Listening to a CD I burned for use when working on VicMage.Asia stuff (specifically the song "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart), I found myself thinking about RL heroes of mine, and what they had in common, if anything. Since I've only had one cup of coffee this morning I gave up trying to ferret out anything in particular and figured I'd just list a bunch of 'em, and why I was fond of each one. Who knows, someone might pick it up. In no particular order:
1. Ernest Shackleton, who had a goal and gave his all to try and reach it - but rather than see the people who trusted in him die, turned about and endured freezing hell in an open boat to save them. And did. Every last one.
2. John Henry, of the American folktale, who fought for the dignity of the working man - of the human being - even though it cost him his life to make his point.
3. The women of Nigeria who shamed Shell Oil, and a few other companies, into hiring their men and providing services to their workers by threatening to go naked through the town. For showing that there is more than one way to turn an oppressor around, so long as there is something human left in that oppressor.
4. Wang Weilin, the student who walked in front of the Tiananmen Square tanks - same reason.
5. Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross Movement (there was no Red Crescent in his day) - for taking the greatest horror he had ever seen, the Battle of Solferino, and using its memory to build something he believed could change the world.
6. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, for turning from perceived safety to the cause of the people he was supposed to serve, and speaking for them even though it would (and did) cost him his life.
7. Argo the dog, of the Odyssey, who would not be moved from his post until the return of the master he loved. Because, dammit, that was what he was supposed to do. Penelope, Odysseus' wife, comes a close second to this; she gains extra points for cleverness within an oppressive system, using the only options available to someone in her gender/marital roles.
8. Sima Qian, most stubborn academic in the history of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. Spoke up for a general who had incurred imperial disfavour, was condemned to the socially unspeakable shame of castration, but endured it because he had a Work that he had sworn to finish rather than die - and did.
9. Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden. A diplomat with no particular ties to the Jewish people, no particular industrial or financial interest in their welfare - but was sufficiently disturbed by the behavior of the Third Reich that he risked his status, his position, and his life on numerous occasions to provide false documents and testimonials on behalf of individual Jews, to get them out alive. Close second: an Italian urologist whose name eludes me, but who is memorialized in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, for writing out several hundred certificates swearing up and down that the bearer was circumcised as part of cancer treatment and should not under any circumstances be considered Jewish. Now that is the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath.
And finally, 10. St. Lawrence, of Roman Catholic lore. It's said that Lawrence was martyred by fastening him to a gridiron to be roasted alive over a blazing fire - and that when this happened, Lawrence's last known words to his murderers were, "Turn me over, I am done on this side." The man had fidelity to what he truly believed, endurance in the face of torture, and style and a sense of humour. You have got to admire someone with enough sangfroid to pull that off when he's being roasted alive.
Not a whole lot of women on the list, and I'm sorry for that, but these are the people who came to mind for me, specifically. Your mileage, quite naturally, may vary.
I need more coffee.
1. Ernest Shackleton, who had a goal and gave his all to try and reach it - but rather than see the people who trusted in him die, turned about and endured freezing hell in an open boat to save them. And did. Every last one.
2. John Henry, of the American folktale, who fought for the dignity of the working man - of the human being - even though it cost him his life to make his point.
3. The women of Nigeria who shamed Shell Oil, and a few other companies, into hiring their men and providing services to their workers by threatening to go naked through the town. For showing that there is more than one way to turn an oppressor around, so long as there is something human left in that oppressor.
4. Wang Weilin, the student who walked in front of the Tiananmen Square tanks - same reason.
5. Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross Movement (there was no Red Crescent in his day) - for taking the greatest horror he had ever seen, the Battle of Solferino, and using its memory to build something he believed could change the world.
6. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, for turning from perceived safety to the cause of the people he was supposed to serve, and speaking for them even though it would (and did) cost him his life.
7. Argo the dog, of the Odyssey, who would not be moved from his post until the return of the master he loved. Because, dammit, that was what he was supposed to do. Penelope, Odysseus' wife, comes a close second to this; she gains extra points for cleverness within an oppressive system, using the only options available to someone in her gender/marital roles.
8. Sima Qian, most stubborn academic in the history of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. Spoke up for a general who had incurred imperial disfavour, was condemned to the socially unspeakable shame of castration, but endured it because he had a Work that he had sworn to finish rather than die - and did.
9. Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden. A diplomat with no particular ties to the Jewish people, no particular industrial or financial interest in their welfare - but was sufficiently disturbed by the behavior of the Third Reich that he risked his status, his position, and his life on numerous occasions to provide false documents and testimonials on behalf of individual Jews, to get them out alive. Close second: an Italian urologist whose name eludes me, but who is memorialized in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, for writing out several hundred certificates swearing up and down that the bearer was circumcised as part of cancer treatment and should not under any circumstances be considered Jewish. Now that is the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath.
And finally, 10. St. Lawrence, of Roman Catholic lore. It's said that Lawrence was martyred by fastening him to a gridiron to be roasted alive over a blazing fire - and that when this happened, Lawrence's last known words to his murderers were, "Turn me over, I am done on this side." The man had fidelity to what he truly believed, endurance in the face of torture, and style and a sense of humour. You have got to admire someone with enough sangfroid to pull that off when he's being roasted alive.
Not a whole lot of women on the list, and I'm sorry for that, but these are the people who came to mind for me, specifically. Your mileage, quite naturally, may vary.
I need more coffee.