Inspiration

Last night I had the opportunity to hear Rep. Barney Frank speak.  He spoke without notes or prompter for approximately 40 minutes.  That in itself was pretty amazing.  His theme was that by November, things will be looking quite a bit different , and the election will perhaps be much different from the current predictions. 

I hope so.

He is quite an amazing  man.  As I listened to him speak, I began to think of what he must have gone through to bring him to that podium.  Let’s see, gay man of the late 50’s or so (I’m guessing here-I haven’t looked up his age), an unusual speech pattern-just those two things could have kept him far away from politics.  Instead, he became a member of congress, the chair of a very powerful committee, and the leading liberal voice of the democratic party. It was very inspirational just to think about it. 

So many times we allow the labels put on us by society to define us, even to ourselves.  If he had done so, he might have worked in a factory or an office. I enjoyed his speech and just the fact that I had the chance to hear it.

This morning I read a blog that listed zodiac signs and the supposed descriptions for each.  I am a Virgo.  The description includes this statement, “Your purpose in life is to inspire others”.  How ironic to see that today.

Let’s be clear-I don’t live to inspire others.  In fact, I don’t think I could inspire others.  It is certainly not my purpose.  I’ve actually been thinking lately of how negative and cynical I have become and that I should be changing my attitude to become more positive in my outlook.  That is going to be very challenging for me. Lately, I haven’t felt so positive. Certainly not inspirational to anyone.

When I find something inspirational, it makes me want to be a better person, to push past limitations to obtain a goal that seemed unreachable.  A  person whom I find inspirational has persevered through hard circumstances, determined to move forward in the face of difficulties. 

Could I inspire others?  Is it even possible to be inspirational if you have set out to inspire others? I don’t think so.  It would lose the purity of the process to have gone into it with a goal of trying to be an inspiration. Further, I don’t believe that there are personality types who are, by definition, inspirational to others.  It is more a result of circumstance, not personality, even though some personalities may be more likely to be driven to succeed through difficult times..  I think that truly inspirational people take their challenges and instead of just plowing through them, they turn difficulties to their advantage.   

I’m not exactly sure why this theme has been rolling in my head today.  In fact, I wasn’t even aware of it until I started to write.  Bottom line, I guess, is that I appreciated being able to hear Congressman Frank, and I truly admire him for what he’s lived through in order to be there.

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