A Fun Parlor Game

I've been reading "Wishcraft," by Barbara Sher, a book which I find myself unable to put down, far into the night. It consists largely of mental exercises, with the goal of figuring out exactly what you want out of life and how to get it once you know what it is. To be honest, I thought I already knew what I wanted out of life, but I've discovered a few new, indispensable goals.

Anyway, it's a pretty neat book, and one of my favorite exercises in it so far has to do with role models.

What you do is, you choose 3-5 people, "from all of history and literature" as the author says, figure out what it is you admire about them, and write it down. Basically, these people become your personal cheering section, almost an alternate family. And as great a family I have, I figured it'd be interesting to choose some new members - and see if anyone else out there wanted to, too.

So I thought that in this post, I'd write about who I chose, and ask you, dear reader, to post yours in the commment section. Want to play?

Okay, here we go:

Barbara Kingsolver, because she shares my opinions on food and the simple life. Also, she's funny, a great writer, and unafraid to speak her mind about what's important to her.

Jimmy Carter - bear with me! I know he's got kind of a bad rap right now - because he's a kind, giving man who has found a way to make a positive impact in many, many poor peoples' lives with Habitat for Humanity. Also, he played cowboys and indians as a child!

Grace Llewellyn, an unschooling advocate who has transformed my view of what constitutes good schooling and why.

Marie Curie, who made inroads into the old boys' network that is science. She was strong, and believed in herself and her work.

Amy Dacysyn, better known as Frugal Zealot, who published her Tightwad Gazette newsletter for several years and helped me to realize that living cheap doesn't mean living bad. In fact, spending less money means using our inborn ingenuity, because we have to figure out how to do stuff rather than buy something to do it for us.

Well, I sure hope that the 3 people who regularly read this blog will chime in! And anyone who happens to wander in as well - the role models we choose can say a lot about who we are. Thanks for playing!