The other day my son and I were delivering newspapers. Running behind schedule and with the sun quickly setting, my son caught sight of me squinting in search of mail boxes and asked me about it. “It's always darkest before the dawn” I told him. “What's that mean, Dad?” he replied with a quizzical look.
I began to explain how the changing lighting conditions at dusk and dawn play tricks with our eyes, how the retina is slow to adjust and therefore our vision is impaired. But eventually our eyes do adjust, I told him, be it to the darkness of night or the brightness of the rising sun.
Having digested this information, we carried on despite the cold, rain and wind relentlessly hammering us. And in the end we triumphed, heading back to our cozy little home for some well deserved dinner and relaxation.
In this, the dying season (as I fondly call it) it's easy to get discouraged by the overcast skies, the piles of snow, or the cold induced chatter of the teeth. Then there's those awful 24-hours-of-torture hybrid flus I'm positive escaped from some Russian bio-weapons lab. But eventually the dawn (or spring) comes, and that's a good thing.
Paradoxically, this week has been good for me. My ten year journey to pay off my student loan came to an end, my leaking house roof got fixed, and to top it all off, the boss informed me a full time position became available and I was his choice to fill it (with raise to boot!).
I suppose any of the aforementioned endeavours could have driven me to raise my hands in surrender. Given the obstacles and hindrances I've faced a long the way, it would have been easy to say “screw it,” just walk away and save myself the hassle of putting in the hard work.
But perseverance builds character, and character is essential in becoming a successful person. And I think this is where we often fall short. We misjudge the purpose of the journey, which is not always to attain the ends that journey entertains -- although reaping the spoils is certainly beneficial and not without merit. “For it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.”
Personality and character are often at odds. Good character is conspicuously absent in our pop culture, while personality is gratuitously promoted. Those with a strong personality are often charismatic, wowing us with their intellect and suave, but an honest evaluation will usually reveal a host of tragic flaws: they're shallow, egotistical, and more often than not lacking in good judgement.
Hollywood celebrity usually equates to dysfunctional marriages and family relationships, because such unions, though they may have been brought together by personality attraction, ultimately stand or fall based on deficiencies in personal character. A great personality may makes things interesting and fun, but strong character is the glue that holds the mess together.
And I suppose the reverse is true, that those with character but little personality may come off as dry, self-righteous, uneventful and therefore discounted as square or boring.
Rarely have I found an instance where both of these attributes inhabited the same person. In fact just writing this article I sat for ten minutes racking my brain in hopes of finding a worthy (and interesting) individual. Most political and religious figures fall into this category, and yet somehow society considers these types the most untrustworthy of characters. Consider the most recent scandals of late-- most if not all who come to mind are persons who fit this demographic.
Teachers (at a trustworthy factor of 81%) and doctors (88%) are among the highest trusted among society, which leads me to believe that character rates highly in their daily activities. After all, we trust teachers to properly mold our children's development, and we trust doctors when they take our lives into their hands.
On the contrary (and not surprisingly) bankers (29%), journalists (19%) and politicians (14%) rate among the lowest.
But this still doesn't mean that doctors and teachers are the most interesting people. Personally, I find dentists come off as the most aloof and creepy of all the professions (have you seen those Sensodyne commercials?) -- hardly a group I'd attribute a hardcore fan base to. Besides, has there ever been a heartwarming, heroic Hollywood tale of a righteous, charismatic dentist inspiring his clients to teeth brushing perfection? I didn't think so.
However teachers tend to evoke a little more fondness from Hollywood: Mr. Holland's Opus, Freedom Writers, Dead Poet's Society -- all seem to evoke the qualities we seek in the perfect man/woman -- the charismatic motivator, a champion of character, and an under appreciated overcomer of seemingly impossible obstacles.
But society is a somewhat hypocritical being. If this were not so teachers would receive salaries reflecting their importance. Instead society values men who can throw a screaming fastball or women with engorged Kardashian assets and perfectly petite pores.
Perhaps I'm setting my sights too high. Guys like William Wallace (Braveheart) or Martin Luther King Jr.(Civil Rights Movement) are a once in a generation find. But history makers are always in demand. These are the types who inspire others in order to effect change, like Mohandas Ghandi (Indian Independence Movement), and they often have a superhuman quality about them.
More often than not this quality shines bright not because of our heroes stoic stirring speeches or the massive civil resistance and popular consensus these heroes draw upon -- but because they are willing to sacrifice their reputations, livelihoods and even their lives for the cause they believe in.
These examples of our perfect hero all lost their lives to the opposition forces they faced, yet in doing so became a symbol that galvanized societies to achieve the freedom they so desperately sought.
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