When our Heroes Amaze us...

In these early days of the 21rst Century, the concept of "celebrity" has evolved into a very odd thing indeed. In our culture of "reality television" and internet memes , we have the phenomenon of being famous for being famous. Be it the Paris Hiltons, the assorted hoards of Kardashians, or housewives of whatever locale is being filmed this week. People who have done little or nothing of note, being celebrated for nothing more than the fact of their notoriety.

In a way, I suppose you could see it as good thing, if those who become famous for well... nothing, then use that fame for some noble or worthwhile purpose, but alas, that seems to rarely happen.

 So it is always a wonderful thing, when someone who truly is famous for all the right reasons, someone who is so accomplished to the point of being called a "national treasure" in his country of origin, uses fame to give voice to people who otherwise would be shouting at the wind.

As long time readers of this blog  may have noticed,   the past few days have  seen the number of  hits  this modest  little  effort  receives,   fly off the charts.    It  went from  an average  of  65  hits  over a three day period to over  160,000 page views .

There is no way on Earth  I could ever hope to reach that  sort of audience on my own.   So clearly something else had happened..

That "something else",  turned out to be  a long time  hero of mine.  Writer, actor,  journalist and  British "National Treasure",  Stephen Fry.     I have no idea how it happened,  yet  somehow  he found my blog posting on the need to boycott the 2014 winter games  in Sochi, Russia.   Now just knowing that  Stephen Fry  had read something I wrote  is enough for me to die happy,  but he did something more.   He  tweeted it out into the world, and his 6,000,000 plus followers.

For the (I hope very few) people out there who may  not be familiar with Mr. Fry,  here is what Wikipedia has to say:
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Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television and radio presenter, film director, activist, and board member of Norwich City Football Club.^[4]

After a troubled childhood  he secured a place at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature. While at university, Fry became involved with the Cambridge Footlights, where he met his long-time collaborator Hugh Laurie. As half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and took the role of Jeeves (with Laurie playing Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster.

Fry's acting roles include the lead in the film Wilde, Melchett in the BBC television series Blackadder, the titular character in the television series Kingdom, a recurring guest role as Dr. Gordon Wyatt on the crime series Bones, and as Gordon Deitrich in the dystopian thriller V for Vendetta. He has also written and presented several documentary series, including the Emmy Award-winning Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, which saw him explore his mental illness. He is also the long-time host of the BBC television quiz show QI.

As well as his work in television, Fry has contributed columns and articles for newspapers and magazines, and has written four novels and two volumes of autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot and The Fry Chronicles. He also appears frequently on BBC Radio 4, starring in the comedy series Absolute Power, being a frequent guest on panel games such as Just a Minute, and acting as chairman for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, where he was one of a trio of hosts who succeeded the late Humphrey Lyttelton. Fry is also known for his voice-overs, reading all seven of theHarry Potter novels for the UK audiobook recordings, and as the narrator in the LittleBigPlanet series of video games.

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To say I am amazed by this would be  an epic understatement.   Stephen Fry  was a close friend with another hero of mine,  the late great Douglas Adams (in whose honor this blog is named...)   He is a man with a truly  global voice, who this past week  briefly  lent one small part of  that voice to me,   and  for these incredible  past few days,  he enabled my thoughts to  travel across the world  on his virtual coat tails. Something for which , I will be forever grateful.

Thank you Mr Fry.