Filling Their Shoes

Illustration: Frits Ahlefedt

I am blessed to have some amazing role models in my life, past and present. IDW, there is an unfortunate tendency to lambaste myself for NOT being more like the people I love and admire, rather than using the lessons taught by their example in a way that is kinder and, ultimately, more effective. This is because I am keenly aware of my own failings and peccadillos, and tend to forget that even my nearest and dearest have feet of clay.

Even the most accomplished among us have Sailboats and Garbage Scows . . . Einstein not only couldn't spell, he was downright cruel to his first wife, if his letters are any indication . . . I once read a most unflattering article about Mother Theresa . . . it seems she could be a bit . . . well, militant is a fitting word. I have a friend who performed in a show with music written by a celebrated [still-living] composer whose hauntingly beautiful music can move audiences to tears -- and his lover, who was also in the show, was covered with bruises throughout the entire run. Come to that, I've read in biographies and articles that Martin Luther King, who touted nonviolence publically, actually hit his wife in private on more than one occasion.

The challenge always is to hold these dichotomies gently in mind, remembering that sailboats do not negate the presence of garbage scows, nor vice versa. To use the Sailboats of Others as models to improve our Sailboats of Self, and to be patient with the Garbage Scows. Especially (for most of us, anyway) our own.