Who is in Your Hall of Fame?
People are, by nature, herd animals, and as life unfolds most of us will meet thousands. The vast majority will bounce off and wash away like beach sand, but some will stick like Band-Aids. A far smaller number have lasting impact and enter your personal Hall of Fame.
If you took the time to think through and list the non-relatives who have unforgettably shaped your life, who are they? Who are your Hall of Famers?
In 150 years, twenty thousand men have played Major League baseball. Just over one percent—only 267 ballplayers—have been honored as the very best by the sport’s Hall of Fame since its 1939 inaugural class. Simply getting paid to play baseball at any level is extraordinarily difficult. Just one in 200 high school ballplayers (0.5%) get drafted into professional baseball.
Our lives’ Hall of Famers are special too. These men and women have impacted our lives in truly significant ways. HOFers are (hopefully) more positive than negative and have influenced us to look at life that way as well.
Trust is a relationship level we consciously decide. Emotional exposition and its resultant vulnerability leads to evolving life chapters of love and heartbreak, happiness and scars, memories and candle-burning struggles to forget. Relationships tend to travel a soulful staircase, with some climbing higher than others in head, heart, and visceral reaction.
I pondered this Hall of Fame concept recently while walking my dogs, thinking back through the women, friends, doctors, and influence-makers who have escorted me from gullible wide-eyed teen to wrinkles and memories. Sifting through selective recall is a journey of wistful recollection and eternal gratitude.
A retired octogenarian doctor came out of retirement to restore my hearing when inner ear disease reduced me to functional deafness at age 26. An elderly petite legend at the small college I attended kept tabs on me through the years, cheering me on as life pivoted from chasing corporate numbers to helping others help themselves. A legendary boxing trainer calmed me down, defused my anger, taught me to be nice, and cared enough to proactively stay in touch for decades. These people, and many more, are in my Hall of Fame.
No Hall is complete without recognizing those whose roots of affection wrapped around and sometimes tangled the heart. One woman taught me what love is, another how to give more than take, and a third crushed my soul like a cold assassin. Part of living is dying, and I think that love is one of the few things that provides a dry run. All three are in the Hall.
These are difficult times that provide each of us opportunities to think. Make the time to do it. Think about who is enshrined in your Hall of Fame. Smile at their recollection. These are special people who make life so wonderful. Telling them will brighten their day too.
Ocean Palmer