Heroes

Sometimes, you come across a piece of music or writing that makes you realize that someone has gotten there before you and said what you would have wanted to say.

In Quaker Meeting, we say, "That Friend speaks my mind."

This is the case with me and the idea of heroes.

Ann Reed's classic song speaks my heart on this subject:

What can I learn from you
In your lifetime, in what you've been through
How'd you keep your head up and hold your pride
In an insane world how'd you keep on tryin'
One life can tell the tale
That if you make the effort, you can not fail
By your life you tell me it can be done
By your life's the courage to carry on
(Chorus):

Heroes
Appear like a friend
To clear a path or light the flame
As time goes by you find you depend
On our heroes to show you the way
What can I learn from you
That I must do the thing I can not do
That you do what's right by your heart and soul
It's the imperfections that make us whole
One life can tell the tale
And if you make the effort you can not fail
By your life you tell me it can be done
By your life's the courage to carry on...

Listen to the song to hear Ann's list... some of my additions would include Margaret Fell, Catherine Roma, Octavia Butler, Virginia Woolf, Sister Helen Prejean, Denise Levertov, Audre Lorde, Ani DiFranco, Becky Birtha, Dorothy Allison, the Indigo Girls, Annie Dillard, my mother, my sister, my partner...

And yes, there are men out there worthy of the title as well, but they are so much more likely to be named so by the world that I'm taking this opportunity to put my thumb on "the distaff side" of the scale.

(Thanks for the women of Mama Says Om for this excuse
to reflect on the greatness that has gone before us and keeps us going.)