Once again headlines tell us that the glamorous life of the rich and famous is not without some major downsides. Last week Rolling Stone's bad boy Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott committed suicide. She left no suicide note, but speculation for the cause is the high debt of her fashion designer business.
Perhaps her jet-setting lifestyle was more than she could handle, especially for someone who had made a 180 degree turn from her childhood upbringing. L'Wren, who was adopted as a child, was raised by Mormon parents. Mormons, it goes without saying, have pretty conservative values and the Paris fashion modeling scene combined with cohabiting with a promiscuous rock star is not a good fit for a culture that does not get any edgier than Donnie and Marie Osmond. Scott was estranged from her family and communicated infrequently with them. According the Mirror, her sister Jane Shane last saw her at the funeral of their mother in 2008. Shane followed a more traditional Mormon lifestyle as a stay-at-home mom with eight children. The childless Scott told Shane, ¨I envy you.¨
Hearing lessons at church as a child, L'Wren Scott would have learned about an LDS teaching called ¨The Light of Christ.¨ This is a belief that all people, regardless of their faith, have an innate energy to judge good from evil. In other words, a conscience. People are free to choose good or evil, and if they choose evil, they will lose this Light of Christ, though they may still have a memory of it. Did the realization that she had made some bad choices contribute to Scott's decision to take her own life?
While traditional Christianity is still strong in America, it is becoming less important among young people. Faith can be a major roadblock to having ¨fun¨ in life when the minister is preaching against premarital sex, drugs, body piercing, immodest dress, and debasing music. It's just not cool.
Greg Gutfeld's new book, Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War on You, focuses on why the appeal to be cool and edgy, is really stupid and self-damaging. He shows the cool crowd are really bullies and creeps.
The sooner people can learn that embracing the values of pop culture is a recipe for the disaster, the sooner people can avoid some major disappointments in life. It's ironic that the party crowd make risky, selfish choices seeking pleasure and a good time, but in the end it is those who avoid the path of the prodigal son (or daughter) who find true joy in life.
Mick Jagger sings that he can't find no satisfaction. It's because he is looking for it in the wrong place.
