A Different Kind of Hero

I’m waiting to go to a lecture this afternoon and I suddenly realize I’m feeling jitters. Why? Well, because we are having Fields medalist Tim Gowers come up here give this talk. That’s so exciting to me, as exciting as it would be for a football fan to meet with David Beckham, for a militant to spend a moment with Hilary Clinton, for a flamenco fan to see Joaquín Cortés on stage, for a pop music addict to meet Björk – no, maybe not, let’s say Chris Martin, singer of Coldplay (or am I still far off?), … , for an upcoming writer to converse with José Saramago.

What/who are our ‘role models’ anyway? One of my big heroes when I was younger used to be Mahatma Gandhi, for the concept of ‘civil disobedience’. I also used to have Albert Einstein´s picture above my bed, on whatever grounds that was. As for our heroes, past and present, I guess I’d choose the ones that strive for peace, but who are they then - meaning, among those who didn’t get killed yet? After that I’d probably want to show my admiration for the people who furnished us with all the elements of comfort we’ve grown so accustomed to. (Yet sometimes with big impairments to our environment …) Then those that make my life better by creating beauty all around me. And of course my mom, for turning out an almost normal person in me. Will be back later with my heroes …