Who is your greatest role model?

-- ElaineMc (cabal@overactivei.net), March 25, 2001

Answers

Realistic/people-I-know role models: my grandmothers, one of whom was a historian/writer without a college degree, who was still writing a regular column for a regional newspaper well into her seventies, and other of whom managed a hotel in Reno and co-managed a cafe and hunting lodge with my grandfather. Both of them were lovely, generous women who were smart and funny and managed their lives just fine after my grandfathers died, and did 'non-traditional' work without ever looking like they felt it needed defending. My mom too, to a certain degree, but our lives are very different. But because she got a M.A. when most women didn't, and got married and worked part-time, I never questioned that I could do any of the things in my life that I wanted to. She is also one of the most gracious people I know, and I'm constantly trying to live up to that.

Totally unrealistic I-wanna-be-them role models: Miss Parker, from Pretender (guns and glitz and emotional steel). Aeryn Sun, Farscape (guns and guts and great boots). Maj. Sam Carter, Ph.D, Stargate (math and guns and determination). All three are smart, gorgeous, tough, essentially kind, and deal with emotional and physical obstacles by tackling them head-on. I wish I had that kind of mettle.

-- Chris (kikimariposa@prodigy.net), April 09, 2001.