Do We Need Role Models? (page 2)

minimus

I will be your role model. Happy now?

LittleToe

I think we do, especially in formative years.
If there is a variety, with emulatable qualities, then we hopefully distill what's best from our environment.

Things are probably a bit more fixed, as we get older, though.
Then we look to cantankerous role-models, and absorb that

Xena

I don't know about role models. I see people I would like to be more like in certain aspects but the total package of a role model? I think I am to cynical for that anymore.

Stacy Smith

I don't need role models. It might be nice if genuine role models were available but they almost always dissapoint. I have goals to motivate me.

I agree that we need them in our formative years. I believe that if there were more positive role models taking an active role in the life of young children, we would not have poverty or crime perpetuating itself. However, as we get older, I think it is good for us to be more discerning - recognizing what feels right in others and applying it to ourselves. I've often reflected on that - in the sense of the number of people that have come through my life, and how if I take time to think about them one at a time, how I can say what each has done to help form a part of me, even if it is something silly. When I take a step back and look at them all, I realize that we are all potential role models - sometimes positive and sometimes negative - in varying degrees to different people with whom we come in contact with. With that in mind, I guess that says that perhaps this is one of the best reasons to be the best we can be at all times - we never know who will walk away from us and apply something they've learned - positive or negative.

I think I need another beer.

growedup

Siddhashunyata

Hi Saint Satan. In my opinion role models have been useful but only to a point. They can help one excell in a particular field or they can protect one from harm. Much like an "ideal". What role models cannot do is transform us. We can imitate and come to like the role but, is it who we are? Following, imitating or venerating postpones our own personal experience with ourselves. In my opinion, the greatest spiritual "role models" reject the "office" of role model because they know it hinders transformation.

Yerusalyim

Here are some important roll models. Feast your eyes...

alt

Do We Need Role Models?