Heroes

Who are your heroes?  Who are the ones you seek to emulate in your life?

This thought fully forced itself to my consciousness about a month ago.  It is not a subject that I had paid particular attention to in the past - sure, I want to be better and there are people that I admire, but I had never really given it a great deal of thought. Another mitigating thought - peculiar to Christians, I suppose - is that we are enjoined to emulate Christ.  This has always been somewhat of an intellectual challenge for me:  the thought of emulating the Son of God is somewhat daunting and somehow seems doomed to failure (which, ironically, is actually the point - and for another time).

But the thought was there:  who, if given the chance, would I seek to be more like in my life?

Here are my answers, in no particular order:

Miyamoto Musashi
Socrates
Winston Churchill
Francis Schaeffer
Masanobu Fukuoka
Gene Logsdon
Joel Salatin
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jan Sobieski
Martin Luther

A mixed list for sure.  Lots of names that are not commonly known (and a few that are).  Are there any similarities?    Some of them - Schaeffer, Bonhoffer, Luther - are men of faith who reached out to a world around them in the midst of transition.  Some of them - Fukuoka, Logsdon, Salatin - are farmers who emphasize small scale agriculture and returning to a balance with the land.  Some (Sobieski, Churchill) are military and political leaders who led their countries in times of great crisis.  And some (Musashi, Socrates) are simply my own favorites:  Musashi for his dedication to the martial arts and his encompassing of all things, Socrates because of his dedication to the truth and his ability to patiently teach it.

And with the (technical) exception of Socrates, all of them were writers.

What do my heroes tell me about myself?  I am not sure about that either.  They reflect the things in my life that I probably enjoy the most (agriculture, religion, history, theology, philosophy, nature, martial arts).  They are all men who are determined in their opinion and able to present them cogently to the world (something I secretly think I lack).  They are all - whether overt or quietly so - leaders to those around them.   And they are all writers.

Looking at them on the page, they are not a bad stable of men to seek to be more like.  I have their writings and history.  They are certainly knowable (to the point one can know someone through their writings).  They are easily accessible to me only a daily basis, should I wish to do so.  And ultimately, they all call me to a better more real version of myself.

These are my heroes, those I seek to emulate.  Who are yours?