Why is E! or even the TV Guide Channel such valued channels? Why are People Magazine or Seventeen or Entertainment Weekly so popular? Is it because the people featured within the pages are so much better than us? Do they have less problems or more answers or greater wisdom? Do we really think Britney Spears or Taylor Swift or Brad Pitt or Barack Obama have it all together? Let’s be honest… in today’s world the majority of people who get ‘admired’ are the wealthy, or the famous, or the guy who is ‘bigger-than’ or ‘ better-than’. I think we look to these people hoping they know something… something that can effect our lives.
Remember the movie Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade? In one of the scenes, Indiana had to choose the ‘cup of Christ’. The cup was supposed to be what Jesus drank out of at the last supper. The choices were immense. Which of the dozens of cups could it be? One of the golden cups gilded with jewels? No. It ended up being a simple cup. A wooden cup. A carpenter’s cup. According to the movie, drinking from this cup had healing powers. A simple, unassuming cup had the power to change a life.
We can certainly find people who embody the ideals, the foundational ideas, that mark who we are as individuals. I would think we should be more careful about who we choose though. Not only can we look to people like Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, Martin Luther, Marie Curie and Thomas Edison, but we can look to Mr. Theis, Carol Kessler, Melissa Larimore, KC Maddox, and Al Lewie. People who are closest to us have the greatest impact on us. I will take Mr. Theis who believed I could do more than I thought I could, or Carol Kessler who invests in the lives of girls who are decades younger than she is, or KC Maddox who challenges me to think more than I sometimes want to. I can admire, and even emulate, some of the more famous people I find significant in history. If I am honest, however, others have made a deeper impact on who I am becoming. These unassuming people have the power to change a life… my life.
