Superhero

 

   In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Sunday worship service features short sermons called talks that are given by people in the ward on various topics. The bishop, who leads the ward, and his counselors decide who will speak and give them a topic. 

  This Sunday one of speakers started her talk by comparing her favourite superhero to her husband's. I wish I could remember the rest of her talk because it was really good. The beginning was the thing that grabbed me the most. After Sunday school, I heard her telling another person that people had been coming up to her to tell her who their favourite superhero is.

  I spent some time thinking about who mine would be. I don't really have one. I never got into that sort of thing. Also I'm more than a bit of a feminist and most of the superheroes are men. (Yes, I know that Wonder Woman is a superhero, but I just can't get into someone who goes about wearing a strapless leotard for a costume and has no innate power.  Her only powers come from a pair of bullet stopping bracelets and a the golden lasso of truth.)

   The women I admire (there are men I admire too, I'm married to one of them.) tend to be real live women who did great things but are not perfect people.

  One of them is Katharine Graham. She was the publisher of the Washington Post from 1963-1991. She was raised in a wealthy family. Her father owned the Washington Post and while she was interested in the paper at that time women from her social class did not work. Her father, Eugene Meyer, gave the paper to her husband.

   In August 1963 her husband, who had various mental health issues, committed suicide. That September she took over control of the newspaper. There were no other women  in the position that she was in and she struggled with being able to trust her own judgement. Additionally she was not taking seriously by the men with whom she worked. She headed the Post during the turbulent Watergate era. Eventually she became a respected authority on the press and reporting. Her biography, Personal History, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998. (I own a copy and have read it several times. I recommend it.)

  Another superhero of mine is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. When she stared about as a new graduate from law school she experienced a lot of discrimination. She went into teaching because she could not get hired by a law firm because she was female. Most people know about her and her accomplishments so I won't go into them here. I'll simply way that a lot of the things that I am able to do now, like buy a house and hold credit cards in my name are due directly to her work. 

   The most inspiring people to be are those who are ordinary and do extraordinary things. I guess if I were going to have a superhero it would be someone with ordinary talents who finds a way to make a difference. The kind of people that make you think that if they can do something wonderful, maybe you can too......