I know that the question wants me to provide some meaningful answer. I would meet so-and-so because they did X and it meant Y to my life. The more I thought about the question, the more I ended up with, “Nah, I’ll pass.”
No matter how much you prepare for it, you’re probably going to be disappointed meeting your idols. You’ve spent your whole life building them up in your mind. You have an image of them based, not on personal experience, but based on what you think they should be like. It’s an image based on what you’ve seen or read, sure, but it’s still just a fabrication based on expectations that you set for that person.
What happens when you meet this larger-than-life figure and you don’t like them?
Does it change your whole perspective?
Do you regret having the meeting?
Does it change the way you act in your life?
For me, at least, I think it would have a profound impact on my life. I think of these authors like Ray Bradbury, George Orwell (Eric Blair), and Aldous Huxley. They wrote books that absolutely shaped my life with huge impacts on my outlook and views. These books continue to be among my favorites and I reread them, offer them to my children as warnings about what the future could be.
And because of my world view, I expect these people to be like me. But imagine meeting them and learning that they don’t actually share those views because, you know, their books are just fiction. Imagine the disappointment. Imagine how that might change your view on the world.
So, nah, I’ll pass.
– JL
P.S. I don’t get in on the daily writing prompt often but this one spoke to me. I don’t know if I’ll do it again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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