A Faint Meteor

With young Rynd "Jay" Lawder on my mind, murdered at age 29, I am puzzling over the universal interest in dramatic life turns, however insignificant the protagonists.  I noted this line in one of Abigail Adams' letters recently (I noted it recently; she wrote it in the 1770s):"Fame without honor would be like a faint meteor gliding through the sky, shedding only transient light."