I recently had an "a-ha" moment from, of all things, reading a Nancy Drew book.
Sometimes I think it’s interesting to go back to something that you treasured as a child and see how it resonates now. So I read about Nancy embarking on a new mystery with her attorney father. The way Carson Drew -- widowed when Nancy was very young -- interacted with his 18-year-old daughter showed immense respect for her smarts and independence.
No wonder my mother couldn’t pry me out of a lawn chair when I was reading one of those books. In the Italian-American world I grew up in, the last thing parents encouraged or valued in their children, especially their daughters, was independence. For my 10-year-old self, it must have been like a trip to Fantasy Island as the stylish sleuth who shared my name went on one adventure after another.
Pure inspiration.
In my last Game Plan column, I ventured some reasoned guesses about why so many people seem to be inspired by President Barack Obama. The idea of what inspires us seemed to touch a chord with readers, and I decided to give it another look, only without restricting it to Obama.
In the childhood observation I shared above, for example, it’s easy to see that a key ingredient in determining what inspires us is our familial background. One person’s Superman is another person’s astronaut is another person’s girl detective.
On the recent Golden Globe Awards, Steven Spielberg began his acceptance speech for the Cecil B. Demille Lifetime Achievement Award by explaining that seeing the Demille film Greatest Show when he was six years old inspired his career. He tried to re-create the train wreck from the film with his model trains, only to use 8mm film to preserve the image because his parents warned him against crashing his trains again. He found the film version surprisingly satisfying, and a brilliant director was born.
How many people sat through the same movie and were not moved to go home and recreate any part of it? This means that much of inspiration is inexplicable, doesn’t it?
Last week we were transfixed by the news that a US Air jet had made an emergency landing in the Hudson River. Everyone with a pulse was inspired by that, it seemed. However, different parts of that story particularly touched different people -- the pilot’s finesse, the ferry boats that converged on the scene and became a makeshift rescue operation, the passengers who got back on a plane the same night.
I was so inspired by pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger’s mastery of his gifts that the very next day I took the two-block walk to the Hudson River waterfront just to stare at the place where it all occurred. I have a bit of an affinity for the river and I do a lot of reflective journaling and drink a lot of coffee down there when the weather is milder. “Sully” has added an inspirational dimension to that experience just by harnessing his gifts in a moment that saved 155 lives.
The heroism component made the plane crash a universally inspiring story and the way it buoyed us for days was remarkable. When it comes to explaining why the word “inspiring” is used over and over again to describe Obama, it gets trickier, especially if you want to go beyond the usual race or partisan reasons (no matter how true or legitimate they are).
When I suggested in the previous column that “artist brain” as opposed to “logic brain” might be at work, an alert reader pointed out that logically most of those “artist brain” supporters were Democrats. True. But I was trying to go a level deeper. For example, Demi Moore said it was the first time she publicly endorsed a candidate. Why not just go into the booth and cast her vote? Why was she so inspired to take the extra step and risk alienating some of her fan base?
Now multiply her by the thousands. Now ask all of them why they find Obama inspiring. Some thoughts mentioned above would likely emerge -- i.e., background, heroism.
Where do you fit into all this? If Nancy Drew and Obama don’t do it for you, who does and why? Think about it.
Inspiration can be a powerful impetus for change. By all means, invite it in.
Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.
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