Is it accomplishments? Personality? Specific qualities?
Is this person a role model to you?
If it’s a parent or parents, is there anyone else that you admire very much as well?
I admire both of my parents tremendously.
My dad took a subject he was truly passionate about, and through his hard work and intellectual power made a six figure income out of it. He’s published four books and written countless articles. In addition to his career he’s also a semi-professional musician. He has mad confidence, is always totally in control, and is an absolute ace with women (after he and my mom split up, he started racking up hot women half his age within weeks.) College-age waitresses routinely flirt with him when we’re out at a restaurant. His current girlfriend is only five years older than me. He went to a Muse show with her. He’s a ruggedly handsome guy, (I don’t think I’ve had a single female friend not tell me that “he’s hot,”) and he’s got an easy charm that I’ve never seen on anyone else. He’s a totally larger-than-life figure, but also extremely easygoing, laid-back, and fun to hang out with.
My mother is the one who has instilled me with creativity, curiosity, and introspectiveness. Like my dad, she took something she loved to do and made a very good income off of it, and is constantly trying new things and seeking adventure. There is nothing that I can’t talk to my mom about - she’s been a guide to me throughout my whole life, always there to help me with anything I needed, sort of like a psychiatrist. To this day, it’s her, and not my dad, who I call when I have a deep matter that I feel I need to talk to someone with. My dad can talk to me about stuff too, but not in the same way - my mom and I have a certain intellectual bond that I don’t share with anyone else. But like my dad, I’ve never seen her in a situation she couldn’t handle. She’s totally unflappable and seems to always know exactly what she’s doing. When I was a kid, my mom was the only parent I knew who was into computers. She was downloading games from Mac BBS with a Macintosh 512 and a 14.4 modem before “the internet” was a household name. And it was always her, and not my dad, who was the technical person around the house. She would do all the home repairs and the nuts-and-bolts stuff. And like my dad, she’s hardly aged a bit - she looks great and carries herself elegantly.
I look up to my grandpa and grandma (on my dad’s side - I never had much contact with my mom’s parents. Her father died when she was 16, and her mother, who I hardly ever saw, died last month.) My grandpa is a hard-assed, no-nonsense, blue collar guy who served in the Korean war and used to be a rep for the pressman’s union. He’s a thoroughly negative and judgmental guy, cynical as all hell, but has an infectious laugh and a great sense of humor (among other things, he owns an umbrella that says “SHIT IT’S RAINING” on top when it’s opened, a wooden sculpture of a hand giving the middle finger, and a keychain of a naked man wearing a barrel that can be pulled down to expose its dick.) One time I was driving him in my car and playing crazy, fucked-up psychelectronica, and he said, “I like your music!” and actually meant it. My grandma is a similarly no-nonsense person, who takes absolutely no shit from anyone. She used to be a receptionist at the American Cancer society, and smoked a pack a day. That’s how little of a damn she gives. (She quit, fortunately.) I can’t recall a single instance in which she’s been anything but unfailingly kind to me. Her and grandpa are in their late 70s and they still travel all around the world. They’ve been to Scotland, Australia, and practically everywhere in between. They’re also hardcore gamblers and routinely come back from Vegas and Atlantic City with several thousand dollars (Grandpa plays craps - no other game would fit his style - and is also insanely good at pool and kicks my and my dad’s ass every time we play.) They are more alive than most 20 year olds I know.
For a visual: my family. L to R: Grandma, Dad, Me, Mom, Grandpa. Picture was taken in 1989, I think.
Aside from my family, there are others who I admire and who have been role models.
My girlfriend May - she has supported me in everything I’ve done, and is always someone I can turn to for a no-bullshit reality check in life. She’s way more confident and in-control than I’ll ever be. She has introduced me to a lot of great music (like Kings of Leon, who are now one of my favorite bands,) and is able to enjoy dense literature that would put me right to sleep.
My friend and drummer in my band, Aaron. He opened my eyes to a lot of music back when we were roomates in our freshman year of college. The first true hipster I met, although he’s more of a Midwestern blue-collar garage rocker. He’s a guy who can wear a trucker hat and NOT have it be a put-on.
My former music teacher, and active local musician Joe Donnelly, of the bands Salaam and Orquesta Son. This guy was more than a teacher, he was like a rabbi, a priest, and a shrink all put together.
John Mellencamp - Lives in my town - my parents are friendly with him and his wife, and I appeared in the music video for Your Life Is Now with my mom and sister. He is a rocker who truly walks the walk. He has done so much to give back to the community, and has stayed true to his roots. He’s the Springsteen of the Midwest.
My middle school band teacher Mr. Austin. He looks like a human version of Ned Flanders, but is a hell of a good guy and got me started on the musical path. He used to make the drummers do push-ups if he caught them chewing gum!!
Now that I’m reading over all of this, I hope it doesn’t seem too much like I’m boasting about how great my life is and how awesome I am for knowing such great people. But hey - this is my chance to do it. I would be nothing without the people who surround me.
That’s the easiest question in the world to answer.
DR. MICHAEL SAVAGE, OF THE ‘SAVAGE NATION’ RADIO SHOW. (On Monday thru Friday, 3-hours per day across the nation.)
Dr. Savage is the smartest, most honest, most perceptive, most courageous, most articulate person I know of. He’s truly a National Treasure!
There’s no one like him.
Dr. Thomas Sowell, the noted economist. I admire him for a couple of reasons. First, I think he is brilliant…his writing on economics, class, and race in America I have found fascinating and enlightening. He helped solidify my personal political philosophy. Second, his life story, which is an amazing testimony to what can be accomplished in a free country. He was a poor child from an uneducated family. He was raised, in his words, without “luxuries such as electricity.” He ended up with a Harvard education, and a PhD from the University of Chicago, and has advised presidents. Truly an amazing person.
One of my old martial arts teachers was diagnosed with severe arthritis at a very early age (24, IIRC). He was told he’d have limited mobility the rest of his life. He got into Karate and Aikido to fight this, and the last I saw of him–20 years ago–he could do full splits. He was a really impressive intimidating guy, not in a mean sense–he was the opposite of mean–but in the sense of a man who carried a lot of power.
Thank Og, one of him is more than enough.
On a personal level, my great-great aunt, who passed away in 1998. She was a teacher for 50 years, she went from Mississippi to Columbia University in NYC in the 20s to get her Master’s degree, she wanted to write (and was a friend of Eudora Welty to the end of her life - Miss Welty died years after) but when the depression hit, she came home to put her three younger sisters and brother through college by teaching. Then her father died, her mother lost her eyesight, and my aunt never got to go back to NYC to write. But oh, she could teach, and even 50 or 60 years after they had her as a teacher, we had former students calling the house to ask, in breathy, respectful tones if they could please talk to Miss H…, who changed their life.
My aunt never married, she had cancer 7 times, she had her first mastectomy in the 20s and her second in the 60s. She took over (mostly) the raising of me at age 68, when most people would have been in retirement. She loved me so much and I loved her, and I am as saddened by her loss today as I was all those years ago - though the grief has passed, the sadness remains. She was the first female president of the MS Teacher’s union, she fought for the right of teachers to be paid a salary 12 months a year (instead of 9), after her much younger (16 years, IIRC) brother was run over and killed by a car after getting off the school bus, she fought for laws to be enacted for cars to stop when busses were letting off children - something we take for granted today.
Where I went to college, I lived in a dorm. In that same dorm, in the early 30s, my aunt (again, newly returned from NYC, having achieved escape velocity from dusty small town MS, and returned because of duty) had lived, nearly 60 years before, as a teacher who had to look after the girls that lived in the dorm, chaperone them to church and to classes and to meals. I was so proud to be there, to be part of her history, and she just smiled. Years later she told me how she cried herself to sleep there every night for her lost life in the ciy, but she didn’t ruin my time in that dorm for me.
On an intellectual level, Richard Dawkins. Says what I think better than I could say it myself. Takes no prisoners and has the intellectual wherewithall to back himself up. He has made me think - and even when I don’t agree with him, I have to work to articulate why. The world would be a better place with 1000 more like him.
Cheers,
G