Category: inviting comments

Slowly, as I’ve aged, I’ve realized that my legends have fallen one by one.

I think of them legends, though that’s not the best way to refer to them… there have always been people and figures in my life whom I’ve seen as human, yet at the same time, more than human.

My first fallen legend was “The President.” When I was a child, Ronald Reagan was president of these United States, and he was The President, with capital letters. He was the omnipotent, omniscient, grandfatherly and kind ruler of our country. Then, suddenly (in my mind, anyhow), he was replaced. I didn’t understand it–how could this great man somehow disappear into the shadows and another person take his place?

The next people, many years later, were my grandparents on my father’s side. Louis and Lucy Teale. I loved them dearly, and I still miss them. I’m sure I always will. To this day, I hold them up as an ideal of charity, kindness, and unconditional love–they were truly amazing people, and I strive to be more like them. Because they died when I was still young and stupid, I still see them through the prism of childhood–not as much a man and a woman, but as two exemplars of loving kindness. I was nineteen and twenty when they died (less than a year apart), but it was still too early for me to fully know them as ordinary people.

After that, it was The Pope. Though I don’t consider myself to be a Christian now, I was raised and confirmed Catholic. I never accepted the idea of Papal infallibility–it seemed absurd to me that any human being, no matter how holy, could possibly know God’s will. However, Pope John Paul II held an air of holiness and kindness that I held in the highest possible regard. I can honestly say that he would have been one of the few people on Earth whom I would have been genuinely awed and humbled to meet. (The only other person I can think of whom I have been equally awed to meet would be the Dalai Lama.) Pope Benedict XVI, nee Cardinal Jospeh Ratizinger, seems instead to be pretender to the throne, a usurper to the legacy of his illustrious predecessor.

Another legend had died, only to be replaced by an ordinary man. A frail old man with faults. A man who probably picks his nose when he’s on the toilet. In short, a man without the Lordly grace that a child’s view of reality could bestow upon him.

And now… it’s my father. Any woman reading this may not understand the complex relationship a son has with his father. Speaking only for myself, I idolize my dad, yet I have tried desparately not to become him. We love each other, but don’t know how to say so. I love him, but there’s an inpenetrable barrier that prevents open communication. Neither of us knows how to breach this barrier, but I think we both want to. I know I do.

Anyway, as the years have gone by, the edges I perceive on my father have softened. He was originally the all-powerful lord and master of the house… he was He Who Must Be Obeyed. The traditional father archetype. As the years have gone by, I have come to see him more and more as a peer. Someone who is as human and fallible as I am. In essence, my father has ceased to be a legend and become a man. A man I respect more than anyone else and strive to emulate… but still just a man.

…

Finally, this is the point of my post. We’ve all known people in our lives that have become to us more than what they are. All of us–and I do mean all of us–have found people who transcend humanity to become something more to us.

So, tell me… who are your legends?