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Who Would You Put On Mt. Rushmore?
Recently, in an ongoing chat among three old friends, one asked: who would you put on your Mt. Rushmore? I said the current list of presidents was pretty good, actually. No complaints. Might be nice if we made room for Kennedy. But he said, no no, not presidents… your Mt. Rushmore. As in, name four of the most important and influential people that you’d like to immortalize in a mountainside. The one rule: no friends or family.
At first, I was inclined toward the undeniable selections: Einstein, Edison, Whitman… but then I realized that the question was asking something different of me. It seemed to be inviting something more revealing. The figureheads of the actual Mt. Rushmore, which I admit I’ve never actually visited, are shapers of our country. And so mine, I considered, should be shapers of me. The selections should be different for me than for anyone else, so that you would know me by the choices. Together, they should paint a picture of my entire landscape.
It turns out, it’s quite a question. Maybe the Mt. Rushmore of Questions.
The following comes after quite a bit of consideration and the knocking off of some substantial people. I ended up learning some things along the way, I created rules for myself I didn’t need to, some feeling of importance came over the…
