People often want to be the opposite of what they are. Children, for example, can't wait to grow up, while adults would do practically anything to go back in time.
And nowhere is this more true than among those who dwell at the pinnacle of modern American life: the lucky few who have obscene wealth and limitless fame. Many of the rich and famous seem to want nothing more than to be regular folks, or at least to appear to be.
So when speculation grew that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was buying up Vidalia onion farms, it seemed like déjà vu.
Here's a look at some extremely wealthy people who want to keep a little dirt under their fingernails:
Ted Turner
Founder of CNN and former husband of Jane Fonda,Ted Turner is America's second-largest private landowner. The man who once raced yachts now rides a horse on any of the 2 million acres he controls.
And those acres aren't just a vacation spot - Turner ranches are working ranches and the nation's single-largest source of bison meat. There are 51,000 of the animals living on Turner property.
Roseanne Barr
The comedienne and former TV star owns a macadamia nut farm in Hawaii. Barr tried to merge her two worlds in 2011 by producing a reality-TV show called "Roseanne's Nuts" about her family's life in the nut business, though Lifetime Television canceled the show after 16 episodes.
Barr's nut farm returned to the headlines earlier this year when she became one of the more influential voices opposing the use of GMO crops in Hawaii.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
The Hollywood couple owns an estate in Provence with a 35-bedroom mansion and a wine vineyard. Pitt has taken to calling himself a "farmer," and has put considerable effort into producing fine wines from the land.
It appears he may know what he's doing. Reviews of the wine from Chateau Miraval have been quite good.
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban
The movies and music power couple owns working land on two continents. They have a farm outside Nashville where they raise alpacas and a 100-acre cattle ranch in Australia.
Coincidentally, Australian movie star Russell Crowe also owns a cattle ranch in that nation. It's a 1,400-acre property where he raises black angus cattle.
Zach Galifianakis
If there is anyone who can explain the star-turned-farmer phenomenon, it's the bearded comedian and movie actor best-known as one of the stars of "The Hangover" movie trilogy.
Galifianakis' farm-themed parody of Kanye West’s music video "Can't Tell Me Anything" is a strangely insightful and moving look at fame. "I had a dream I could buy my way to heaven," West raps as Galifianakis sits atop a tractor and tosses hay bales.
West's lyrics suggest he understands what he traded for fame and fortune. Galifianakis, who owns 60 acres of working farmland in North Carolina, lip-syncs in a way that suggests he knows too.
And what both seem to be saying is that looking to the land as a way to find your lost soul is, simply, funny.