to look into.

The other thing I'm concerned about is that the type of fame Jason is looking to achieve is not really an achievement at all. I understand that Jason's lifelong search for the limelight on stage and screen is very difficult to attain, but performance of any nature should surely be solely for the enjoyment gained from participating. Any recognition or public appreciation that comes from performing should be secondary, if not irrelevant to the reasons why one performs.

I am also troubled by One News' facilitation of his wish. The story was nothing but a donation of news time to Jason. And many will say that it was a justified donation because of Jason's situation. Maybe it was. But I know for a fact that the amount of time spent in the news hour delivering Jason's story, and then updating us with a revised count of how many people had signed up to his Facebook page, was a lot more time than was given to a suicide bombing in Iraq in which over 250 people were killed. Local content takes precedence I guess.

As confused as I am about Jason Napier's quest for fame and its place in our national news, I do know that he will get something great out of it. I just hope he realises that this great thing will not be seeing his face on television and in print, but the hundreds of messages he will receive on his Facebook page from empathetic complete strangers.