Throughout the year 2018, I have been blessed to have been exposed to some really positive people who have provided doses of inspiration and optimism in my life when I needed it. Most of them are people that I personally know and I hope I have managed to articulate how thankful I am to them because I do believe when someone makes a positive difference in your life, they deserve to know. This post is dedicated to those couple of individuals who I'll will never get to thank in person because of their scale of influence and well...one of them isn't even real but a fictional character. :/
Michelle Obama
Spouses of world leaders are generally recognized kind of an addendum to the leader not really having stand out qualities of their own. Throughout her 8 years as First Lady, there were glimpses of how special Michelle Obama is in her own right. One of the biggest clues to this is how visibly her husband President Barack Obama (an extraordinary person himself) is in complete AWE of her even after so many years of marriage. I personally took real notice of her when she managed to articulate her feelings of angst passionately and so eloquently against the current President when that infamous Access Hollywood came out giving voice to millions of people who were too outraged to be able to rationalize their emotions. But I think (especially for people outside the US) you get the proper sense of how really incredible Michelle Obama is when you read her autobiography - Becoming.
When adjectives like tough, resilient, optimistic, assertive, super smart, kind, compassionate, inspirational, no nonsense among a few can be used to describe one individual in one breath, then it's not really a surprise when that person's spouse or any rational person for that matter is in awe of that person. She is so thoughtful and kind best reflected in the initiatives that she championed as First Lady based on her experiences and convictions. One particularly interesting anecdote was when she was in school, an academically brilliant student with impressive achievements under her belt, she sought advice from her school counsellor about getting into her dream college Princeton. She mentions that the counsellor simply looked at her without even having a look at her resume and said that she was not Princeton material (underlying implication is because of the race factor). This understandably really stung her she says when she got out of that office her first thought was , "I'll show you" and she did. Not only did she get into Princeton but studied in Harvard as well! But reflecting on this incident, she said that the only reason that her confidence was not completely crushed at that point in a system where the odds are already stacked against a woman of colour from a humble family background at such a young age was because of all the wonderful people in her childhood like her mother who invested in her - built her confidence up by believing in her abilities and always encouraging her to reach up to her full potential. Building on that, she realized how it matters when someone shows genuine interest in your learning and development even if it's just 10 minutes which is especially true for overlooked sections of people like girls and minorities. This resulted in her starting a leadership and mentorship program at the White House where high school girls would be invited for monthly get togethers and be assigned a female mentor to guide them and encourage them to use their voice and speak up in any platform. Similarly the Let Girls Learn initiative on a wider global scale was to encourage girls to reach their full potential.
When you have worked that hard and are that bright to get into a Harvard and Princeton and fresh out of college, to land a plum job in a prestigious corporate law firm that pays good money, it takes a special kind of courage to take the bold decision to completely switch gears and enter the non profit/government sector looking to make a positive difference which is exactly what she did. However she also is a very practical person and assertive which is clearly illustrated when she mentions in the book how she fought for more pay than the abysmally low pay that she was offered initially by a non profit organization on the grounds that she needed it to meet her expenses and pay off her college loans. In fact she was so convincing and the organization clearly recognizing that she is a rare breed of talent, took the additional step of securing extra funding so that she could be paid more. She repaid that faith by building an effective impactful project from scratch and setting fund raising records.
Barack Obama's dizzying high profile, political life was not something that she particularly asked for but after she gave a green signal to her husband to run for POTUS, she dove right into it and it is amazing how she raised her family in extraordinary circumstances before and during their time in the White House managing to strictly compartmentalize family time and work going as far as not to speak with her husband directly about work but communicate about work related matters through their chief of staff . She speaks of quite a hilarious example where she had to run her desire of getting a new hairstyle through her husband's staff because everyone is so paranoid about optics at that level! Under brutal scrutiny (from her fashion sense to her perceived aggression) and pressure, she carried herself with dignity, grace and class. Michelle Obama is far from perfect and she has the humility to acknowledge that self doubt has creeped in on several occasions and the reason she has been able to overcome tough times is because she was able to learn from her mistakes and seek help from her family especially her mother and husband who continue be her bedrocks of support, her faith , female friends and even marriage counselling at some point.
Even though invisible and very undefined, the influence of a First Lady platform appears to be quite powerful. And it obvious that Michelle sought to make the best use of it. It's inspiring that she still uses her really powerful voice to stand up for what is right and stick to her moral convictions. Despite her clear disgust with her husband's successor, she still exudes optimism and hope especially in the youth. And while I am at my gushing, let me state that her book oozes intellect with insights like 'Failure is a feeling long before it is an actual result' and 'Friendship between women are build on thousand kindnesses'
The best definition of a woman of substance in my books.
Newt Scamander
At the outset, I would like to state that though I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books, I could not stand the films (I could not go beyond the third film) because I found the films to be a gross injustice sometimes to the plot of the books but more importantly the characters of the book - the beautiful mostly underdog characters that JK Rowling painstakingly developed with such depth, complexity, humour and heart that made me so emotionally invested in them.
Hence when the Fantastic Beasts series (a prequel to the HP series) of films started in 2016, I was least interested in what I assumed would be an escapist, shallow spectacle where the main hero of the film was mentioned only once or twice in the entire Harry Potter book series as an author of one their school text books - which was as insignificant as it could get However in 2018, I managed to see both the released Fantastic Beasts films and while my suspicions of it being a spectacle were more or less true, it really threw a big surprise with the main protagonist of Newt Scamander played by brilliant British actor Eddie Redmayne.
I found myself very drawn to Newt especially in the first film of FB. He is a Magizoologist i.e. a person specialized in the study of magical creatures. Newt is an introvert, socially awkward to the point that he cannot even make proper eye contact with people, kind and empathetic person . Elaborating more on his social awkwardness, there is a scene where he is seated on a dinner table with 3 people who he has just met that day during the course of his adventure. 2 of the characters, Queenie and Jacob are charming extroverts who interact so openly and boisterously while Newt sits there quietly looking extremely uncomfortable, awkward and thoroughly out place and clearly itching to get out - a situation I think hits close home for a lot of introverts, However, he is completely in his element and thoroughly content and comfortable in his own world of magical creatures. Additionally, he is not presented as a conventional hero who kicks ass, seeks glory, is some 'chosen one' and he remarkably just prefers to be low profile and under the radar. His stand out qualities in the film are presented as his kindness and empathy - underrated but exceptional qualities which is quite the departure from a conventional hero representation
Watching the way Newt treats Jacob (a non magical person) with respect and his equal when his community has such prejudice towards non wizards, the way he always strives for doing whats right and the way he interacts with his magical creatures, his eventual love interest Tina and even the film's main antagonist who is a deeply tormented orphan boy is incredibly endearing and refreshing. Most importantly, Newt is showcased as being comfortable in his own skin, He has this very quiet confidence and is secure and humble about his admirable abilities and the person that he is. He does not have a dramatic change in personality during the film to suit the mold of a 'hero' and his friends and Tina likes him for exactly for who he is. It is a remarkable testament of the writing of JK Rowling who has managed to craft yet another amazing character and Eddie Redmayne's pitch perfect acting, that a character like Newt who would normally get side kick status could pull off 2 films.
I guess not surprisingly, a lot of people did not agree with me. A lot of reviews panned Newt's character as a main hero in the film. A particularly snarky film review stated rather mockingly - 'Newt is so good-hearted, simple, and nondescript that it's sort of crazy that he's going to be the centrepiece of four or five more films'. There are even talks that he will be relegated to side kick status in the next few films where he will anyway be overshadowed by the iconic character of Dumbledore played by Jude Law, It's kind of ironic that only this year I had written a pretty long post about how more in depth, dignified representation of different groups of people matter in popular culture. I had focused a lot on especially how women are covered. But what I had completely missed out on was how men are covered. In a mainstream film , the 'hero' has to be one who stands out and generally is someone who is drop dead good looking or a genius (generally a tormented soul) or really witty or brawny (read 6 pack abs as a minimum requirement) performing death defying action sequences or simply very very charismatic. It may be a generalization but most heroes in different genres whether sci-fi or romantic or action/superhero films fall neatly into one or ideally multiple of the mentioned categories.
Newt turns all these stereotypes on top of its head and for once even if is short lived, it is wonderful to see an awkward, vulnerable, sensitive and kind male lead celebrated in a mainstream fantasy film
Thanks for making me REALLY proud to be a Hufflepuff , Newt!
Will sum up this looooong post by not missing out on -
Honorable mention - Beto O'Rourke
A losing candidate in a US Senate race maybe an unconventional choice but I cannot help but mention him - For having the courage to pour his heart, sweat and soul on an 'unwinnable' race and making a contest out of it and the authenticity and integrity with which he did it. Other than the viral NFL controversy answer, an answer he gave Ellen Show regarding his DUI (Drunken Under Influence) charge against his name, was really inspiring and thoughtful. Ellen asked him to explain himself amidst the criticism he was receiving about his DUI. I found his answer to be quite illuminating. He said that he would not offer any excuses about that charge and he made a huge mistake. But he also pointed out that he did not let that mistake define him because subsequent to that he started a business, married his wife and had a family, became a member of his city council and a 3 term US congressman. More impressively, he said he realized that he was lucky and privileged that as a white man, despite having such a serious charge against his name, he was able to get a second chance. A black person with a DUI would probably not get employment because of he would have to check a box in his job application or not be able to avail student loans. So Beto said that this incident does not define him but on the contrary, makes him a better person and politician and he wants to make sure that deserving people get second chances in life. Really goes to show that people's mistakes or even achievements for that matter don't really define them but the character they display on a continuous and evolving basis does.
To be fair, as a person who has nothing to do with the States, I really am not in a position to know whether Beto is more fluff and less substance or whether he should run for President but qualities of decency, morality, back breaking hard work, compassion, inclusiveness and intelligence have universal appeal and considering that according to me, such qualities seem to be sorely missing at powerful, influential public positions worldwide, I hope Beto O'Rourke becomes a prominent name in politics in a positive way.
