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Today's
quotation:
The
most important role models in people's lives, it seems,
aren't superstars or household names. They're
"everyday"
people who quietly set examples for you-- coaches, teachers,
parents. People about whom you say to yourself, perhaps
not even consciously, "I want to be like that."
Tim Foley
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Today's
Meditation:
I try to stay conscious of the fact that I'm a role
model-- whether I want to be or not, or whether I think I
am or not. The simple fact of the matter is that
younger people are looking for models as they learn more
and more about the world, and somewhat naturally they look
to people who have been around much longer than they
have. So I try always to be positive and not to do
things that I would have to apologize for. I try to
share hope and love and compassion so that young people
may see that example and think that that may be good
qualities to strive for in life.
I have no idea how successful I am. But it is very
important to me to make an effort to teach younger people
by example, not just by words. I don't want to be
that person who says one thing and then does another; I'd
rather be the person who doesn't say anything at all, but
who does what I know to be right and constructive and
kind. If anyone in the future ever says, "I
wanted to be like him," I sincerely hope they're
talking about something positive rather than something
negative.
If I take being a role model seriously, then it's
important for me to make decisions that truly reflect my
desire to make the world a better place, even if only in a
very limited way. I can be critical of things that
deserve criticism-- I don't have to be a cheerleader or to
look at the world through rose-colored glasses. I
also want to be realistic, and if something is bad, it
needs to be called bad and dealt with.
The young people in our world need to hear less
complaining and less rationalization of mistakes and
misdeeds, and more encouragement and words of hope.
They want and need us to be constructive rather than
destructive, and they need us to make decisions that they
can emulate to be successful in life rather than decisions
that will sabotage them if they were to emulate them.
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