Who do you look up to?

[SwineyGirl]

Growing up with a porcine nose I have always looked up to Miss Piggy as my role model. She and I shared a lot of things in common, such as our love for fashion, our love for performing, our modest beginnings and so on... Most importantly ,she was someone I could relate to and inspire me to go out into the world and be myself, just like she did. We could do anything we put our snouts to so long as we were not afraid of what other people might think. Miss Piggy is so important to me that I still chose to wear a Miss Piggy T-shirt all the time(I sometimes even sleep with that shirt,I put a picture below).

 

Anyway I was just curious, what kind of people or characters (fictional or real) inspire you to do the things you do? How important are these people in your lives? 

[Ren Toxx]

[Phorumities]

Walter Williams for president. He's the greatest person alive.

http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/index.html

[Nostoll]

[ThorinII]

My grandfather taught me critical thinking and to form my own opinions about the system we lived in back then, by letting me read a lot of political books (not only Marx and Lenin, but also indexed books like those by Trotzki, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Proudhon, and others). And he, as a Communist since his youth, lived his conviction by example (even though sometimes that gave him trouble by the ruling party), and had a natural charisma. That's why I looked up to him as long as he lived. He died, with 87 years,  in summer 2001...

 

[SwineyGirl]

I'm sorry your grandfather died Thorinll. He seems like a good man.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Pamela Galli]

MSNBC

[Madelaine McMasters]

That would be my Father. From snuggling in his lap on the beach while he told me insanely silly stories, to having him flirt with me as Alzheimer's had him thinking it was 1950 and I was Mom, there's never been anyone like him.

The greatest compliments I've ever received are from people who knew him well and have said to me something like...

"Jesus Maddy, why can't you be more like your Mother?"

[Rhonda Huntress]

Elora

[eta]
That is the answer to the thread title question.

Edited June 22, 2018 by Rhonda Huntress

[Rhonda Huntress]

On 6/19/2018 at 7:46 PM, SwineyGirl said:

what kind of people or characters (fictional or real) inspire you to do the things you do?

The needy kind.  Like when my kids were younger, all I did was listen to them moan about their little problems, "I'm hungry" or "I'm bored" or "I can't get the bleeding to stop."  Geez, it's always something.

.

On 6/19/2018 at 7:46 PM, SwineyGirl said:

How important are these people in your lives? 

More than coffee.  More than my own life.

[Amanda Crisp]

10 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

That would be my Father. From snuggling in his lap on the beach while he told me insanely silly stories, to having him flirt with me as Alzheimer's had him thinking it was 1950 and I was Mom, there's never been anyone like him.

The greatest compliments I've ever received are from people who knew him well and have said to me something like...

"Jesus Maddy, why can't you be more like your Mother?"

You broke my heart with that one - but not in a bad way. I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer’s long before she passed away. I took on the job of “staying with her” at my Grandfathers’s funeral to make sure she was as “ok” as possible. She thought she was at her *Father’s* Funeral and kept asking me If my grandfather was coming home from the Pacific any time soon :-( She was a lovely woman and the smartest person I ever met before she started her long fade.

[Amanda Crisp]

The person I look up to *most* in the world (that I knew personally) was my Grandfather.  He always took care of his family before worrying about himself. He dealt with his injuries and his demons from WW2 without letting them break him (no mean feat). But the thing that really cemented his spot as my all-around Heero was when my grandmother’s Alzheimer’s started to really take hold.

His solution was to bring in what extra help he could afford and to take care of her himself at home. He kept her looking pretty, kept her entertained talking about times she remembered (even after she forgot who he was) and never lost patience with her or let on how much her condition was ripping him up inside.

He was working in her flowers (something she always liked looking at) when he had his own final stroke while their pastor and his wife visited with my grandmother (they did that once a week for several hours to give Grandpa a little break). He might have lived longer himself if he had not taken on all the extra strain - but he wasn’t wired that way.

My grandfather defines the way I think people who are committed to one another and their community should behave, he literally dropped dead trying to do what he thought was he right thing.

A few years ago I heard a story about a similar situation about an old guy who came every day to brush his wife’s hair and read to her in the nursing-home. She no longer knew who he was, but he came there every morning.  The nurses-aid finally asked him why he did this for someone who no longer knew who he was, and his answer was “Yes, but I still know who *she* is.”

In retrospect, that was probably what my grandfather was thinking, and I miss him.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

Sadly, I have to look up to about 80% of the women in SecondLife... Darn glamazons.. 

On a serious note, my grandad. He came here from England just before WW2 (he served in the Royal Navy and the US Navy aboard the USS Massachusetts) and met my gran, they got married and had a bunch of kids. They took care of me after my parents divorced when i was 3. I spent every weekend there from the ages of 6-10. We would sit and eat spaghettios with franks while watching creature double feature, then watch his favorite BBC shows, Monty Python, Are you being served, Doctor Who, and the like. He taught me how to treat people. With kindness, until they have gone past the point of rudeness to deserve a light verbal smack down. After that, walk away. Never use your fists unless there is no other option and there is ALWAYS another option. He passed away of Alzheimers a few years ago. I still miss him. 

[Madelaine McMasters]

7 hours ago, AmandaKeen said:

She was a lovely woman and the smartest person I ever met before she started her long fade.

The hardest days where in the early stages, when Dad knew he was slipping away. Fortunately, we had the resources to obtain all the professional care he needed and he was a happy camper to the end. His flirting with me was bittersweet. I thought Mom would be bothered by it, but she was fine. She'd been there before and knew he'd be nothing but delightfully mischievous.

Mom was always happy to let Dad light up the room (not that anyone could have stopped him), but she's really come into her own since his passing. With two wise asses around the house, it was difficult for her to get a word in sideways. Now that she's got the opportunity, she's taking it. I posted an example of her newfound hilarity a few years ago...

Dad had married up, and he knew it.