The sad lives of two young women in the news recently should serve as a cautionary tale for all who aspire to celebrity - and for those who feed off its soap opera narratives.

We all have special gifts, activities in which we excel. Imagine other people only ever saw you when you were doing that one special thing. They would only see you at your very best.

That may sound attractive, but before long you would begin to feel guilty about the other areas of your life, where you're not so strong. In the areas where we are weak we need the support and understanding of others.

In the end, if people only see the best side of us they place upon us expectations that we can't possibly fulfil. When that happens, a well-balanced self-image becomes impossible, and relationships become very difficult to sustain, for relationship is built on vulnerability as well as strength.

Among its consumers, celebrity tends to distort a sense of virtue and value. Mark Twain once remarked that many a small thing has been made large by the power of advertising.

Celebrity makes the important seem trivial; which ought to concern us, especially where it affects our young people. They are the most impressionable members of society, as well as the biggest consumers of celebrity tattle.

In the end, celebrity is a poor substitute for what we as human beings really crave, which is not image but influence.

The most impacting individual in human history wasn't in the least interested in fame. In fact, he spread a message of self-denial, meekness and humility; a message which has inspired the lowly and scared the powerful ever since.

In the end, he was killed for his trouble; yet, no matter how hard you try, you can't ignore him or escape his influence, some two thousand years after his birth.

This message - that it is the meek who inherit the earth in the end - continues to inspire ordinary people to do extraordinary things; most often away from the bright lights of Tabloid Ville.