#129: What's the ideal level of fame to achieve?

Fourteen years. That's how long I have been with my partner. Last Friday was our 14th anniversary, and we celebrated with a weekend away at a tiny house on a lake in Alabama.

Yeah, I can't believe that I wrote the last part of that sentence, either, but it was beautiful and needed.

Over the course of 14 years, you develop a lot of inside jokes and talking points that you come back to, but there's also always new things to learn about the person who you care most about in your life.

We can sit, comfortably, in silence, as one of our favorite sayings is "sitting here with you doing absolutely nothing means everything to me."

But when I think back to some of our conversations that we've had in our relationship, one always sticks out: what is the ideal level of fame to achieve?

I thought of it again when I saw this post from TJ on Threads (a must-follow for women's hoops fans):

I agree with TJ, for what it's worth. Zero desire to be famous.

However, that comes with the caveat that famous means something different to everyone.

It's a question that I asked Blayne maybe two or three years ago to get their opinion.

Taylor Swift or Beyoncé levels of fame? No, get out of here. We both agreed on that.

For Blayne, their answer was actor Mae Whitman. A good catalog of credits who is a B- or C-tier actor depending on the person. She has the face that people see and swear that she looks like someone famous, without actually realizing she's the famous one.

She can go to the store, go out with friends, live a normal damn life while still living comfortably with her roles.

A fantastic pick, if I say so myself.

For me, my answer is Carly Rae Jepsen. It's not just because she has the best pop album of all time to her name, but she's just niche enough that she, too, can live a normal life.

She recently did an interview with the Hollywood Reporter where she talked about it.

“Where I’ve landed now in my career is the sweet spot,” the singer tells THR. “I can live a life, go to the grocery store, have a family, tour music that I love and have an audience,” she says. “That’s a very hard-earned, balanced thing that we’ve had to work at.”

She has a baby now, and it's amazing that she gets to walk that line.

Fame seems exhausting. Yes, you're insanely rich (too rich!), and contrary to popular belief, money does fix almost everything. But it doesn't fix normalcy.

Like TJ said, those direct deposits hit whether you know the person or not so just give me my stability.