"Nothing Beside Remains. Round The Decay of That Colossal Wreak..."

I've been thinking, why is it that people feel a need to be a 'legend' instead of being memorialized in a regular way? Marilyn Monroe is a legend and I'm not saying that she set out to be, but people are intent on emulating her legendary status. I'm curious about why one would want to be like someone who is basically remembered for a hot bod and a ditsy demeanor. Lindsay Lohan, for example, longs to be like Marilyn, even going as far as recreating her famous photoshoots, getting a Marilyn quote tattoo and having a train wreak of a personal life. I long to be remembered as me, not as a legend, as who I was not who I have been built up as. I am often reminded of a quote by a lesser known person, Damon Runyon, who wrote 'Guys and Dolls' and other New York set stories. As he was dying of cancer, he said, "you can keep the things of bronze and stone and give me one man to remember me just once a year." I remember Damon Runyon, and not for getting naked in Playboy magazine.