Which would you rather be: rich and famous, rich but not famous, famous but broke, or neither rich nor famous nor broke?

Being broke and famous does not paint a pretty picture. These are the relatively few famous folks who have fallen from the mountain of wealth – the victims of fraud, bad luck, or their own stupidity or vanity. In the mean-spirited eye of the public, they are a joke, a loser, a has-been. They wear the albatross, and are conspicuous as a clown in a convent. On a personal level, friendships are tenuous at best. To quote Billie Holiday, “Money, you got lots of friends / crowding round your door / but when you’re gone, and spending ends / they don’t come ’round anymore.” And beware the ones who seem to stand by you, lest they dress you in emperor’s clothes for sport! All you can do is hope there is someone out there who will pity your suffering soul.

On the other hand, being rich but not famous would have many advantages. You could enjoy all the benefits without the hassle of being harried by Joe Schmoe. You travel incognito for the most part, and can select where and when you want to be visible to the public.

Among the super-rich secret society, the most cherished possessions seem to be different modes of transportation. Whether for land, sea, or air, cutting edge machines are the symbols of the elite social class. Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, and Astin Martin; Dilbar, Azzam, and Eclipse; Gulfstream, Dassault, and Bombardier. The Russian oligarchs and other linked-in billionaires wave these flags as proof of their superiority. They are aloof and untouchable, largely unencumbered by conscience.

Yet I’m not being fair to the majority of non-famous wealthy people – the ones who earned their status through talent, perseverance, fair play, and wisdom (and often a bit of luck). Theirs is the good dream – one in which they are part of humanity and are willing to contribute to its betterment.

To become a rich and famous celebrity is the dream of many athletes, performing artists, entrepreneurs and politicians. It is the Holy Grail they seek – the reward for their dedication and hard work, and the rightful fruition of their God-given talent. It sets them apart from the common lot and affords them a highfalutin lifestyle. They exercise the freedom to travel the world, to meet beautiful people, to pursue exotic and erotic fantasies.

Most celebrities live in the proverbial bubble. They float above the common lot, avoiding contact while at the same time craving attention. Naturally they have developed larger-than-life egos, and many have privately expressed their disdain for their own fans. In a way this is understandable: imagine what it would be like to be hounded or fawned over every time you step into the public arena, or to witness the asininity of overzealous fans, or to have to sit back and do nothing when rumors turn into outright lies about your private life. And it must get harder and harder to trust those closest to you, for they might have ulterior motives. As the saying goes, it is lonely at the top.

So this brings us to the last choice: being neither rich nor famous nor broke. For most of us, it’s not a choice, but the reality. We can fantasize, as I’m doing here, about other walks of life, but we have already resigned ourselves to the limitations of our little patch upon the planet. A kind of gardening is what we do with our time – planting, nurturing, watching things grow. And, though we certainly don’t dwell on it, we know that every harvest brings us closer to the time when we leave the keys to the tractor to the next generation.

One thing of which I’m sure is that, when the time comes, we will not be delivered from this place to the next in a Rolls Royce, row boat or paddywagon. We won’t be auditioning for the Holy Angels’ Choir, or trying out for the New Heaven Nets. If our ultimate passage has anything to do with how we have conducted our lives here, it won’t be about wealth or power or breaking records. I hope it will be a measure of our compassion, kindness, and good will toward others.

Pete Howard, a musician, writer, teacher, and painter, lives in Dunkirk.