August 27, 2007

• Who do you look up to and why?

  I look up to a lot of people. They are all nonconformists. They do or did what they had to do, not what people told them. I look up to Vlad Tepes, Dracula. I think his life was so sad. Half of what they said about him was pure propaganda, and the rest, well, he was protecting his country. He didn’t have any allies. He didn’t have the support of his Church or his sovereign. He wasn’t the first to use psychological warfare in combat, and if he was such a horrible person, why is he still a hero in his own country? I look up to him because he made the best of a bad situation. He protected his country and people without the assistance of outsiders. He may have been harsh, but according to written record, his reign was virtually crime free. So I look up to him. He did what he had to do.

  I look up to Gandhi. An odd man to be sure. Did you know he drank his own urine? Bleh. But I still respect him. He stood up for his principles. Like Vlad Tepes, he did what he had to do, to improve the lot of his people. He willingly took on the suffering of his people in his hunger strike and became a target upon which the enemies of his people could focus their malice. He changed the world for the better, and didn’t even have to kill anyone to do it. He did what needed to be done, even if it wasn’t the easiest thing to do. He didn’t do what was expedient. He didn’t roll over and let what was wrong around him continue. He spoke up for his beliefs and the cause of equality. No one should have the right to treat another person badly… not for race, religion, or social standing.

  I look up to the Dalai Lama. He never did anything wrong to anyone. In fact as a Bodhisattva, he was reincarnated specifically to help people. The Chinese exiled him from his homeland, practically calling him a dictator and despot. I imagine it hurts him, and maybe even makes him angry sometimes, but since he’s the Dalai Lama, he has to swallow it and find peace within himself even though he knows his people are suffering and that there are people in the world who would try to get his homeland back for him if he asked it of them. He doesn’t want to be a source of strife or suffering. He’s an international celebrity, welcome virtually anywhere he goes, but he can’t go home. He’s said that he probably won’t come back for another incarnation, and I don’t blame him. I think maybe this exile is his higher spirit’s attempt at releasing him from his final attachment… to his culture and home. I think, provided the pain of his exile doesn’t poison him and doom him to another incarnation here, that he really couldn’t be reincarnated in this plane again. He’s too good for this world any more. I don’t think I even want to come back myself sometimes, but I probably will. Hard to get rid of me… I’ve been murdered in quite a few of my past lives for speaking my mind.  

  All the people I admire are extremists of one kind or another. They are non-comformists and do not shirk the burden of thought for the easy way of society. So easy to be sheep in this world, to do as you’re told and not what you know you must do. The easy way is seldom the right way. I spit on expedience. I’ll do what I need to do too. I always have in this life and others, and I always will.
     

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  • 8:44 pm
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