A friend and I were recently discussing what it means to say that someone has lived "A Big Life." If we were on a committee together to give the Big Life Award and had to come up with some criteria, would you agree with these? And who would you nominate? Here are my suggestions and two nominations:
1. Extensive humanitarian work. This person has seen a wide breadth of humanity, the privileged, the underprivileged, and gotten their hands dirty in knowing both. They have reached out to others in a very personal and ongoing way (beyond sending cash), despite the fact that they didn't have to and not just for the show of it but because they genuinely cared.
2. They are a self-made person in some way. Luck may have played into their life, but they also worked hard to make that luck into something more than a passenger ride. If they have achieved measurable career or personal "success," it is due primarily to their own meritable efforts and laudable ideas, not based on the work of others.
3. They are well-traveled and, within that context, have enjoyed the finer side of that experience as well as interacting in the lives of the common man. They understand noblesse oblige as more than an expression but as a moral imperative because they have come to understand the lives and needs of the ordinary individuals they have met in their travels and feel a personal need to change what they can.
4. Someone who has not been afraid to speak their mind and do things (when necessary) in a very different way than the rest of the crowd -- a maverick; a firebrand. These are the people who change everyone around them, like a comet streaking through the lives they touch.
At first blush, I think we all want to think of someone we know -- a loved one perhaps -- as having lived a big life, but I believe it is the rare individual who fits these categories. Most of us are preoccupied with getting along in our own lives and don't get beyond that challenge to reach out to the greater humanity. We think of being devoted to friends or family as virtuous, and of course it IS -- because that is a step above being devoted to ourselves.
I would argue that people who have lived the biggest lives would never admit it and would say their lives are quite small because they are always seeking to achieve more for others -- beyond family and friends.
My first two candidates: Desmond Tutu and George Clooney.
Okay. Shoot me down.
7 comments:
The Queen Mum. I am reading her biography at the moment and it is a real eye opener for me. A girl born to priviledge, who should have led a sheltered life as a wife to someone... She sure married!
She never sought to marry royalty. He fell in love with her and pursued her. Even then she never expected to become Queen. From nursing soldiers in the WWI to her charity work. She worked hard and tirelessly, but always one step behind her husband.
I bought this book because I wanted to read a perspective on the history of the last century. I got more than I bargained for!
Thanks Rose - what a great candidate! I would love to read her biography because I don't know nearly enough about her. She does fulfill all the criteria I thought of, and is a very admirable person.
I would like to add that living a big life shouldn't only inclue humanitarian work: Diane Fossey, Jane Goodall and Joy Adamson are all personal heros of mine. They have all reached out in ongoing ways to protect those without protection: standing up to poachers, writing books, fighting against social and political systems to protect whole species from extinction. I would argue that's a big life (and 2 of them paid for it with their lives). Just wanted to throw that in the mix.
Thanks so much for adding that, Rose. I'm a huge animal advocate and I'm so glad you thought of adding them into this category.
It wasn't me Teri! It was Monkey Mind and I have to agree.... I would actually add Environmentalists to list as well.
I'm sorry -- I meant to say Monkey Mind. Thank you. Working to protect our planet's animals and the environment is indeed a huge and incredibly meaningful contribution, a selfless act that is certainly a characteristic of living a Big Life.
The first person who came to mind when I read this was Angelina Jolie. I'm always amazed at what she has done and is STILL doing....
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