Glitterati ¶In a sermon I listened to this week, the preacher used the phrase, 'all that glitters is not gold.' My initial random thought was the JRR Tolkein poem about Strider/Aragorn, 'all that is gold does not glitter...' The next random thought was to zero in on the word glitter that is in each of the phrases. From there I went on a journey based in glitter. For some it is the starting and ending point of any kind of decorating. The first question is, 'What can I do with glitter today? What is going to be the theme of this project with a glitter base?' The last question, more rhetorical than anything is, 'Does this need more glitter? Of course it does.' At the other extreme are those who hate glitter on anything because it gets on everything and stays there for all eternity. They would rather burn a house down than find one more piece of glitter in it. The rest of us fall somewhere on the love/hate continuum of glitter. ¶I realized that there are folks, I decided to call them glitterati, who have a way of leaving a mark on the lives and surfaces of everyone they meet. Little sparkles of sunshine and moonbeams flow from them and follow them wherever they go. Once they have touched something it bears the mark of their presence forever after. There are folks who are deeply annoyed by those who are always cheerful, or at least joyful. Others are deeply moved by the flow of positivity that flows and explodes from these glitterati. The rest of us notice them, and are somewhere between grateful for and indifferent to their presence around us. ¶ Some glitterati spread their sparkle of sunshine and moonbeams with flamboyance and flare. They are the life of the party and people flock around them at any opportunity. They are a party and a parade all in one package. It is not an act, it is a sincere expression of who they are and how they live in the world. They know that not all is right with the world even as they choose to spread as much joy and cheer as they possibly can into a world that needs a lot more joy than we usually see. ¶Other members of the glitterati are more subdued. They have a deep well of joy from which to draw and share it in their own quiet way. They are a procession and a gathering rather than a parade and party. They exude the same joy with a time release formula. They don't take over a space so much as lay a foundation under it to support and uplift everyone without most people noticing. ¶My guess is that the glitterati don't know that they are glitter bearers - the rest of us know how they are, and they may see all the others without noticing the glow and sparkle in themselves. Think about the glitterati you may know and let the thought of them be a sparkle of sunshine in your day. 1.11.2024