People who influenced your beliefs

[alchemy1]

Ok, this thread is for all of you to talk about people (living or dead) who have influenced, shaped your beliefs on life, spirituality, etc.

Personally, I would have to say that 4 people have had a fairly large impact on my system of beliefs:

1. Bruce Lee

His Zen/Taoist philosophy on life has helped me get through some really crappy things in life. Most people are only aware of what he accomplished in his movies or his martial art Jeet Kune Do, but he was a great thinker as well. He is simply one of the most inspiring human beings who ever lived.
Here is an example of his philosophy:

Be Shapless...formless...like water. Now, if you pour water into a cup, it becomes the cup. If you pour water into a glass, it becomes the glass. If you pour water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, and it can crash. Be water my friend.

2. Ronnie James Dio

This guy's been in Rock & Roll longer than a lot of people have been alive, but you would be hard pressed to find a more intelligent/insightful musician on the planet. His music uses dark metaphor to encourage people to live life to the fullest and to not fear adversity.
Here is an example of his philosophy:

I don't believe in Heaven and Hell as actual places. You know, that if you're good, you go up and be happy for a while or if you're bad you go and burn for a while...This is where we are. This is Heaven and this is Hell and God and the Devil reside inside of each one of us. Each person has the potential for either good or evil and the choices you make make this either Heaven or Hell.

3. Wes Craven

You know, every interview that I've seen with Wes has left an impression on me. The man is just intelligent. What really got to me were his views on human nature in relation to horror. He firmly believes that humans not only have both dark and light inside of them, but need to express both as well.
Here is an example:

By accepting, confronting, and dealing with darkness, we in effect conquer it instead of it conquering us. Constantly sheltering ourselves from things that are dark or unpleasent is not healthy for people or society in that we forget not only how to recongnize it, but we, in effect, lose control over it.

4. Douglas Adams

Mr. Hitchhikker himself. I always loved the way he poked fun at not only human arrogance, but also, the world around us. He saw most of humanity to be absurd, but absurd in a quaint and surprisingly enjoyable way. His writing is a constant reminder to us to never take ourselves too seriously.
Here is an example:

Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people to dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what's so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there, and what's so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be.

 

[Ignatz]

Splendid topic, Alchemy. Thanks for launching it. (If a few fictional characters creep into my list, please understand it as a tribute to the writer(s) who created them and rest assured that I do know the difference between fantasy and reality, such as it is.)

Childhood:
1. My parents and maternal grandparents...Growing up in a family that is warm but not smothering, honest but not judgmental, and reverent but not sanctimonious confers lifelong benefits that are literally incalculable. My father was a quiet, pipe-smoking postal clerk whose principal hobby was shooting and hunting. (Don't laugh...he never went "postal.") The safe and responsible handling of guns which I learned from him is a nice metaphor for life, applicable to any form of power which you find yourself able to wield. Learn to use it properly and accurately...and don't ever point it at anything you don't intend to bring down. My mother stayed at home and raised us until my younger brother was well up into elementary school, then got a job. Among the countless gifts she bestowed on my soul, she taught me to read as soon as I was able to learn (in defiance of the educational establishment).
My grandmother was the only college graduate in our immediate family and a tireless reader and teller of stories. Grandad was a big, jovial fellow with a sixth grade education, but smart as a whip and honest to a fault. He bossed a track maintenance crew on the Texas and Pacific Railroad and could straight-arm a long handled sledge hammer, then bend it back and touch his nose with it. (No slight intended to my father's folks, but they died when I was tiny.)
2. The Lone Ranger. I was born in 1954 and this was my favorite show on television. (I don't remember the radio version.) Taught me that you help anyone you encounter who needs it, and you don't hang around lapping up praise and rewards afterward.
3. Davy Crockett...As presented in my youth, a semi-fictional character, although one can study the life of the real man without giving up too many illusions. (Being a native Texan, I was brought up to revere all the heroes of the Alamo and I still do, even knowing, for example, that Jim Bowie was as crooked as a dog's hind leg!) Crockett stood for integrity, fair play and, of course, courage in the face of certain defeat. His oft-quoted personal motto, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead," sounds a bit anemic in our day, but you must understand that the phrase "go ahead" packed more punch in Crockett's era. More along the lines of "full speed ahead." Needless to say, the going ahead is usually the easy part; being sure you're right is trickier.

Young manhood:
4.Cyrano de Bergerac...Although Cyrano was real, it is the character presented in the play which seized my imagination when I read it at about age seventeen. Honest, courageous, self-reliant to a fault, noble, magnanimous and poetic...all the things I wanted and still want on some level to be. Haven't achieved it yet.
5. Ayn Rand...This novelist and philosopher made the ideal of Cyrano seem practical and achievable in the 20th Century. She also wielded the most significant influence on the first half of my life, in that her tightly reasoned arguments seduced me away from religion for the next couple of decades. I still admire much of her philosophy and her unparalleled insight into the fundamental integrity of art and into the shameful motives underlying much of the evil we encounter day to day.
Honorable mention for influence during this period in my life must go to SF author Robert A. Heinlein, who seemed to preserve the best aspects of Rand, but without her humorless fanaticism.

Middle Age:
6. C.S. Lewis....The British novelist and Christian apologist showed me that religion was not a fantasy for the weak-minded as Rand and Mark Twain and others had taught me. It can be defended sensibly and logically and, in Lewis's case, in a clear, crisp prose that is a sheer delight to read. He never gushes or rhapsodizes and when he speculates on something that must ultimately remain mysterious to mortals, he tells you so, flat out. There was not a foggy thought in the man's head. I have since benefitted from the writings of G.K. Chesterton, Malcolm Muggeridge, William F. Buckley, Dorothy L. Sayers and others. But Lewis remains the one who brought me back to God. It is interesting to read him on related topics such as education and see how much in common he had with Ayn Rand and the others. I would love to have witnessed a conversation or debate between him and Rand.

Obviously, I am a bookworm and have been most influenced in my life by what I have read. I acknowledge that this is a mixed blessing and that I should have been more engaged in the world as it functions day to day and with the people around me. There are reasons, good and bad, for my being this way. Even at the advanced age of fifty, I am a work in progress. Sorry for rambling on at such tedious length; fact is, I could probably continue in this vein all day and, if this thread catches on, will surely post again.

 

[morgandee]

there exists a time where one must stand up for himself against the possibility of ridicule, and start being more honest with himself and more sincere with others. this is one of those times.

1. britney spears - her amazing midriff-baring theosophy bled into my skin like goths bleed blackness after cutting themselves because they're attention *****s who pretend to have it worse off than the black people did in the 1800s (and they show such with their competitive affinity for the color black). britney spears called to attention what we all knew to be true in our hearts, that we're sick perverts who only crave to live vicariously through her, and that we (even the straight girls) want to have sex with her, as demonstrated by madonna's impassionate kiss with her on television. it's not that it was common sense anyway, but britney spears also reminded us that we fail to have any common sense and that we can't think for ourselves. so bless her heart for being our new leader, as she's still not really inspired us to think for ourselves in this time of crisis where people try too hard to preach individuality--even when britney spears lets us know, that we're "unique, just like everybody else"

britney's sexuality and penchant for proving that we humans have nothing better to do has totally inspired me to take to hedonism, which is only accentuated by paris hilton's influence (although i think paris hilton is more attractive)

2. rob thomas - i don't think i'm thinking of the matchbox guy or whatever, unless he all of a sudden got a voice change and a haircut and a bunch of plastic surgery. rob thomas cordially invited us to his barren and desolate wasteland of a mcmansion den where he claims he's lonely (although he forgot to don on his pair of emo shades). he, like the rest of us, don't wanna be lonely no more! though instead of worrying about ourselves, he's turned our heads away for a moment to pay attention to him whine instead. it's like listening to limp bizkit and korn, only with wussier music. rob thomas provided insight on how to capture a woman's heart by posing in a sullen, heart-broken manner, while pumping your fists inward toward your own chest to simulate being in pain, teenage angst, and despair. not to mention that he wears all black, to simulate being a goth, but without all the fruity makeup and lipstick and eyeliner.

rob thomas made sure that, if there's any self-centered person ever in trouble, while a thousand ethiopians are begging for some macaroni and cheese, AND as long as said person is pretending to feel sorry for them and how much their starvation pains him so thus proving what a big heart he has, i'll make sure none of those starving ethiopians ever try to steal the rations that i was going to provide to the self-centered whiny guy who needs it more, because, he don't wanna be lonely no more, and what better way to distract him from those feelings with a hearty bowl of mac and cheese

3. mike haggar - former mayor mike haggar earned the reputation of being a ferocious and powerful wrestler in his heydays, before he earned the spot of mayor of the the finest place in existence, metro city. he proved that valor and courage, as well as a jumping piledriver and a few bodyslams, could take down a whole gang, as long as they appeared in only a few numbers per time. when the going got tough, he overcame the seemingly unsurmountable odds by delivering a rather unorthodox spinning clothesline. and he did all of this to valiantly save his daughter jessica from the tyranny of some old lecherous man in a wheelchair, with the assistance of his great friends cody and guy, and successfully knocking him off a tower onto the painful pavement below

to him, i sing this lyric: oh haggar you're so fine but you don't understand, you do the piledriver and you'll hurt them when you land
q: how does haggar dry-clean his clothes?
a: with a spinning clothesline

i know i'll remember the other influences, bbl

 

[sepa]

omg oriya, I cannot believe you wrote all that in the hopes of amusing some anonymous readers! You've got issues son!

In answer to your question: My friends. I count myself pretty lucky to have a small circle of really close buddies. We have each been through bad phases and rough patches and every time, we have each other to thank for being given a good slap and thrown back on the rails. I don't know why but so far in my life I've not adopted any particular role models. I mean I looked up to my dad alot when I was much younger, but since my teens, I've kind of gone without really; shame 🙁

 

[morgandee]

au contrare, you misunderstand my plight, girlfriend

it's the sentimental honesty

 

[Melissa666]

Lemmy from Motorhead. He taught this desert bitch how to drink, smoke and raise hell!