Judah shared a very good message on leaving a legacy last Sunday. One person whom I grew up on as a kid passed away recently. His name is Christopher Reeves a.k.a Superman
I remember Christhopher Reeves was the best looking Superman during my childhood days. That was before Dean Cain came into the picture. It was so memorable to think back to that day as a 6 year old being introduced to spandex underwear out superhero. Never the less, Superman made it to my list of idol superheroes together with spider-man. However Superman was more publicise on TV compared to Spiderman because producers bothered to make a movie out of Superman back than compared to the weekly spider-man series which had spider-web that looked like nylon strings. Anyway, I remember dad renting a cetak rompak VHS for me to watch Superman the Movie and I from than on was really sold out to Superman and wanted to be like Superman. My parents had to buy me a Superman suit and that was like my daily set of clothes. I would never leave the house without wearing my superman suit. Going to birthday parties in my superman suit, going to the temple in my superman suit, going to the supermarket in my superman suit. I remember my maid had to frantically wash my superman suit every night and made sure it dried in time the next morning for me to wear. Well, the days I didn't had superman suits to wear, I would resort to my spider-man suit or my batman suit or my captain america suit. You got that right, I had all of them!!! Spider-man to Batman to Captain America. All I didn't have was Wonder Woman because I wasn't a woman.
Superman was very much part of my growing up. My mom told me once she prayed so hard that I would grow out of wearing superman suits everyday. Well, her prayers was answered in 2 years... that was what my mom told me. Yeah.. as a kid I grew up with Christopher Reeve as Superman. As got older, reading about the horse accident that he went through, I spent my teenage life reading about how he fought paralysis and how he promoted the awareness of fighting paralysis. I could identify a bit than because my grandmother and grandfather was both paralysed and I had the honour of taking care of them when they were still alive. I remember I would always read articles of Reeves to both my grand parents, telling them not to give up and that life is not the end when you're paralysed.
As an adult (or at least I think I'm one now), Reeves was still somewhat of a hero to me. Acting was still part of his life even though he was crippled. He achieved more as a human being when he was paralysed. You may say that he was a celeb and that's why he only did what was right when he got paralysed or else he wouldn't have done this awareness thing and set up a research centre for spine research, you'll probably say he set it up more for himself. Never the less, it takes someone to start something and he did start something. He may have done it to cure himself but now other disabled people are able to reap from this. He could have just used all his money and spent it on consoling his misery. But no, 1/2 his wealth went for this research on spinal studies, created awareness of spine disorder, created awareness on paralysis, etc, etc. I believe Reeve falling off his horse "Eastern Express" was his defining moment. Those that have lost hope, gained some hope from the example set by Reeves own fighting spirit. His family became closer from this accident, etc. My only wish is that he passed away with the peace of God. Reeves sure left behind quite a legacy. From being Superman to being the founder or a spinal research centre. But I believe most of us will see that Reeve's defining moment made us now remember Reeves more of a person fighting paralysis and helping other fight paralysis. I think that was the legacy he left behind.
So where is our defining moment? I'm still looking and waiting for that defining moment of mine. A defining moment that would create a legacy for people to look back and say nothing but positive things. Hand in hand it goes, looking for a defining moment for ourselves to set a course for the kind of legacy we want to leave behind
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