My Personal Heroes

Continuing with our theme of "running for president" Election Week, I thought it would be fun to go through some of my personal heroes.  While I count my parents, brother, and my grandmother among my favorite people and personal heroes, I am one of those people who have "famous people" heroes in the world either whose work, actions, or lives I really admire.

Having professional heroes isn't an uncomplicated thing, and I'll admit that there are more people whom I professionally admire rather than those I call a personal hero.  Ian McEwan, for example, I thought about putting on this list, but some of his statements have been harder to stomach when it comes to his politics, even though I find his writing to be breathtaking.  The same could be said for John Updike.  Admittedly, with the ten people I counted below as true personal heroes, none of them I have an entirely uncomplicated relationship with; each has done something that I might consider a bit questionable, but heroes aren't supposed to be perfect.  Your parents aren't perfect.  Your teachers aren't perfect.  So the expectation that a famous person hero be perfect are a bit extreme.

All that being said, heroes are who form you into who you are.  Several of these people I had their picture hanging on my wall growing up (one of them I have on my wall still), and helped to guide me into my passions and who I am today.  So it seems appropriate in the week where I'm pretending to run for president that I list out the people who inspire me.  They aren't ranked, but the first four are the first four for a reason.  Without further adieu...

Joe Biden

I actually get to meet Joe Biden next month, and I'm freaking out about it.  I genuinely have no idea what I'm going to say, or exactly why a Midwestern boy from Minnesota grew up idolizing the junior senator from Delaware, but that's the case.  I had a picture of Joe Biden hanging on my wall growing up, and I particularly admire the work he has done through the years being a man who "leans in"-I was raise by a strong woman who believed in equality for all women, and instilled that in her sons.  Biden is the sort of guy I'd want a son to grow up to be-confident, a little goofy, and someone who respects all people.

Rachel Carson

Another native of Pennsylvania, Rachel Carson is someone it's easy to idolize if you love nature at all.  The woman whose work standing up to chemical companies would one day create the EPA saw beauty in the world around her, and ensured that others did too through her writings.  A feminist and an inspiration for women everywhere.

Robert Kennedy

The entire Kennedy family, with their focus on service, country, and equality make for easy heroes in my opinion, but for me it's Bobby at the center who stands out.  Always striving for something better, a strong advocate for those whom society has forgotten or dismissed, and someone who occasionally falls in the shadow of those more easily celebrated, Bobby Kennedy is my short-hand for personal hero.

Robert Osborne

I spend most of my life trying to be Robert Osborne, or at least the Robert Osborne whom I saw for many, many, many years introducing pictures on Turner Classic Movies.  Osborne introduced me to a world that I still count as my home, and how not to just think about the movie itself, but the people and circumstances that resulted in that movie.  Plus, he's just so damn interesting!

Harry Truman

My favorite president.  A soft-spoken, bookish man who had the hardest decision perhaps ever faced by a president (to end a war that would kill hundreds of thousands by killing tens of thousands), Truman would spend much of his presidency trying to preserve that peace, fighting to create the United Nations, and coining the phrase "the buck stops here," something my personal responsibility-laden heart adores.

Claire McCaskill

Yes, I picked her yesterday to be my Vice President for a reason.  No politician currently holding office in America is tougher, stronger, and more consistently awesome than Claire McCaskill.  She's a fighter for causes she believes in, particularly advocating for women and preventing sexual assault, but she's also really cool-despite none of us living in Missouri, literally everyone in my family talks about Claire as if she's a member of the family, are familial benchmark of awesome.

David Attenborough

You'd be hard-pressed to find something I love more than just watching a David Attenborough documentary over-and-over again.  I adore animals, and love conservation/environmentalism (many of the people on this list have that as a centerpiece of their personality), and he creates these world with beauty, grace, and attention to knowledge.  He's a lifelong learner and advocate, something I hope to be for as long as I can be on this Planet Earth.

Sir Edmund Hillary

One of the first ways that I bonded with my dad was through a shared love of talking about adventurers.  My dad would look to the stars for his inspiration, but my "boldly go" hero was a bit more earthbound, the man who looked at the world's tallest mountain and saw his destiny.  Hillary dreamed big, something we all should want from our heroes, and remained active the rest of his life (he was a pro-choice activist too!).

Martin Scorsese

Scorsese isn't on here because he makes great movies.  I mean, he does, but Marty is also someone who celebrates movies, who loves the culture of film.  Scorsese interacts with art in a way that I have been able to relate to, and is someone who finds beauty in occasionally ugly places.  Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Silence-these movies are definitive because they are so fresh, and he's always challenging himself.

Pope Francis

A weird place to end, and hardly a predictable choice, but I am a gay Catholic, and as that's a hard road to trudge, I love that Pope Francis embodies why I go to mass, even if that means that occasionally I need to bite my tongue as I am pro-choice and pro-gay.  Francis's spirit is about helping the less fortunate, helping the planet, and living life with charity as a centerpiece.  It's how I strive to live, and he's the first pope that feels like he sees me that I've experienced since I converted.