Heroes and Role Models
May 15, 2004
WWRD?
by Jennifer C. Cooke
A girl cannot survive with only one hero in her life. When I think of heroes and role models, many come to mind because life is so multi-faceted. I have different categories of hero for all areas, such as fashion (Shannon), cuisine (Sajil), interior design (Erin), creativity (JoAnn), music taste (Becky), patience (Lora), and career longevity (Madonna). I have a general, all-purpose "Lifetime Achievement" kind of heroine, my mother. And then I have my Mom Role Model, who is not my mother. Read more.
Role Models: What You Can Do
When I was a kid I would always tell people I didn't believe in heroes. I don't know why I was so cynical at a young age, but it was true. Superman simply didn't impress me. I was a girly girl who wouldn't dream of watching a sports game, much less idolizing someone who just happened to be able to run really fast and hit a ball really far. I loved the Bionic Woman, but I knew it was just a television show. I simply didn't have any heroes. Read more.
Entertainment: The Thrills
by Katrina Martin
You can't read a review of The Thrills without seeing references to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys or the '60s California rock scene. Of course, this is because they wrote their first album after living in San Diego and soaking up the West Coast sun on beaches all along California's shoreline. Some critics claim the band often does a better job of capturing the California sound than some of the bands instrumental in its inception. I'm not sure about that, but I do know that The Thrills are a damn good rock band. Read more.
Entertainment: Sugarplum Fairies Interview
by Katrina Martin
Silvia Ryder likes quiet music. She's not impressed with screaming, heavy drum beats or loud guitars--instead she prefers to communicate her feelings through reflective, soft music and delicate, understated imagery. Perhaps that's why the Sugarplum Fairies' latest release is called Introspective Raincoat Student Music, a gorgeously languid and minimalist album about relationships. Read more.
Good Things Come In Unusual Packages
by Maureen Stenzel-Rogers
She was an unlikely hero. In fact, I didn't realize at the time how much of an impact she had on my life and on the lives of others. Read more.
A Model for Living
by Julie Miller
When I was a teenager I lumped the people of the world into five age groups: little kids, young adults (teens through early twenties), middle-aged (all parent types), old (all grandparent types), and ancient (great-grands and beyond). I had some pretty stereotypical beliefs about all these age groups, too. And not only did I view people of those age groups through those stereotypes, but I fully expected to fit myself right into those stereotypes as I aged. Read more.
I Will Always Love Y'all
Judging from the stories, it seems to me as that some of the coolest and most interesting people on my mom's side of the family died either before I was born or when I was still too young to appreciate them fully. There was my great-uncle, for instance, who got perms in the kitchen long before it was socially acceptable for men to get perms. Or my great-grandmother, who gave him the perms and was otherwise awesome in nearly every sense of the word. Then there was my great-grandma's sister, Daisy, who actually prayed up a boyfriend for my mother once, when she decided Mom had been single for too long. The boyfriend turned out to be defective, but I think that was his own fault rather than Daisy's. Not having known them makes me feel like I got cheated out of a lot of people to look up to. Mom is so superior to me in so many ways that rather than try to imitate her, I just do whatever she tells me to do, knowing it will most likely make things turn out right for me. One night not long ago, though, I sat at my computer listening to one of those "Ladies of Country" type compilations, and I realized that there was an entire can of role-model worms that I hadn't even opened in my mind yet. Read more.
A Shining Example
The older I get, the more I can feel myself becoming my mother. I think like her, I sound like her, and in the glimpses I catch of myself from the corner of my eye when I pass a mirror, I even look like her. I realize this is a common enough phenomenon for women in their thirties, but what's not so common is that it's not an unpleasant feeling for me. Read more.
Believe or Not, I'm Walking on Air
by Abigail Vint
I'm walking down the driveway of my parents' third home. It's in a fairly new subdivision--definitely one with lots of kids.
I'm walking past the flowered bush where all the bees gather. To my right is my parents' blue Nova--a boat on wheels. Read more.