Legends

A blogger mentioned legends recently, and the word has been buzzing around in my head. Buzzing comes easily when isolating with yourself.

Legends are those stories, real and imaginary, we have heard since childhood about people, activities, events. Who knows whether most of them are true, but the images stay with us throughout our lifetime.

Little Red Riding Hood: was there really a young girl skipping through the forest carrying a basket of goodies to her grandmother’s house and encountering a bad person? The fable turned the person into a wolf to warn children about the dangers they may face?

How about Robin Hood? Was he a living, breathing man who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, or was he someone’s creative wish?

Then there are Santa Claus, and Johnny Appleseed, and David and Goliad. Some truth about each one, no truth, or well told stories, believed to be true and passed from generation to generation?

I’ve heard the phrase ‘a legend in her own time’, often describing someone well-known, but I have encountered legends that perhaps not many people knew.

They were people who offered insights I might never have seen or learned. They became legends to me, not because they were famous, but because they changed my life in minor but meaningful ways.

As I think about the legends I have known it’s apparent the list is endless and includes many who will go unnamed and unknown by the masses. But I have collected them.

Margaret Harper was one of the founders of the musical TEXAS that is performed every summer in Palo Duro Canyon. She was not only a great promoter, but was filled with endless creativity and challenged me to think outside my comfortable box.

Then Dean Jones explained not all growth is good to a kid who believed everything should be bigger.

And Elisha Demerson who helped me see the ugliness of racism without rancor or bitterness but with inspiration and reality.

Each one has added to my life. They have confirmed a belief or added doubt to it. They have sparked an emotion I had not previously felt or solidified that feeling. Their existence left an imprint along my path leading me to who I am today.

What a revelation. I never thought I knew any legends, but my life has been filled with them.

How about you? Who are your legends?