People are funny.
Right now the Toronto International Film Festival is underway and we are inundated with reports of stars and directors and writers visiting the city and walking (exclusively by the way) the red carpet. Joe and I are immune to this. We see lineup and people rushing around to screening but other than once seeing Matt Damon run across Bay Street a couple years ago, we’ve never sought out or seen anyone famous. However, there are those who hunt celebrities with autograph books in hand and selfie sticks at the ready. We aren’t part of that crowd. I get it, it’s fun, but we’ve other obsessions in our life.
So, we were leaving the grocery store yesterday afternoon and, just as we came through the doors, there was a woman who spotted me and called out, “Dave Hingsburger!” I turned to see who was calling me and I saw a woman I didn’t recognize. She rushed over and told me that she’d seen me lecture, read my books, watched Open Future Learning videos and followed this blog. We had a nice but brief chat. Then she asked me to sign an autograph, she got out a pen and piece of paper and I signed it.
This all took only a couple of minutes and at the sound of a name being called and an autograph being signed, the others around decided that I must be some kind of celebrity and a whole whack of telephones came out and pictures taken and several autographs were signed. No one asked who I was, either they didn’t want to admit to not knowing, or it didn’t matter, they’d seen me sign an autograph so an autograph must be something they want and need too.
So, I had my 7 1/2 minutes of fame, I believe I’m due another 7 1/2 at some point in my life. I admit it was fun and I wonder how many people are, right now, trying to figure out two things: who I am and how a fat guy in a wheelchair can be famous at all.
