Money vs. Renown
"O painter, take care lest the greed for gain prove a stronger incentive than renown in art, for to gain this renown is a far greater thing than is the renown of riches." --Leonardo da Vinci
Was daVinci right? What should matter more, money or renown? Is one more noble? More moral? More likely to be satisfying in the long run?
6 comments:
Must be nice to be Da Vinci and get to choose! I don't feel that either option is behind any of the doors before me. But if I did get a choice--would I rather be Vincent Van Gogh or Thomas Kincade?--I would pick van Gogh (uhh except for the madness and suicide parts).
But (but #2) what I would really choose is a process full of joy & fun & learning & expanding--even if ("if") my results fail to impress posterity or venture capitalists.
I am so EARNEST!
(it is def. weird how I'll think 'it's been weeks since I checked in on Janet' and THAT'S THE DAY you posted a new entry.)
Go for the money! All the friends you make while being famous are only hanging around for the free cocktails! Where will they be when the chips are down, huh?
And Kathy (if you're that Kathy)- I think you are famous, though on a smaller scale than Da Vinci, and it's been by doing something that you love.
wait til I'm DEAD man, then I'll be really famous!
however: nobody hangs around for the free cocktails when you are famous BUT POOR; famous but poor is strictly a BYOB situation. it's you guys who go for the MONEY who will have the insincere hangers-on! famous but poor people only have crazy stalkers (hey I have a couple of stalkers! I must be famous after all! (no worries, they are teenage girl anime fans in Boston and they don't really stalk me, they just call a lot))
For me, it's a no-brainer. I don't want the loss of privacy that comes with fame, so I'd opt for the money. What would bother me the most about fame is always being watched (and the fear of it from binoculars or a helicopter.) How awful that would feel!
Kathy, take charge of your stalkers and get them to start sending you money!
Your point about people hanging out with me b/c of the money would mean more if I had any friends. Well, I have a few, but mostly I just hang with the family.
I wouldn't mind being famous, per se, if it didn't mean that while in the check-out line of the grocery store, I'd see a picture of my backside with an arrow pointing to my thighs saying, "Cellulite!"
Plus, if I had money, I could by my famous, but poor sister a car with air conditioning!
And never have to dishes at Thanksgiving again ...NEVER!
I come in belatedly to say that I meant (and I think, but am not sure, that DaVinci meant) posthumous fame. Fame while you're alive usually leads to money, for one thing! unless you're famous for being a serial killer (and even then, if you get a nice book deal)
it is POSTERITY I want to have singing my hosannahs, not random present-day supermarket stalkers
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