What Is An Inspiration?

Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King
Ralph Waldo Emerson
James Baldwin
Willie Stargell
Zach Sobiech
Claire Wineland

I went out running yesterday on purpose.  It's a rare thing, as my right knee is a like an old pile of mud with weeds growing out of it, and it threatens me daily with things like pain, trips, stumbles and plain old aches.

Nevertheless, I took to the streets of the dangerous hood of Sherman Oaks and began thinking about inspiration.  What inspires me?  Why am I running?  Why aren't I in bed like a normal fricking human being?  It's 5:30 in the morning, idiot.  Go back to bed!

But in between all my words of kindness in my head, I started wondering about the people we look to for inspiration.

I'm betting from the list above, if you're over 30, the top four probably leap out a little bit.  If you're under 30, it's possible you might know the bottom two, as well as the others.  Now this is not meant to compare or contrast the achievements of individuals, or to even claim that in the grand scheme they all belong on the same list.  But that's just it.  They are all inspiring people, no matter how recognized their names are, or whether they are

The top four are among my heroes.  I was a Civil War buff from a very young age, probably because I felt so bad that Lincoln was one of our few assassinated Presidents.  I wanted to know why.  The more I learned about him, the more I became fascinated by the time he was in office, and all that was going on. Often history is viewed as a series of events, and because they are chronicled, we forget that things didn't have to happen that way, that there was no set path.  It was the actions and decisions of people in all different places that made this events occur, but in that exact moment, these people did not know what would be the outcome.  Naturally, Lincoln could have been considered a huge failure, for he hired some of the worst commanding generals of all time.  Yet, his speech nearly six months after the Battle of Gettysburg and his second inauguration speech in 1864 inspired the nation to press on to secure our United States.

Then there are people like Zach and Claire.  I speak about them as if I knew them.  I didn't.  I knew their shortened life stories, their courage in the face of fateful odds, and found them to be the most heart-gripping and most uplifting.  They remind me that all of my issues, though important, don't often rise to the level that they should drain my spirit or energy.

When I was about six or seven years old I discovered Wilver Dornell Stargell.  Willie, or "Pops" as he became known to the Pittsburgh Pirates faithful, had me awed from the first time I saw his warm-up, bat dance he did in the batters box.  But I think it was his smile that kept me forever, for it was the warm smile of a grandfather.

When I was in college, I discovered James Baldwin, and I became ever more aware of the racial issues that faced us.  I had always been ignorant of it, since my heroes since boyhood were always black men funny enough.  Uncle Remus from Song of the South and the aforementioned Willie Stargell were my first two idols.  It never dawned on me there was any difference between us, and I was lucky enough to have parents who didn't try to point it out, as I'm sure many others have done.
Baldwin's stories Sonny's Blues caught my attention so much I adapted it in my screenplay writing class for  short script.

I guess what struck me is that so many things can inspire: as little a thing as a bat swagger, or a smile in the face of impending doom; the courage of a firefighter, or the drawing of a three-year old attempting his first self portrait.  All these things can be inspirational.

Zach Sobiech's song Clouds is a little ditty about his nightmarish cancer treatment.  And it's optimism makes it a song I never get tired of hearing.  He lived just 17 years and inspired countless people, including a ton of celebrities to record a video lip-syncing his words back to him.

There is inspiration that can be found in an early morning jog, a walk on the beach, a gaze at the ocean, or just sitting in the forest.

So much beauty around us, so many great minds among us.  And it's there every single day.

What inspires you?  Feel free to share.