I love reading biographies because I love learning about people. I love it when I stumble upon a random fact which sends me down a researching hole that may end an hour later, but I haven’t even noticed time passing because I’ve been so carried off in the life of someone else. I love the overwhelming shock that comes when I reawaken to my own life and it seems new and fresh to me, because for that split second all I can remember is this other life. My eyes have become accustomed to the yellow-tint of history and so when I come back to my rosy-colored selfish world, I see new things, and old things, anew.
I find these moments to be increasingly more rare as I spend more time online. The Internet is eager to give us data, but people and their stories fall through the gaps. When this happens to me, personally, I begin to lose it. If I am not learning about someone new, every week, I began to decline into myself. My self begins to fill my entire world, and when that happens, I lose vision, focus, perspective, and therefore every hope I have for living a selfless, courageous, virtuous life. I have found, personally, that Jesus is my Savior, and the greatest means of grace He has given me to get outside myself are the stories of others. Those stories help me realize what I’ve been saved from, see myself without my selfish rosy-colored lenses, and learn humility as I find my calling in the context of trillions of other people.
So what I’m trying to say is that I am going to begin publishing short biographies of some of the most inspirational people. I’ll look at a set amount of data like date and place of birth, condition of home-life and quality of living, their education, aspirations, and successes and failures, all in an attempt to help you see the big picture in their life so maybe you can do the same for your own.
Stories inspire us and even set us free to act on the truth as we know it. And we need inspiration. Inspiration is what it takes to be courageous at work, in virtues, and in excellence. We need inspiration to dream big–about spiritual things, as well as worldly things. Stories help us to see ourselves as we truly are, not as we wish we were. We need to get outside of ourselves and be saved anew from our selfish worldviews.
Let’s call this Hump-Day Biographies, because sometimes, Wednesdays need some perspective, some new vision, and some hope.