My Rushmore

Periodically I'll hear a sports guy on ESPN named Erik Kuselias. He guest hosts Mike & Mike quite a bit as well as plays the role of Fantasy Football Guru for the network. One of his favorite little things is to get into discussions that involve "The Mt. Rushmore of ...NFL Coaches, NCAA Coaches, NCAA basketball programs, etc." It's quite an idea really. And this morning he did it again naming Vince Lombardi, Bill Bellichick and Chuck Noll. The banter between Erik and Rock Hoover go me to thinking - Who is on my Mt. Rushmore? What men or women have positively influenced my becoming a man, a fan, a husband, whatever? And for that matter who is on your Mt. Rushmore?

After about 7 seconds of soul searching, I came up with a few names.

Bill Gates - Microsoft revolutionized my life through Windows and the evolution of the affordable home PC. The likes of Gates and his archrival Steve Jobs have probably delivered more direct impact to our lives than anyone since the 1980's. The college drop-out who became the richest humanitarian on the planet definitely goes on my chiseled mountainside.

George Carlin - The Godfather of filthy comedy. He was the last man in the unholy trinity of comedy to pass away; Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor round out the legs on that tripod. I remember the first time I saw his HBO special at Carnegie Hall. I never laughed more; I never appreciated anti-PC, brash truth more. His angst and bitterness became substantial in his last years; he lost his wife and health almost at once. But his "braindroppings" will be with me for as long as I live.

Teddy Roosevelt - He is the only 20th century president that is actually on the real Rushmore. And he has been my favorite president since 8th grade. He was the original and real rogue Republican. He was a war hero; he was a big game hunter who also drove the first genuine environmental protection pushes in the USA. If you have ever read the stories about him used by the Dale Carnegie Institute, you would know that he knew the name of every White House employee, the names of their spouses and children. He saw to it that the kids had birthday gifts from the Oval Office. Rudyard Kipling's poem IF says "...talk with kings nor lose the common touch". Teddy Roosevelt was the most powerful man in the free world. And he knew that was just a man who had fallen into a position of greatness. After all, he was selected as Vice President simply to get young votes (even though the old guard hated him). It just happened that President McKinley could not survive two gunshots. The rest (as they say) is history.

Cameron Crowe - The patron saint of Seattle off-beat thought. He is best known as a film maker. But many do not realize that he wrote Fasttimes at Ridgemont High. He and the late great John Hughes created the films that dictated the perspective of my generation. I nearly put Hughes on my Rushmore but Crowe introduced me to Lloyd Dobbler at a time when I was a smart kid without a drop of self-confidence. Crowe gave me Campbell Scott's identity crisis in Singles. And when I was embracing my transition to money-making adult, he had me screaming "Show me the money!" The truly great thing about Crowe that is extremely evident in later films (see Almost Famous and Elizabethtown) is the vital importance of music in his storytelling. His neverending love affair with song and his understanding that we all have a soundtrack of our lives makes me embrace his art in ways that I have not for other film makers. He was Rolling Stone at 16; he's a visionary every day. And he is on my Rushmore.

Who makes your mountain? And get ready for my next post The Soundtrack of My Life.

Cheers.