Not Forgotten

As the working days of 2012 draw to a close – and we hope that you will enjoy the remaining non-working days fulsomely, whatever your own reasons for celebrating – we could have chosen to reflect on a year’s developments, although there are enough news channels in the world to obviate the need. We could have chosen to predict a coming year’s trends or challenges, but we’ve read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Black Swan and decided against. So this post is perhaps closer to a New Year’s tradition.

2013 will, of course, be a year of new triumphs, challenges and opportunities – that’s how the linear passage of time works, after all – in which we will all strive to grow to fulfil our hopes and ambitions. As 2012 comes to an end, however, many of those who have set fine examples to the rest of us will no longer be with us. In the scope of a single blog, we can’t hope to look in more detail at all of them, but we’re going to take a moment to honour just some of those who have passed and to hope that their lives and works will continue to inspire us in the years ahead.

Sally Ride
The first American woman in space (Russia’s Valentina Tereshkova having been aboard Vostok 6 in 1963), Sally Ride would always be recorded in history. Pragmatic and reticent by nature, her passion was for science rather than celebrity. Indeed, many of the tributes at the website of the company that she established with her life partner, Sally Ride Science, are clear that her greatest legacy remains her work in encouraging science education and in breaking down cultural barriers that can prevent many – and especially girls – from pursuing it. She did so with both wit and dignity, and a concern to create a better world for those that would follow her. Indeed, at a NASA news conference where she politely faced a stream of questions trivialising her gender, she replied: “It’s too bad this is such a big deal. It’s too bad our society isn’t further along.”

Lord Ashley of Stoke
When Jack Ashley MP lost his hearing after a botched operation, he did something previously unthinkable: he learned to lip-read, and did more than just continue in Parliament: his immense tenacity was then applied to becoming a tireless campaigner for the disabled and the underdog. Neil Kinnock’s tribute honoured a man who “never stopped being a brilliant parliamentarian, an unsurpassed constituency MP and a man of the firmest conviction and endless kindness.” Also a champion of the rights of victims of domestic violence and bullying, and of children born with disabilities as a result of the drug thalidomide, Lord Ashley not only changed the lives of countless people but reminded us that politics can have a moral purpose.

Stephen Covey
Although the author perhaps inadvertently inspired a stream of self-help texts of dubious efficacy, Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” remains one of the ur-texts of our time, and one that remembers that its audience are individuals. Drawing on both Peter Drucker (the guru’s guru) and his own doctoral research, which showed a long but recently interrupted history in promoting values that chimed with his own outlook and faith, Covey emphasised the merits of character. In the words of The Economist, he “tried to rescue [the notion of] “character” from both the simple-minded purveyors of self-help (who imply that you can change your character as easily as your underpants)”. As long as the world contains individuals with regrettable habits, Covey’s work will have value. We predict a lasting legacy.

Ravi Shankar
Most famous for his association with The Beatles’ George Harrison, who called him ‘the godfather of world music’, Shankar’s legacy runs deeper than adding exotic elements to Western pop-music. Indeed, he was horrified and dismayed by much of what he witnessed (and particularly Jimi Hendrix burning a guitar on stage), preferring his collaborations with the likes of Yehudi Menhuin. Refocusing his commitment to Indian classical music, his truer legacy lies in bringing the riches of Indian classical music – and Indian culture – to a worldwide audience. At his passing, the Indian Prime Minister’s office paid tribute to him as “a national treasure and global ambassador of India’s cultural heritage.”

Eric Sykes
While he may be best remembered for his appearances in front of the camera, there was rather more to Eric Sykes than that. A gifted and prolific scriptwriter, the laughs triggered by the likes of Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, Alfred Marks, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers often came from Sykes’ pen. Like Lord Ashley, Sykes also overcame profound deafness: his trademark glasses were initially a lens-less disguised hearing-aid (although registered blindness would later be added to the hurdles that he overcame in continuing to perform.) He also had a profound belief in the value of comedy, as one quote illuminates: “If you understand comedy, you understand life. Drama, death, tragedy – everybody has these. But with humour you’ve got all these, and the antidote. You have found the answer.”

Eve Arnold
One of the most distinguished photographers of our times, Eve Arnold held that the instrument of photography was not the camera but the photographer. While her images of Marilyn Monroe initially ensured her profile (assisted by becoming the first female member of the Magnum agency, a title that bore little interest to her), their candour and quality was a result not of a paparazzi approach but of her commitment to earning the trust of her subjects. To Eve Arnold, they were human beings rather than mere ‘subjects’. She referred not to celebrities but ‘personalities’, and her work also captured the lives of the un-famous around the world. Believing us all to be ‘world citizens’, her work also included Cuban potato farmers, oil drillers, and Mongolian horsemen. Preferring emotional depth to pure visual impact, she was aware of the potential for visual numbing in the billions of images now in circulation. So if you’re holding your iPhone up at someone over the festive season, ask yourself: what would Eve have done?

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