I have been reading a really good book, Questions of Character, on what we can learn about ethics from reading literature. The author, Harvard's Joseph Badaracco, uses examples from the play Death of a Salesman and other classic literature, much of which I never heard of having specialized in statistics early on in life and avoided English classes like the plague.
A very good question brought up by one of these classic pieces I had never heard of was who are role models are in life and what they have taught us or brought out in us. I would guarantee that mine are names you would never recognize, and I think that is true for most people. Maybe there are people out there who based their lives on Sitting Bull, Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy. Maybe. But I think most people are more affected by their mom, their older brother and their next-door neighbor.
Who were my role models in life? My grandmother, Emelia Maria, was someone from whom I got a great deal more than my name. She believed that your family was your family for life, period. If your children screwed up big-time, you didn't pretend otherwise but you always let you know that you loved them. At the same time, no one was ever off the hook. Nanny expected you to succeed, expected you to study, expected you to be a good person. No excuse was permanent. She would say,
"You can always change."
From my grandmother, I received a model of unwavering faith. We used to tease her about it. One of my cousins, trying to describe how bad the weather had gotten one winter said,
"It was so cold that there were three days when Nanny didn't go to church."
My grandmother believed that God knew what he was doing, and no matter what, things would work out as long as we had faith. She believed that for all 99 years of her life. My grandmother was a role model of faith, unconditional love and doing your best with whatever God handed you.
My mother wasn't the most liberated woman out there. She had five children and I never saw my father change a diaper or wash a dish, despite the fact that my mom was one of the few mothers I know to have a full-time job. Yet, she was also one of the first women I knew to join the National Organization for Women (NOW), to subscribe to Ms. Magazine. You know how people sometimes don't want their children "to get ideas" about moving to the big city, reaching "above themselves".
Well, my mom was the opposite. She TRIED to give me ideas. She tried to raise me to be the trouble-maker, questioner, uppity woman that she never got the chance to be. For years, she worked at Washington University in St. Louis as a secretary, earning very little, on the promise that her children, if they could get admitted, could get a private university education, for free. Three of us gained admission and two of us graduated.
Two of my most common memories of my mother were going to the public library with the whole family every weekend, and going swimming at the YMCA. Soon, I was reading everything I had checked out on Saturday by the middle of the week and walking the mile to the library by myself on Wednesday or Thursday for more books. I still swim in the hotel pool every time I am away on business, and the YMCA is where I started judo, a sport in which I eventually became world champion.
My mother was a role model of the value of education, hard work, persistence and sacrificing for your children.
I have had other role models in my life, people who shaped my professional and academic career, but these two women were the first influences who shaped the character I have today.
Who were YOUR role models?
A very good question brought up by one of these classic pieces I had never heard of was who are role models are in life and what they have taught us or brought out in us. I would guarantee that mine are names you would never recognize, and I think that is true for most people. Maybe there are people out there who based their lives on Sitting Bull, Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy. Maybe. But I think most people are more affected by their mom, their older brother and their next-door neighbor.
Who were my role models in life? My grandmother, Emelia Maria, was someone from whom I got a great deal more than my name. She believed that your family was your family for life, period. If your children screwed up big-time, you didn't pretend otherwise but you always let you know that you loved them. At the same time, no one was ever off the hook. Nanny expected you to succeed, expected you to study, expected you to be a good person. No excuse was permanent. She would say,
"You can always change."
From my grandmother, I received a model of unwavering faith. We used to tease her about it. One of my cousins, trying to describe how bad the weather had gotten one winter said,
"It was so cold that there were three days when Nanny didn't go to church."
My grandmother believed that God knew what he was doing, and no matter what, things would work out as long as we had faith. She believed that for all 99 years of her life. My grandmother was a role model of faith, unconditional love and doing your best with whatever God handed you.
My mother wasn't the most liberated woman out there. She had five children and I never saw my father change a diaper or wash a dish, despite the fact that my mom was one of the few mothers I know to have a full-time job. Yet, she was also one of the first women I knew to join the National Organization for Women (NOW), to subscribe to Ms. Magazine. You know how people sometimes don't want their children "to get ideas" about moving to the big city, reaching "above themselves".
Well, my mom was the opposite. She TRIED to give me ideas. She tried to raise me to be the trouble-maker, questioner, uppity woman that she never got the chance to be. For years, she worked at Washington University in St. Louis as a secretary, earning very little, on the promise that her children, if they could get admitted, could get a private university education, for free. Three of us gained admission and two of us graduated.
Two of my most common memories of my mother were going to the public library with the whole family every weekend, and going swimming at the YMCA. Soon, I was reading everything I had checked out on Saturday by the middle of the week and walking the mile to the library by myself on Wednesday or Thursday for more books. I still swim in the hotel pool every time I am away on business, and the YMCA is where I started judo, a sport in which I eventually became world champion.
My mother was a role model of the value of education, hard work, persistence and sacrificing for your children.
I have had other role models in my life, people who shaped my professional and academic career, but these two women were the first influences who shaped the character I have today.
Who were YOUR role models?
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