Blue like jazz

Recommended reading: Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller

I heard Donald Miller at the Catalyst Conference in October. Bought Blue Like Jazz off Ebay a few weeks ago (I hate paying full retail for books, but I love books). Since the book arrived, I've been devouring it like I haven't read in weeks. Actually, I haven't read in weeks because I'm too stinking busy for my own good and for the good of those I love. Another subject altogether. I've been trying to find sound bites from the book to add to my quotes collection, but what I've read is a bit too random for that ... until today. So here it is ... and it's reason enough to go out and buy the book at full price.

I was wondering the other day, why it is that we turn pop figures into idols? I have a theory, of course. I think we have this need to be cool, that there is this undercurrent in society that says some people are cool and some people aren't. And it is very, very important that we are cool. So, when we find somebody who is cool on television or on the radio, we associate ourselves with this person to feel valid ourselves. And the problem I have with this is that we rarely know what the person believes who we are assiciating ourselves with. The problem with this is that it indicates there is less value in what people believe, what they stand for; it only matters that they are cool. In other words, who cares what I believe about life, I only care that I am cool. Because in the end, the undercurrent running through culture is not giving people value based on what they believe and what they are doing to aid society, the undercurrent is deciding their value based upon whether or not they are cool. (Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, p. 105)