Who is an inspiration to you?
I'll start off with my stepson. When I first met him, he was a she. Brought up in a very catholic family she courageously made the decision to transgender. He now lives in Chicago, working as a graphic designer. I'm so proud of him.
8 years ago by Cobbydaler
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On the streets of Hong Kong are old women called "lapsop" (trash) ladies. They go around and pick up discarded cardboard, cans, bottles and push them around the streets on old carts to collection points. They are old and bent with age. They shuffle along slowly but steadily... dodging pedestrians, cars, trucks, buses... and they do it day after day.
Crossing the street in my abundance, awestruck by the sheer force of life within these women, I look inward, onto the gentle hills of my own adversities.
Humbled and inspired by these giants who climb mountains.
Derek Jeter. He was the epitome of a man who worked hard and respected his sport, his teammates, and the fans. While there are a lot of big names putting baseball in a bad light recently, Jeter was one of the greats, with a perfect record of respect, hard work, and appreciation throughout his career.
Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jacob Appelbaum, and everyone else who give so much for a better future. Everyone so altruistic that they give away their comfortable way of life, sometimes even their lives, for what they believe in.
I strongly recommend the documentary Citizenfour, which chronicles Edward Snowden's encounters with Glen Greenwald in Hong Kong. Just listening to Snowden in these moments, you get a sense of the driving force behind his act of sedition, and it's very clearly coming from a position of deep altruism (even though he himself plays it down by saying doing an altruistic act brings him pleasure and is thus selfish).
Watching him in that video, I couldn't escape the feeling that this was what a hero looked like. And I don't mean this as hyperbole. He's a man who looked at a systemic wrongful situation and made the decision to attempt to rectify it at the risk to his own life and those around him.
I really loved this documentary! I agree with everything you said. He's a hero in every sense of the word (in my eyes, at least).
Ernest Shackelton is my hero and inspiration What a bloody legend.
Monty Oum. He was an absolutely brilliant animator with an amazing work ethic. It was a tragedy that he died so early in his life.
Pope Francis- for lots of reasons.
John Lydon. For always being willing to speak up and tell the truth as he sees it.
Edward D. Wood Jr.
Now, now, hear me out.
I've always heard that to succeed in life, you need talent and determination. Yet when you watch Ed Wood's work, it becomes painfully clear that talent had nothing to do with him becoming such a household name.
What he had, though, was sheer, unadulterated determination, and it got him somewhere more talented people never got.
That's inspiration to me. If I have a modicum of talent, how far can I get on Ed Wood's determination?
JFK
FKA twigs, she's killing it right now.
Tank man.
Edit: Also, Maximilian Kolbe
I can't just pick one. Oliver Sacks, and Edward Snowden, for working to make the world and human's lives within it a better. Jane Goodall and Irene Maxine Pepperberg for their work in helping us understand and appreciate the intelligence of non human beings.