As a writer who believes in the power of the everyday narrative, I rarely attend large celebrity events.  Through Facebook, I was alerted to someone named Dave Eggers who is not only a bestselling author, but a true activist for literacy and education.  He founded a non-profit creative writing center for children and his work seeks to amplify the voices of marginalized people and pressing issues of social justice.  A real rugged soul.

I thought it was good.  But, I’m probably not the best person to write about going to see a celebrity writer.

I can see why I’d ask him about form, content, diction, and style.

But people were asking about parenthood, business funding, even a job inquiry (that was a real gem) and Dave Eggers is given the floor to speak…and I started checking my cell phone. I’m not a celebrity-goer.  And I’m not a fan of someone manipulating the situation asking Dave Eggers for a job while he’s on stage.

Afterward, I was looking desperately for the bathroom and felt like a fish swimming upstream.  My shoulders were being knocked left and right as I was the only person heading back INTO the lobby area while everyone else was pouring out.  I was forming a poem in my head about going against the flow of suits and fur coats when Dave Eggers almost knocks my shoulder.  He narrowly misses and I look curiously in his eyes.  I see that glazed look of so many public speakers.  That self-protecting look that disguises the inevitable fatigue of talking under the hot, bright lights of a stage and answering questions from complete strangers.  He had about two hundred people in line waiting to talk to him at his table.

Suddenly, I feel sorry for him.

I thought of the last person who signed a book of mine: Grace Lee Boggs, a 96 year old activist who had spent her life fighting for youth, revolution, peace, and radical love.  And yet, with Grace, her eyes were completely different than Dave Eggers.  Grace had this look of insistence and the widest smile I’ve seen in years.

I thought of her.  Grace, the Detroit resistant with a heart bigger than all of Michigan.

I stood in line with friends as they waited to have their books signed.  I was the only empty-handed one.  As much as I admired his work and especially his interest in transnational issues, I was more lit up from the insights of Grace than the uber famous Eggers.

What makes one author a celebrity and one author a well-known activist?

I think it’s in their message.

Eggers profiles stories that tug at the heart, that draw us into the disbelieving story of human injustice that makes us want to apologize for who we are.  Grace Lee Boggs speaks about our unimaginable capacity to love our country and neighbor enough to fight for change.

Eggers tells people a story.  Boggs tells people to love.

Most people would rather be entertained by a story than to learn how to be a better person.  That’s the difference between a celebrity and a true activist.