David Halberstam, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, died last week in a car wreck.

When I heard, I did not say, as you may be saying at this moment, who is David Halberstam?

He wrote 21 books, the two most famous about the Vietnam War. Sent as a correspondent to cover the war, seeing it first hand turned him from a reporter to a critic.

He also wrote a book called The Reckoning. That 700-plus page book, among others, was part of what inspired me to become a journalist. I loved how Halberstam analyzed everyday life, seeing the big picture, the significance of trends, the connection between the business world (in this book, the auto industry) and real life, and history. When I heard that he had died so tragically, I felt sad. Not like I’d lost a relative, or close friend, but in the way you do when a distant acquaintance has passed. I didn’t know him, but he was a hero to me, in a way. In fact, that was my first thought when I read the news in the paper—he was one of my heroes. He influenced my career decision, gave me something to aspire to as a writer. As I pursued a career in journalism, even in the 1980s, most of the heroes I had (or more accurately, the heroes given to me) were, like Halberstam, white men: Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein, of course. Studs Terkel, Tom Wolfe. These writers were held up for me, in my college classes, as examples of great journalistic writers. They were brilliant, of course, and inspiring. But they were male.

Ever since I’d decided to become a writer, at age 9, I’d loved the work of Madeleine L’Engle. I still do. She was a hero for me, a woman who started with children’s books but grew from there to become an important voice in Christian literature. Interestingly, L’Engle was the only female writer we read in my favorite college course of all, Modern Mythology.

I studied other women writers as well: Flannery O’Connor, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, even. But most of the women seemed to write story, or poetry, and our study of them was mostly relegated to the classes on women writers (as if to say, there are writers, and then, oh yeah, women writers. They didn’t have classes on “men writers” for some reason.). While they were great thinkers and writers, I didn’t get a lot of inspiration from them about what to do for a “career.” (which at the time seemed a very important question—what was I going to do with a degree in Literature anyway?)

Halberstam, Woodward and others like them were changing the world, or at least making meaningful commentary on it. It seemed that many of the women writers (L’Engle being a notable exception) were just complaining about the world and the raw deal it had handed them. I wanted nothing to do with their whining. But perhaps I should have paid more attention.

I blogged recently about Disney’s plan to create a movie that features its first African-American princess, and how it’s important for little girls, and everyone, actually, to have “a hero that looks like me.”

L’Engle was a hero of that stripe, except I didn’t think I could make a career out of writing children’s books, especially as a single person fresh out of college. Most of my writing heroes did not look like me—well, okay, they were racially like me. But they were men.

At the time, I thought perhaps that wouldn’t be a barrier—my gender. Well.

I did become a journalist, and later, an author. Pre-kids, I had dreamed of being a foreign correspondent, like Halberstam. I’d read Time magazine or the Chicago Tribune and see reports filed from far-off places. But then I had kids. Being a mother made that career aspiration seem a bit less attainable, or even desirable.

But I’ve hit this place in my life, in my career, where I am wondering—if I’d had a princess who looked like me, a heroine to show me the path, would I have given up my dreams so easily?

I have no regrets about being a mom, and being a nice, Christian author. Except that as writer Lynne Hybels points out, “nice girls don’t change the world.” And lately, I don’t know, I think there are some things about the world I’d like to change. One of them being how women are treated, especially within certain circles of Christianity.

This week, the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine ran a story about biologist Steve Goodman’s work to catalog and preserve biodiversity in the jungles of Madagascar. The note from the magazine’s editor on the opening page had a profile of the photographer and also the reporter who went into the jungle (risking life and limb) to get the story and photos. The reporter, Laurie Goering, is a mom.

When I saw that, I felt a sense of longing—what if... And then I wondered, who did Laurie Goering look to as a role model? Who told her it was okay to be a foreign correspondent and a mom, both? How come no one told me that?

A few years ago, some other moms and I took our daughters to see the Women’s USA soccer team. My husband complained about the cost of the tickets for the exhibition game, until we had a little chat about Title IX, and role models and history being made and having heroes that look like you.

I have great hope that heroes and heroines are becoming more diverse, that my daughter will grow up with heroes who look like her. Still, I am realizing that I can’t just hope for a hero for my daughter. I need to be one.

Until next time,

Keri

Book Reviews

Quotable Quote

“I am grateful that I started writing at a very early age, before I realized what a daring thing it is to do, to set down words on paper, to attempt to tell a story, create characters. We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are, to see through plastic sham to living, breathing reality, and to break down our defenses of self-protection in order to be free to receive and give love.”                    
                                 ~Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water 

Deeper Connection

Think back to high school or college. Who were your role models? Were they similar to you, or very different?

Today, who are your heroes, your role models? And who are you a role model for (like it or not)? What steps can you take to find a hero “who looks like you”? Why might that be important?

Connecting with Keri

June 8-10: Keri will lead a retreat on Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life, for the First Chinese Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California. The retreat will be held on the campus of Westmont College in Santa Barbara.
 

May 8, 2007

Connecting with
Keri Wyatt Kent

Check Out Keri's New  Blog
Deep Breathing for the Soul
 

Table of Contents
	A Note from Keri
	Book Review
	Quotable Quote
	Deeper Connection
	Connecting with Keri
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