My three children and I were listening to Christmas carols last December while practicing yoga next to our lit Christmas tree before bedtime, and the Beach Boys began singing “Little Saint Nick.”

I thought about one of the Beach Boys–can’t remember which one–who struggled with alcohol, drugs, depression, and suicide attempts, and wondered why it is that everyone always says “Really?! So and so has issues with drugs/alcohol/depression?! I can’t believe it!!”

Why can’t we believe it? Because they cut some CD’s? Because they star in movies? Because they perform on Broadway?

Since these people are “famous,” we feel that they are beyond the realities and struggles of daily life. We project our own fantasies onto them and then they become who we want them to be.

In reality, if you really think about it, it’s not surprising that people living the Hollywood life would have “issues.” Talk about a pressure cooker.

In 1994 my ex-husband and I were visiting my brother and his then pregnant wife in Seattle. It was the infamous day when we all watched the cops chase OJ in his white Bronco on the highways of the Golden State. As OJ sped toward what he thought was freedom, my ex-husband kept saying, “He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t do it. He couldn’t have.”

“He totally did it. I know it.” I replied with certainty.

“No, he couldn’t have,” he argued with anger.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because he was my football hero.”

Amazing how an Ivy-league educated man could make a statement like this–and cling to his belief–in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

We believe what we want to. We see what we want to. And thus, we create what we want to.

What do you believe? What do you see? And what therefore are you creating?