It may not be often, but authors do reach celebrity status.  Enough to be honored in a spoof, or skit, or other comedy; a skit that rises out of love for that author, their character, their humor, their humanity.  When I do come across these favorite author moments, I’m thrilled. 

We can caricature their personality enough to come up with something as fun as the following SNL commercial, our way of giving thanks to their wonderful brilliance, and we imagine them laughing along with us.

So often we don’t know much about the writers that write our favorite novels, short stories, poems, thrillers, mysteries, and the like.  This is especially true if they have not reached television or movie status.  Even rarer are those authors that stick around for a while, long enough for us to become quite attached to them.  We tend to make up more about who they are based on their writing, genre, and style, than we ever really get to hear about from their own mouths. 

Maya Angelou, writing.There are certain authors, like Maya Angelou that have been in the hearts of many for reasons that go beyond their incredible words and storytelling.  These are the ones we tend to know the most.  We love them.  And we feel as though we know them because in many ways we do; they have given interviews, speeches,  readings.  They have changed our lives in more ways than we thought. 

When an author can reach a universe of people the way Maya Angelou has, he or she has the power to touch and change so many lives.  While authors like Maya are few and far between, it doesn’t hurt to try to be as inspirational to the human species as they are, to use them as mentors and encouragement for good, for sharing a piece of wisdom, or two, with one’s fellow human beings. 

It can be quite a daunting task to go up against someone with such a lifetime of experience. But even Maya Angelou started somewhere.  Learn from these authors, these wonderful teachers, utilize them; this is the best form of appreciation we can show.