.what’s luck got to do with it?. September 21, 2008

…cross posted on Wordy Laundry.

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.authored by something.of.substance.

.barker and goldstein: not so lucky?.

Entertainment news venues were working overtime this weekend to keep the public updated on the condition of Travis Barker, former drummer of Blink-182 and +44, and Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein, former fiancé of Nicole Ritchie and celebrity beat spinner, after their Lear Jet crashed during take-off. The two celebrities were left severely burned- hospitals have reported second and third-degree burns- but expected to recover fully. Four other people including the pilot, co-pilot, Barker’s assistant, and a security guard were killed in the crash.

The internet is over-run with stories and speculation regarding this tragic accident. And, wherever there is a report, there is a response. Fans, well-wishers and even one person claiming to be “the antichrist” have emerged to proffer their opinions about everything from burn placement (one guy speculated that if Travis Barker was burned from the waist down and DJ AM sustained burns on his head, the only “logical” explanation could be that DJ AM was performing certain sexual acts on Travis Barker at the time of the crash) to recovery time to drawing correlations to the plane crash death of singer Aaliyah in 2001. There are even comments from people who are glad the duo was engulfed in flames; apparently, if your tattoos are offensive or your songs aren’t up to scratch a fair percentage of the general public thinks you deserve to burn alive for your crimes against musicality. A smattering of people even claimed that the lack of Jesus Christ in these two men’s personal lives contributed to this event.

However, most people were talking about what a “miracle” it was that these two men survived. This seems like a perfectly innocuous statement. I mean, even Dr. Fred Mullins, the executive director of Joseph Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia was quoted as saying: “Anybody who can survive a plane crash is pretty lucky”. What I want to know is, wouldn’t they have been pretty lucky if they weren’t in a plane crash to begin with? Wouldn’t the “miracle” have been if nothing happened in the first place? Or, perhaps more pointedly: what do the families and friends of the deceased four in the crash think about the supposed “miracle”?

I have only two conclusions for such rhetoric. In one instance, I can understand us, as a culture, wanting to find the positive in such an event. Only by concluding that they were able to live because of some form of divine intervention can we feel alright about stepping onto an airplane once again. Sure, we may never fly in our own personal Lear Jet, but since we do fly (less now than before) we want to believe that, should something go wrong, the hand of God could intercede between you and certain death and mediate a different outcome. Miracles do happen!

As much as this might occupy some national subconscious motivation, I believe that, moreover, we want to believe our celebrities are gods themselves. Of course it is a tragedy should anyone be involved in such a horrific scenario, but rarely do we pay more than a passing attention (if any at all) to other aerial crashes which don’t produce a catastrophic loss of life. We hear the news story about the small plane that crashed into a field killing all nine on board. We stare at the charred hole in the field that dissolved an airplane. We get excited to hear about the latest Miley Cyrus pseudo-sex scandal. The news outlets mediate our responses by solemnly informing us such a crash took place, we take five seconds to gawk and we move on.

Why, then, do we care more about celebrities than we do about someone who could have been you or me? For one thing, we relate to the very public lives they lead. Because the internet runs 24/7, we have instant and unending access to anyone anytime. People invest more into their celebu-ships than they do into knowing about those with whom they are having tangible relationships. Therefore, when a tragedy befalls someone they engaged with virtually, they mourn the connection. Also, as I stated above, people liken celebrities to gods; we not only believe they are special to have obtained and achieved what they have, we worship at their alter.

Personally, I feel that we have become so desensitized to each other and to the world around us that we are not capable of feeling for Mr. and Mrs. John Doe who died in a crash in Wyoming. Even though their lives and beliefs might more closely resemble our own than, say, Donald Trump’s, it is Trump we get emotional over. We heap all of our fears, dreams, hopes, and expectations on these people who are, at the end of the day, people. Just like the people who actually perished in the plane crash. Just like the people who die in transportation accidents daily.

It is not lucky, then, that Travis Barker and DJ AM were so severely burned it will take them a year and multiple very painful skin grafts to recover. Nothing about their fame will make them heal any faster or psychologically recover any better. Yet, the public will be there every step of the way making certain they behave how we expect them to. Perhaps the real “miracle” we can take from this unfortunate calamity is to learn to appreciate each other. What we saw is a very real example of the fleetingness of life and just how unpredictable every moment is. Instead of smothering these two men with our vitriol or speculation or unending words of encouragement in the face of a situation most of us could never even ponder, we could turn to the person next to us and tell them we love them. We can call our long-lost friends and tell them they are appreciated. We could make the next person we interact with have a better experience because we treated them with a more reverent attitude. We can create “miracles” in our own communities by volunteering to help the number of nameless that suffer daily.

Perhaps, then, when we appreciate how lucky our lives are already will we not need to be reminded of what the miracle of getting to live looks like. My heart goes out to those two men who are struggling to survive and the families of those who didn’t. However, my heart does not remain with them because I reserve it for the people in my life who struggle to survive, daily.