Who is your hero? Do you
prefer Batman or Spider man? Maybe your favorite would be Abraham Lincoln, or
Roosevelt, Einstein ,or Nellie Bly. Many
of us, especially children have heroes, people they can look up to and admire. Sports
stars and movie stars get a lot of hero
worshipers. Homer’s Odysseus, was a tale of a Greek hero.
In his book The Hero,November 2019, Lee Child writes,
“Thus by say, the late
1800’s, when the first use of odyssey as a common noun was recorded, meaning a
long wandering or voyage marked by many changes of fortune) hero meant in
practice, one who suffers, and endures and survives a long and complicated
journey through dangers and perils, in order to do good in some vague and
unspecified way.
By this definition, I decided
that I could consider myself a hero. My travels through life has been a long and complicated journey
through dangers and perils, and I hope that I have done some good on the way.
Who has been your hero? I
decided that I think my mother has been my hero. She was raised in the Depression
era. She was instilled with many qualities and lessons learned that has been
taught to all her children. Who now days saves their money till they can pay
cash for a car, or a house. I did. My husband (who was also raised by parents
from the Depression era) did.
My mother was a feminist. She
was the first woman to graduate from BYU in the school of landsape
architecture. They refused to let her apply the school of architecture. She got
a job as a landscape architecture in the state of Utah by using just her
initials so she would be paid the same wages the men did. (Her boss applauded
her.) My mom worked and encouraged me to
learn and grow after being totally paralysed from a stroke at age two. And she
had to take care of a month old baby at the same time. She fought locally for
the equal rights ammendment. She fought for the women living in my home town
even calling Clinton P Anderson, a four term Senator for New Mexico, to side
with the housewives against local government and big business. She went to
battle again against the US government when my husband died because of the Viet
Nam war. Survivor rights were denied to me and my children till she called
Manuel Lujan Sr. one of the New Mexico representatives to Congress at the time.
She always taught us that if it was important enough to you, go to the highest
authority you can.
She taught her children to
work hard,follow our dreams, serve others,be honest, and leave the world a
better place than you found it. Of course she always said things like “don’t
wear pants down town, and don’t cut corners on the grass, it hurts the
sidewalks feelings.”
