fading_light

After hours of desperately trying to come up with a clever and witty idea that would fit miraculously with Babe Ruth's quote, I realized I had nothing. While I had vague ideas about my life, my mother's life, my grandma's life, my dad's life, and even the lives of my D&D characters, it all still amounted to the same type of story about how despite all odds, someone never gave up. These stories are supposed to be inspirational and occasionally awe inspiring, but when they are about regular, everyday people, these stories fail to conjure up the same feelings one would have while reading or watching a story about how some famous person overcame all odds to become someone great (unless it was some kind of miracle).

Thankfully, this cynical thought process lead me to wonder why these famous people are thought to be role-models. Many young boys, back in the day, looked up to Babe Ruth due to his amazing ability to hit a ball. Make no mistake, Babe Ruth had athletic ability that most people only dream of having. He was also known for being rather charitable too without wanting publicity for his good deeds to help those less fortunate than himself. Despite his good deeds, Babe Ruth was notoriously known for being a cheating drunkard which he openly admitted to. Overall, Babe Ruth was just another person that worked his way up from nothing to become another embodiment of the so called American Dream.

As I have aged, the people that I thought to be remarkable have turned out to be just people. They have managed to do great and horrible things throughout their lives. Benjamin Franklin, for example said, “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” After reading his autobiography, I am of the opinion that he lived his life according to his quote (as he was very much a man of his word). He wrote things that were worth reading, and he did remarkable things that helped develop the United States which were worth writing about. Though, despite his remarkable discoveries and accomplishments, he was still a person. He had a hatred for Native Americans, and he kept slaves (even though he did eventually set them free, he remained rather non committal towards the issue of slavery). Despite his flaws, so many people still look up to him because he was one of the first people to become something from nothing simply by working as hard as possible. He was the first embodiment of the American Dream.

Even though people like Babe Ruth and Benjamin Franklin were just people, they are honored for doing remarkable things. Both Babe Ruth and Benjamin Franklin have statues honoring their greatness, and these statues and honors allow the people that look up to them to forget that they weren't as great as they appear to be. As Malcom Reynolds from Firefly said, "It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of 'em was one kinda sombitch or another."