Brad McCormick:
> > > ****Ed G interjected:
> > > Ed, do you confuse hero with role model? A hero being revered, a role
> > model
> > > emulated.
> >
> > No, Ed G, I'm quite content to revere in the case of both St. Francis
and
> > the Buddhist. I'll leave them as heroes.
>
> Let me quote from Hermann Broch's _The Sleepwalkers_:
>
> Each person must fulfill their dream,
> be it unhallowed or holy,
> in order that they may have their share of freedom
> in the darkness and dullness of life.
That is a very nice thought Brad, but how far do most of us get? I've built
some bookshelves in our basement bathroom. We keep books there that we
don't really want to throw away or really want to keep. It's sort of
literary limbo. I was down there the other day and happened to pick up Ayn
Rand's "Fountainhead" and read the Introduction. One paragraph in it hit
home:
"It is not in the nature of man-nor of any living entity- to start out by
giving up, by spitting in one's own face and damning existence; that
requires a process of corruption whose rapidity differs from man to man.
Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by
imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they
lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell
them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one's mind; security,
of abandoning one's values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few
hold on and move on, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed, learning
how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the
dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's
potential."
When we are young we have role-models. As we move on through life and
succumb to the burdens and afflictions Rand describes, we discard roles
models one by one or convert them to heroes. I'm at that stage in life
where I have only heroes left.
Ed Weick
(613) 728-4630
Visit my website: http://members.eisa.com/~ec086636
