Recently, I’ve become a bit fascinated by Mr. Rogers. I was reading the thread about him in the pit (related to Fox News) and was amazed by some of the links about him. He just seems like one of the most genuine, laid-back, and caring person there could be.
I find myself trying to emulate his style lately and it’s been helping in my daily life. I watch an episode of the neighborhood and see how calm he is, and think to myself, ‘I need to be more like that.’
People these days are so busy, and a lot of them are rude and arrogant. Then, I watch TV and see a lot of the same things. People seem to be obsessed with being tough and looking cool. I wonder how much of that comes from their idols.
Anyways, no matter how hard I might try, I will never be as good as Mr. Rogers. That’s why he’s an idol. All I can do is hope to learn as much as I can from him.
I think that’s an excellent role for an idol, someone whom you want to emulate but who will always (possibly because you don’t know him as well as you know yourself) be a little out of reach.
[QUOTE=Robert Browning]
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
or what’s a heaven for?
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think I have one. I do have one real person in my real life whom I admire, But mostly I regulate my behavior by observing people I don’t want to be like, and trying to do the opposite. This has the advantage that such people are easier to find.
Roddy
Saint Therese of Lisieux because she lived a quiet life away from the world but followed her “little way” of doing everything in the spirit of love for God and other people. And fortunately she was asked to write about it!
I recently did this as part of a self development exercise - pick someone you admire and would like to emulate. My answer was nobody. There are people I respect for one thing or another but I can’t think of anyone I believe is faultless and I would be happy to be like, much less an idol.
Once we had a mentoring program at work and we were meant to pick someone we wanted to learn from to be our mentor. I didn’t think that anyone above me in the organization represented any values that I hold important. I’m pretty sure that telling people that didn’t enhance my career prospects.
I don’t think an idol or hero has to be faultless. I think it’s more important that they admit their faults and struggle to overcome them. Of course it depends on what those faults are. Mass murder is different than an occasional indiscretion.
Nobody’s perfect, but that man exuded pure class through an incredibly difficult situation. He’s an intellectual and a humanitarian and redefines the meaning of ‘‘commitment.’’ And he’s a clear example of someone you can point to and say, ‘‘There. That man made the world better.’’
I’m not going to say I have any idols, because I’m not into blind celebrity-worshipping, but one person who’s becoming increasingly interesting to me is Martin Villeneuve.
So many men dedicated their lives to overthrowing a bad political system and then destroyed their legacy by replacing it with a new regime that was just as bad. Mandela is a great man because he’s one of the few exceptions (the only other one I can think of off hand is Washington). Mandela is as great for everything he did after 1994 as he is for everything he did before.
Stephen Fry, because of his ability to overcome the obstacles of mental illness, which is something I also struggle with. Also, because he’s so good at so many things, and is a staunch defender of classical music.
Debbie Harry. Extraordinarily talented and diverse, intelligent, confident enough to be goofy, deep, ditzy and dead serious. Blatantly sexy but never weak. Imperfect and unashamed of it–if only people could just live up to that last part.
