Hunting for gold

Not quite going into the league of leprechauns here but just much fun. In my home town we have had the privilege of two Gold medallists from the Olympics and Paralympics. Between them their are now 6 gold letterboxes around the borough and for the last 24 hours we have been on a mission to find them.

Joanna Rowsell has her two, one in Carshalton, found and one in Cheam as yet to be found. Then we have the wonderful David Weir who has four post boxes we have found one in Wallington and spent the rest of the day hunting them down. Result un found, but then I found out there is a logically reason, he has yet to decide where to put them. So that explains my lack of gold success, but we had fun trying, and once they have been painted we will resume our hunt. But to be honest the fun has been in the search. Although its no where near the hard work put in by the athletes whom they honour but it seems right that we have to hunt for them.

As we walked (or in my case hopped) away from our last find of the day mum asked a sensible question, how long do we think they will remain ? I personally would like them to remain at least to the next Olympics so they remain a visual stimulation to those considering acting on their achievements. Whether they do or not remains to be seen, but it is worth asking for that. As the athletes worked hard for the last four years just to make the team, does it not seem reasonable that they are honoured for the same amount of time?

Looking at the bigger picture, I glanced through all the weekly magazines this week and already the success of a nation has been majorly replaced by pop stars and reality show contestants. Sure there is the odd reference to Jessica Ennis and couple of others but none of the paralympic stars are glossing the covers of even the more classy of these magazines. Personally I would love to see Hannah Cockcroft or Ellie Simmons on the front of OK or Hello. It would be the final step forward to equally for all, and such a morale boast for those youngsters who may have their own disability. Instead we are in danger of replacing those true hero's with 2 dimensional fame and money hungry souls who would sell their mother to get the right kind of pr. Is this really what we want the next generation growing up to idolise.

In my day (that makes me feel old) we had a mixture of people to idolise, film stars, and musicians yes, but also conservationists and sports stars. Now a days there are a lot of people hyped up on their own fame via reality stars, even pop stars like Girls Aloud and JLS are products of such shows. In the same instant please don't get me started about shows like TOWIE and Made in Chelsea, whats the point? honestly I have never meet such a shallow excuse of a TV show let alone make the people out of it a person to idolise. The idea of role models and the like is some one to whom you would have to work to achieve their status, not dye your hair blond, spray your skin with goodness knows what and then have more plastic surgery than a barbie doll. In the same light I am so grateful my goddaughter would rather break her arm skateboarding than in a nail bar, she is learning the value of working to achieve something rather than making herself a stereotype to fit in.

I am not saying every celebrity is that bad, but the ones that do the hard work to achieve it on their own often don't have the time or inclination to grace the cover of the magazine week in and out. Those ones you may be lucky to find an article on them once a month, but mainly only after the mandatory pres junket pre show/film/album release. Like the athletes they have too much to do to waste the time, as they are working for their status. In the same light they don't  have the same selling power, and its for this reason you won't find David Weir as the cover boy  of heat or the likes. The people in charge don't think they will sell.

The only way this whole situation will change is if we change our attitudes, refuse to buy the gossip rags until they start putting articles of interest and real interviews in them, and not types on becoming the next wag or worse. Like finding gold in the old days it took hard work, achieve gold status as role model requires the same. That's the lesson we need to install in the younger generation. For the mean time I am keeping up my gold hunt, its the least I can do sticks and all.