That despite how it feels, we all are blessed or cursed in equal amounts. For all the good things that happen in life, there will be setbacks or challenges to balance our individual worlds. I’ve had this theory since I was a kid, watching tragic things happening to famous people. I’d think, “Boy, I’d sure love to be (some celebrity) but not if I had to go through THAT”.
An example: growing up, I thought it would be cool to be that wacky Jerry Lewis guy…but (in my mind) it seems that Jerry got his fame in exchange for having two of his sons die tragically: a 3-year-old son drowning in his family pool, 19-year-old Jerry Lewis Jr. dying in a car crash. O.J. Simpson, back in the worth idolizing days of the 1970s, had everything….and a daughter who also drowned in a swimming pool.
I was reminded of this theory again with the tragic passing of John Travolta’s son, Jett. The grief that comes with the loss of a child has got to be unbearable. When you look at Travolta’s life–beautiful wife, palaces to live in, his own jet, movie star–yet, if personal achievement is somehow balanced out with tragedy, I’ll gladly take a more low-key level of success any day.
It seems like the rule is that the better comedians had to suffer in order to be good at their craft. Maybe they don’t endure any more or less than the typical life and it’s their fame that magnifies both sides.
Just a thought I’ve had for a while and after half a century, just wanted to put it down in written form.

Tim Hunter