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As we grow up there are people that enter into our lives that we find ourselves admiring and looking up to. For many of us, when we were younger those people were our parents. We tend to take on their behaviors and morph them into our own lives in ways such as the way we act or portray ourselves in the world that surrounds us. As we gather more and more information and begin to build a belief structure we also expose ourselves more and more to the world around us opening up a whole new variety of people to look up too. So what in the world is going through our heads when we decide to look up to a specific person for guidance or admiration?
For the most part, everyone we pass by is more or less invisible. Think of all the people you pass by through the grocery store or while you’re filing up gas. I bet if I were to ask you, “What color jacket was the guy wearing next to you at the pump?” Most of you would have absolutely no idea. The people around you are completely invisible to you unless they present themselves in such a way that makes them useful or dangerous within the situation at hand. This isn’t to make you feel bad about yourself, its just the way things are. Just like when you watch a movie or even when you are speaking to someone, your eyes focus on a specific part of the action that presents itself as the most important subject matter within that moment.
The same goes for interactions with other people you come into contact with each and every day. Unless they are doing something that draws your immediate attention you pass them by without realizing it. Then there are the instances of shallow attention, 3 year olds are great at this especially if the parent lacks in the discipline department. They shout, they holler, and they cause a scene much to the annoyance of you and the area you are inhabiting. More than likely they gain a bit of attention, but it’s not like you think about them weeks, months, or years later. The attention they garnished was shallow and weak, and unable to captivate the mind and push you to new bounds, it was just a bunch of mindless nonsense that was loud and unorganized just enough to cause a disruption.
Every once in a while, someone comes on the scene, and when they do, it’s undeniable that they will not only go places, but they will take you with them. They don’t necessarily have to be the perfect person, in fact they have many flaws, but what makes them appeal to the human psyche is that when they are faced with the world, they prevail. They have a passion to get something done and they do it. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon! We have more technology in our phones than what was in the “Eagle” lunar lander. These two crazy guys, decided to go to where no man has gone before and do something nobody has ever done. That was the beauty of it, they didn’t need somebody to do it before them, they already made it up within their mind that they were going to go to the moon and then, they did it.
Our founding fathers did something similar when they created the “American Experiment” giving freedom and responsibility over to the individual and out of the hands of a strong political government or a king. Something never done before, but again, they didn’t need someone before them. They hoisted responsibility upon themselves to become more than just average. If that isn’t something to admire and emulate, then I don’t know what is.
Rush Limbaugh forged a path in a very different way, but also in a manner that wasn’t ever done before, in fact it was done in a way that was believed to never work. It was like a thick fog hung over the United States of America, the news wasn’t covering what they should, being bought out by politicians and big corporations. The truth was having trouble seeing the light of day, and if it did, it wasn’t for very long, nor was it presented in an interesting and effectual way. Communism had become greatly weakened and no longer presented a clear and present danger leaving the republican party sort of lost in regards for something to rally behind.
Rush saw the world he was living ad begin to speak out, and what’s crazy about all this, is that people listened. He had a way to draw people in that made them feel as if he knew them personally and on their level. He didn’t care if what he had to say would offend anyone, he would simply say it. He spoke the truth in a way that made lies shatter and people listen. He understood that he didn’t have to defend the truth, he just had to present it. In his own words, “The Truth does not require a majority to prevail, ladies and gentlemen. The truth is its own power. The truth will out. Never forget that.” I’m telling you, that the way he shaped the sharing of information, gave truth to power, and the power to the people. The fog over America began to rise.
Rush took upon himself the responsibility to educate the people of the United States of America. To show them what was happening behind the scenes, to not take what the mainstream media had to say as fact, but to challenge them and to challenge us to become more aware and to think for ourselves. He placed responsibility back in the hands of the individuals that listened to him stating, “Character matters; leadership descends from character.”
What I believe was his largest accomplishment was the fact that he gave the voice of America back to the individual. We are all sovereign people of this great nation that have a say in how it’s ran. The people in government are only there because we put them there, that’s our fault for being lazy and complacent with who we allow to sit in those seats. We the people of the United States run this country, and we forgot what that mean, we have left that responsibility in the mud while we throw up our hands and give up. Rush reminded us, better yet, he showed us that we can and need to be better citizens of this great country. We must educate ourselves and build our characters into that of formidable leaders armed with the truth.
Rush of course said some things that I didn’t agree with, and may have even been really dumb things to say, but he was a man after all. He spent more time speaking to America than most men do with their wives, and if you speak that often to someone or to a group of people you are bound to say a few things that may be idiotic or of poor taste. We must not dwell on a few minor instances, after all he was just a man, but he was a man who hoisted the responsibility of education and individuality among the people of the United States through the golden microphone. He was real in so much that he spoke what was on his mind, he never pretended to be something he wasn’t. This is what made him admirable as a man of the people who carried the burden of the airwaves and set an example for the rest of us.
As his days drew to an end, when death knocked on the door, he answered with dignity. There was no fear, no regretting or wallowing in what more he could have done. He reflected on his life and the lives he changed and was satisfied with the legacy he left behind, so that when death knocked he was able to walk through the door of this life into the next knowing that the torch would be carried on.
So it comes to us, in these people we admire and emulate through our lives as we attempt to make ourselves into better people. In a sense we take a piece of our hero’s with us, we graft them into the being of our lives. The people that come into our lives affect us in many different ways, so pay attention and notice the admirable, the brave, the sacrificial, but also the formidable. Take them as examples and morph them into your walk through this journey of life so that you can better yourself and become more than what you are. Then, maybe one day, you can pick up the torch and blaze your own path into the future, for the future.
-The Shoe
