moving to a new location hosted at

http://robt.shepherd.tripod.com/hero.html

England's Saint George
I vow to thee my country
knight-martyr, liege-man of Jesu Christ
Protector of Women, and Patron saint of chivalry



"Make me a hero"

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,

by Robert Frost
favorite poet of JFK



by Bob Shepherd
Coming into adulthood, I knew I wanted to do something real with my life.

I wanted to be a leader or prophet, wanted to challenge my generation. My first 'hero' was a relative I had never met, my uncle Warren Shepherd, who risked his life (to save lives) in a dramatic fashion in the midst of combat during an engagement in the Spanish-American war. For his heroism above and beyond the call of duty, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMH).

Later heroes have been John F. Kennedy, and his hero Winston Churchill, and then Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela. In recent years I discovered the papers and letters of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and similarly have been inspired. All these people are individuals who, I have felt, did something real with their lives. All of them let their candle shine, and truly served their generation, yes, and generations to come. All of them set such an example, that they put others on the spot.

What makes a hero? Obviously there must be a spirit of service. There must be a spirit of self-sacrifice. But self-sacrifice must be somehow offered purposefully. Foolish self destruction is all too vain and wasteful. Reading the splendid biography of Lawrence of Arabia by John E. Mack of Harvard, I learned how important upbringing can be in the molding and shaping of a great man, or a hero. Whence come the heroic vision and exemplary exploits? Somehow there is something instilled in the future-leader, a kind of spiritual "royal jelly" becomes part of his nurture and breeding. In the case of T.E. Lawrence, there was a drive, angst-impelled perhaps, pushing him toward excellence.

Guy R. Odom wrote an insightful book, Mothers, Leadership, and Success (1990), laying out the careful evidence demonstrating the highly critical and essential role of mothers in the motivation and future accomplishments of their sons. See quotes on mothers. T. E. Lawrence was similarly shaped and obviously inspired by his mother, and Dr. Mack shows dramatically how crucial that influence was on Lawrence subsequent endeavors.

How could I not yearn to be such a "giant" of accomplishment and self-sacrifice? Lawrence followed a star, so to speak. The stirrings of discontent and despair within him, the turmoil of almost neurotic proportions always simmering beneath the surface .... somehow alchemized into a life of heroic self-giving and valor.

Ironically, in my own make-up, has been an obstacle to the kind of greatness I think I see in someone like T.E. Lawrence, or the others mentioned. Wanting to be a hero, I nevertheless found it difficult to even be myself. In therapy I learned some of why I found it so hard to be true to myself. Much has been written by professionals in the field, by psychologists and others. Going back (it was 1980) Dr. Irene Kassorla pointed out that when you are an approval seeker, you will find it hard to impossible simple to tell the truth, simply to be who you are. I realized an uncomfortable fact. I am thoroughly an approval seeker of the kind Dr. Kassorla described.

Wanting to be a hero, I have found it difficult even to stand up against the pettiest of prejudices. How can I set a good example, something I've always desired to do, when I am a slave to "approval seeking" -- as Dr. Kassorla said? Dare I risk the loss of approval by taking a stand of integrity and self-disclosure? Do I have the simple courage to truly challenge my generation to a higher standard?

Being an approval seeker stands in the way.

As a child I sang a song "Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known." The Bible heroes from Joseph in Genesis, to Daniel, to the martyrs of early Christianity ... all set the example of a kind of heroism or self-sacrifice that I could hold up for my own possible emulation. They, as humans like me, lived the values of faith and fortitude that I also sought to internalize ... and then to live out, in my own life.



Bob Shepherd with some pizza pals, 2008



My humble origins

ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum et in peccatis concepit me mater mea



Lord help us honor those who "made" us

Footsteps that make the pathway glow .....

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

from Psalm of Life by Longfellow



Are you running with me, Jesus?


You Shaped Me

Mothers


a little lower than the angels
"her price is above rubies"


God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers
[A Jewish proverb, Eastern Europe]
Robert E. Lee
If we take [his] own word for it, and the testimony of his many biographers, Ann Lee [his mother] was the master-builder of his character. The sweetness of his character, his legendary stoicism, his studied integrity, his spotless morality are all attributed to Ann Carter Lee. (see Holmes Alexander, p 69)

Men are what their mothers made them. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother. -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. -- Thackeray

All that I am my mother made me. -- John Quincy Adams

A man is mostly what his mother makes him. -- Sir Richard Burton

All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. -- attributed to Abraham Lincoln

We can probably say with confidence that most of the great men in history owed their characters to their splendid mothers, rather than to the example of their fathers. -- Sir John Glubb

If a man has been his mother's undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling; the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it. -- Sigmund Freud

It is a general rule that all superior men inherit the elements of their superiority from their mothers. -- Jules Michelet

Richer than I you can never be
I had a mother who read to me. -- Strickland Gillilan


All that is purest and best in man is but the echo of a mother's benediction. The hero's deeds are a mother's prayers fulfilled. -- Frederick W. Morton

The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. -- Henry Ward Beecher

No man is poor who has had a Godly mother. -- Lincoln

My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her. -- George Washington

        One day you'll thank her.
Humorous piece by Bobbie Pingaro


Jan Goodwin writes:
Throughout his life, the Prophet Mohammad's affection and concern for women, and for mothers in particular, was evident. On one occasion when asked by a follower to whom one should show the most respect and kindness, the Prophet responded, "Your mother." "And then who?" insisted the questioner. "Your mother," Mohammad replied again. "And then who?" "Your mother," responded the Prophet for the third time. The questioner persisted: "And after that who?" "Your father," Mohammad replied, positioning men in fourth place. Similarly, on another occasion, when the Prophet was asked whether there was a shortcut to Paradise, he responded, "Paradise lies under the feet of the mother."



Humor?


walking
making the pathway glow
the walk


Lord help us walk the walk
And follow the footsteps of the Master