Oscar Wilde said that “there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
Children and adults alike become more excited and alive when they see glitter or anything that appears shiny and valuable. But most of us learn early on in life that everything that glitters is not gold. I thought this story about Sally’s experience was very appropriate as we consider glitter; “Sally is flying out to meet her boyfriend. She falls asleep on the plane and dreams about this gorgeous diamond ring he’ll give her. When she opens her eyes, she spots an even bigger diamond on the finger of Mrs. Goldstein, a matron sitting next to her. This is the mother of all diamonds, It is enormous, flawless, glittering…“My, that’s some diamond you’ve got there,” Sally says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Mrs. Goldstein sighs. “I know my child. This is no ordinary diamond. It’s the famous Goldstein diamond. But it comes with a terrible curse.’ “It does?” Sally moves to the edge of the seat. “So what’s the curse?” Mrs. Goldstein sighs again. “Mister Goldstein.”
There is, ordinarily, a price we all have to pay for whatever we get, whether it is merely glitter or, the real thing, gold. I remember reading about the Alaskan gold rush, men were flocking from all over to get to Alaska and be a part of all the wealth being taken from the ground. Many sold their homes or other family valuables to sponsor a family member to get there. At the same time there were those who felt that there was more money to be made by taking advantage of those who were called greenhorns coming to dig for gold. Many of those who were there to take advantage of them were gamblers. They enticed many who came to enter into a card game where they cheated them out of their grubstake. Con games of all kinds sprang up, one such con-man was a man named Soapy Smith from the South, who at one time sold soap that didn’t clean, one of his schemes in Alaska was operating a telegraph office. His office offered to send a telegram home to families telling them that their father, etc. had arrived and that all was well. However, the telegraph wire went from the office and dead-ended in the snow behind the office. As far as the men knew their families had been notified that all was well with them. A town engineer shot and killed Soapy. The funeral services for Soapy Smith were held in a Skagway church he had donated funds to help build. The minister chose as the text for his sermon, a line from Proverbs XIII: “The way of transgressors is hard.” Very few came back from Alaska with as much as they had brought to Alaska with them. All that glitters is not gold.
During the 1849 California gold rush, the disaster was the loss of innocent Native American lives. The gold was found on land belonging to a Native American tribe and a large number of them were sacrificed in the name of gold. They were literally hunted and killed for living where they lived, and the killing was sanctioned by the state at one time. All that glitters is not gold.
The sacrifices men make in order to make a quick dollar, often costs them their fortune, whatever that may have been, or their very life.
Many have been caught up in the desire for fame and fortune and have found their way to Hollywood, California. They were sure they had talents that would make them famous. Many—too many—end up in infamy. Tinsel town is mostly glitter. Someone has said, ”You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart.”
Try not to be taken in, for earthly glitter is seldom gold and if it so happens to be gold there is a price to pay to get it, as Mrs. Goldstein said, the price might be a “Mister Goldstein.”