SOULMATES

Although the nature of this piece seems to be seldom discussed between friends and associates, it’s likely that many individuals have their own private role models. For example, not too long ago we listened to a certain business colleague glowingly declare his personal allegiance to General George S. Patton of World War II fame, identifying the man as the one most admired and emulated by him.

Ironically, we’re unable to recall off-hand any additional conversations of this sort ever, yet we do embrace belief that such vicarious coexistences are really somewhat universal, and will now seize the opportunity to reveal our own deeper convictions on the matter. In our case, there happen to be five persons, all men, from varying walks of life, with whom we find virtual identity. We prefer, however, to classify them as soulmates, because what we sense are spiritual kinships, not outright hero-worship.

So that we might emphasize our relative equality of favoritism toward each gentleman and his reasons for inclusion here, our presentation follows in alphabetical sequence by surname.

BILL COSBY
This fellow possesses a pure and nonchalant down-to-earthness, prominently exhibited in everything we’ve ever heard him say, seen him do, or enjoyed listening to him recount his highly amusing personal life experiences, be they authentic or semi-fabricated. From a straight personability standpoint, he’s simply my kind of guy.

RICHARD HALLIBURTON
In younger days we were enthralled many times over by this man’s adventurousness and daring deeds, subsequently described most vividly in his books. Although we never personally came close to attaining heights comparable to his, we did our best to emulate him, through extensive world travel and meeting of the many foreign land challenges that arose.

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
JFK wasn’t just our 35th President. For his consistently youthful exuberance and driving spirit toward true democratic ideals, he represented, in our eyes, the living individual personalization of the United States itself, and what the country is really supposed to stand for.

FRANK SINATRA
To us, Frank was far more than one of the greatest overall entertainers the modern world has seen. The moralistic-minded and do-gooder types may frown on his allegedly sinful ways, but we can’t overlook the open gutsiness in speaking his mind honestly, while exhibiting a sense of independence which influenced the manner whereby he steadfastly refused to take guff from anybody anywhere.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU
This man stood prominently as a 19th century lifelong devotee to personal disobedience, in line with the dictates of his conscience, against the perennial “establishment”. Unfortunately, we have grossly inadequate space here in which to describe his outlook on life qualities to a sufficient degree. We’re obliged instead to settle for a brief but sincere tribute to one of our country’s finer, albeit less than fully-appreciated thinkers.

WIND-UP
Any of our readers is accordingly invited to declare similar pseudo-kinships which may exist with other persons, living or otherwise.