Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?
There’s a funny thing about living in New York City. You can’t help but run into famous people. Sometimes literally.
I once bumped physically into Anderson Cooper on the street. Later, my organization ended up honoring him at an event. I like to think that initial collision was destiny’s awkward handshake.
But that’s the New York way. We don’t chase after celebrities; we accidentally shoulder-check them between coffee runs and subway transfers. We’re too busy, too caffeinated, and too jaded to make a scene.
What I love about this city is how fame and normalcy share the same sidewalk. You can pass a movie star on your block while dodging a pigeon and debating your lunch options. No big deal. Just Tuesday.
And don’t get me started on the omnipresent Law & Order film crews. I swear, every iteration of that show has shot on my old business block. There was always a trailer labeled Desi and Lucy, no matter the cast or season. It is like some secret NYC code for “We’ll be here forever.” Honestly, it’s comforting. When you see that trailer, you know the city is functioning as usual.
Over the years, through work, I’ve had my fair share of encounters with “notable names.” I’ve sat at dinner with Ally Sheedy (yes, The Breakfast Club Ally Sheedy), talking about completely random things that had nothing to do with fame. I’ve shaken hands with Barack Obama and Kofi Annan at global events. And those are moments that made my inner idealist sit up a little taller.
I met Juanes at an HIV advocacy event (yes, the Colombian rock star who, by the way, is just as warm as he is talented), and collaborated with Jeffrey Sachs at the UN on how psychology intersects with the economics of poverty. I even crossed paths and talked with Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and, yes, Donald Trump. Though I’ll let you guess which conversations left me feeling more inspired.
The funny thing is, I don’t think of myself as someone blessed to meet famous people. I’m just someone who works at the intersections of where health, humanity, and sometimes celebrity advocacy happen to cross.
That’s the magic of New York and the kind of life that blooms here. You don’t seek fame, but sometimes it walks right past you on the way to get a bagel. And you nod, sip your coffee, and keep moving. Because the city itself is the real celebrity, and we’re all just lucky enough to have a walk-on role.
Categories: Celebrity, Culture, identity, media, new york, Pop Culture, Psychology, society, work
psychologistmimi 
I was always told how rude New Yorkers were, but when I visited New York (more than once), random people would just start talking to me like I was their oldest friend. It seemed very strange, and I never forgot it. I met James Levine, Beverly Sills, Placido Domingo, and Robert Merrill at the Met.
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iT Was inevitable Sooner or Later
Responding to Strangers (Yet
No One Stranger than me hehe)
Poetically Online for 146 Months
Globally i Was Bound to Come Across at
Least One Nationally and Internationally
Famous Administrating CEO Helping the Least
Fortunate Among Us With Their Health Care
Needs Non-Profitably True a Person Who Does
This For Decades is also Bound to Come Across
Famous Personalities as You Report Here All ACross
Your Life Span of Dedication and Competence to
What You Do Tirelessly and Amazingly So Each
Day
Dear Lord
Even ‘Forrest
Gump’ Didn’t
Meet all these People
in His
Fictional Life
Including ‘Ally Sheed’
From ‘Breakfast Club’ Lore
‘Collaborating With Jeffrey Sachs
At the UN On How Psychology Intersects
With the Economics of Poverty’ How Fascinating
And Potentially
Helpful Indeed
Yet that’s Not all also ‘Crossing
Paths and Talking With Hillary Clinton,
Kamala Harris, and Yes, Donald Trump’
Hehe True You’ve Surely
Met a Variety of Famous
And Infamous People And
Also True No One Stranger than me
Thanks For Allowing me this Free Rental
Space For Muse From Your Imaginarium
And Eclectic
Writings That
Cover All From A to ’67’
Nearly Every Day Since 2018
Hehe the Most Famous Person
i Never Met was my Grandfather
(Dying at Age 55 Back in 1950)
an Irish Born Catholic Priest Decorated with
So Many Degrees Including PHD’s like You
Even Gaining a Wiki Page Bio for Writing the
Book ‘Behind the Dictators’ Last Century Regarding
The Catholic Organizational Influence on the Rise of
THAT Last
Century
TOO
(Yikes)
Amazing How
History Seems to
Repeat Itself Century
to Century Like a Major
Hurricane Hitting our Area
in the First Decade of Both
A Pandemic in the Second Decade
Of Both A Rise of the Name We Don’t
Enjoying Mentioning among others Globally
too that Often Happens after a Pandemic too
And Sadly First Tariffs Then A ‘Depression’
That Hasn’t
Happened
Yet Here
at Least
Yet Again
It’s True i Was
Sitting in the Pews
When the Priest at the
Church i Visit Lauded the
Election of the Orange Man
And Called The Previous Administration’s Influence on this
Country one ‘His Church’ Could No Longer Recognize
With the ‘Advent’
of Gay Folks
Getting
Their
Right
to Civil Unions
And the Such
As That Then
Yep Like People
in my Closest Family
i Almost Didn’t Go Back
Yet i Was Interested in What
Might Happen Next for a Dark Muse
at least yet i will tell you this Much i Never
Feel
Bad
About
Arriving
Late to that Place
Ever Since The Laud of
The Orange Man’s
Reign in Our Land
True We Give to their
Food Bank Yet Never
A Penny More to Settle
‘Any Church Legal Claims’
Anyway of Course Back Then
my Grandfather Left the Catholic
Church Fortunately Woo’ed Out
of the Pews of His New Parish at
Age 36 by a 17 Year-Old Young Cajun Woman
(Other Wise Neither me or my Dance Would Exist)
In Northwest Florida After Pastoring in
Gainesville, South Africa, And Counsel
to the Pope at the Vatican Before that
Getting in
‘The Know’
As Such too
i Suppose His Claim to
Meeting Famous People
As Family Legend Has it at Least
Is Dining With Einstein in the Socialist
Circles of New York City then Indeed What
Comes around
Goes Around Again
As i’ve Become Noted as
Famous and Legend by the
Metro Area Audience Just For Doing
‘Village
Idiot’
For the Helluva
IT and Dancing
My Life Away for Free Publicly
Meeting Fabulously interesting
People ALong The Way Both
Offline
And Online too
Yet i’ve Always Seen
Every PArt Whole as
The Real Face of Nature God
It Just Doesn’t Get Any More
Famous And Truly Golden Fabulous Than
‘All’ Yep Just Naked Enough Whole Complete
Indeed
With SMiLes
Godspeed to
All You Do to
Lift Folks
UP in Life
Thanks Giving
For Giving Now..:)
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