Why is it Important?

Just to start off, took Bikram last night with Afton and it was a fantastic class again. Set my mat up near Stacy and we ended up laughing our asses off about the teenage kid we both wanted to punch in the middle of class on Sunday. See previous post for the story. We also both remembered, apparently we had a mental block on it for good reason, dude spit on his towel during one of the postures. Next time we see him in class which will probably be on Sunday again we're moving our setup as far away from him as possible, he was a total distraction and took away from our practice that day.
It's been an interesting few days in life just simply reading the news. A lot happening around the world, around MY world. Perceptions, distractions, media taking abstract stories and making them mean something to me. Let me first say that I'm not a Penn Stater. however I did grow up in State College so in fact Joe Paterno's life meant something to me and the community I was raised. He was not my grandfather, a family member, a professor of mine, a family friend, anyone that I associated with throughout my life in State College but the man he was and what he did for my small hometown MEANT something to me. I was posed the question "Who cares? Why is it important? Its this today and something else tomorrow..." Yes you are right, its a blip on the radar of the media. Tomorrow something else will happen and it will be perceived as important to care about that too. My grandfather recently passed away and he was important - to me. Not to a throng of people waiting to view his casket for hours but I would have stood for hours to say goodbye to any great man that influenced my life in some way. Paying our respects I believe its called. You do so with disregard to time and money, its important to you its important to them. If they were important and did great things that influenced your life in some way, it is important.
Unintentionally, yesterday I wore a Penn State sweatshirt and I saw lots of images online from the public viewing held for JoePa. He was important to a lot of people. You may not give two blinks to who he was as a man or what he did for a community but I felt something. A month ago I lost my last living grandfather, I felt something much different. I attended the funeral, I grieved with my family over a life of a great man who did great things who influenced our lives for the better, he was important and paying my respects to my grandfather was important. At that time I realized the lessons I learned from him, what he taught me throughout my life that I never really understood until he was gone, I am a better person and a stepmother with unconditional love to give because he taught me what that meant.
Joe wasn't my grandfather but he influenced the place and the people I grew up around. He was a great man who didn't have the ego he of all people deserved. He gave back, he was a role model in more than one way, he was an inspiration of what one person can build in a lifetime of working hard. He of all people had some fantastic stories to tell of his life, his achievements, failures and regrets - regardless of the end result the story would have been fantastic to hear from his perspective. Why is his life and his passing important to my life- my here and now? In some way I want to emulate his achievements and his life. We all do. I want to build something up, better a community and stay the same person I was when I started. I want to tell those stories to my grandkids and be one ounce of the amazing and humble person that he was to sooo many people. You never realize how important or influential someone or something is to you until its no longer there. Joe Paterno meant something to many.
Of all the people that I thought about yesterday when I saw the pictures of the people standing in line to pay their respects to Joe - my Penn State friends, my parents, my family, my town there was one person I knew if given the chance would have stood in line for hours - Lowell. Penn State meant the world to him and Joe Paterno was part of that world, I may have broken just the slightest piece of Grandpa's heart when I defected to Virginia Tech instead of staying home as a Nittany Lion. He would buy Peachy Paterno ice cream just because even though Butter Pecan was his real favorite. If Lowell was alive today he would have been in those pictures at the public viewing. He would have paid his respects to a Penn State colleague, Joe Paterno meant something to him. I laughed yesterday when I thought about this because Lowell passed away five years ago. He may not have been able to stand in line on the Penn State campus yesterday to honor JoePa's life but he sure was standing in line waiting to shake Joe's hand at the pearly gates.
Why is Joe important to me? Deep down WE ARE...all a little bit or at least hope to be a fraction of the great person he was....JOEPA.