Inspiring Success Stories vs The Great Chain of Being

The Great Chain of Being, where all life is ordered from rocks and plants at the bottom, people a little up from the middle, angels in the upper half, and I guess Yahweh is in the castle?

My friend wanted to share with me the sense of inspiration she’s been getting from reading Will Smith’s biography. I told her, hopefully in a successfully tactful way, that I just don’t care about celebrity biographies. I didn’t want to rain on her parade by diminishing whatever joy she gets from it, but I didn’t want to have to patiently feign interest in a topic that I would be just waiting to…