At work last week I was explaining to a coworker why I was so excited to see email in my inbox from some of my heroes, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, etc. I knew that the email was not for me, and was only sent to me because I was in the distribution list and they hit reply all, but still it was pretty cool.
She said that she had no heroes, and there was no one who would get her that excited. It was very surprising to me, because I have had so many throughout my whole life.
In elementary school, I wanted Princess Diana to adopt me. I was living in a mobile home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but seriously wanted her to adopt me. When she died, I was grief struck for days, and I never even met her. I cried so hard during her funeral, and sobbed into the fur of the german shepard who was at the place where I was house sitting. I wept so hard I could have been a professional mourner.
Later, when I was really into a self-help phase, I met Dr. Wayne Dyer, author of Your Erroneous Zones, and all kinds of other woo-tastic books. Still, it was nice to meet him, although I had nothing of value to say to him. Plus, he was so intuitive, he probably knew what I meant anyway.
I had a huge crush on Keifer Sutherland during my Lost Boys phase, but who didn't in the eighties? As a matter of fact, the vampires in the Lost Boys would KICK EDWARD CULLEN'S ASS!!
Various other heroes involved actors from Star Wars, Star Trek, and a really odd Canadian vampire show called Forever Knight. The real reason I have stayed with my husband for so long is that he heard me read some Forever Knight fan fiction I wrote, and if I leave him, he will publish it.
But something happened when I started to read "pop science". I think my introduction to the whole idea was hearing Penn Jillette's "This I Believe" on NPR about atheism. It resonated strongly with me, and helped me put into words why I did not believe in God. Then, due to me always finding him exceedingly attractive, I began listening to his radio show and was fascinated by some of the guests he had. Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy came on and just demolished Joe Rogan about the moon landing hoax theory. It was not only educational, but an amusing ass kicking!
Then I started listening to podcasts, like Point of Inquiry with DJ Groethe, Skepticality with Derek and Swoopy, and others. I was hooked. These were amazingly intelligent people discussing things that I found interesting. I mean, I like porn, Wikipedia, and Perez Hilton as much as the next person, but these people were discussing things that mattered in my life. They made science seem interesting and accesible, something years of public education in South Carolina never accomplished.
As I began to read more and more books, I began to tentatively identify myself with the skeptical movement. I am more of a joiner than I would like to admit (I pride myself on being badass and mysterious, but I seem to be the only one who thinks so!), and the community was pretty amazing. As soon as I found at there was a Skeptrack at Dragon Con 2008, I was there.
Now I am not going to trash celebrity worship, because it is great fun. But in the "Walk of Fame" at Dragon Con, I could not think of one celebrity actor that I wanted to meet. I mean what the hell do you say, "Hey, James Marsters, Spike was hot!!" or "Michael Dorn, you rocked as Worf". I thought they did their jobs well, but the thought of meeting the actor was kind of blah. They were playing a role, and it said nothing about them as a person.
So I left the room feeling so superior to all of those people standing in line to meet the actors. Losers, I thought. And then I went into the Skeptrak room, and I was like "Holy shit! That's Phil Plait, that's DJ Groethe, that's Derek and that's Swoopy. Oh my god (ironically of course) its Lori Lipman freakin' Brown!! And last, but certainly not least, Jesus Christ its James Randi. I bet he hears that alot.
So as I degenerated into major fangirl mode (so Phil, stars are cool!! You rock! or hey Mr. Randi, can you bend my spoon?) I found I was unable to turn it off. It was so wonderful just to be surrounded by the smartness. I know it is uncool to be excited and impressed with people, and that one should maintain their detachment at all costs, but I just could not do it. In fact, one night as I was about to eat dinner alone at the conference, I saw ALL of the speakers get a table, and just invited myself over. They were so gracious, and so kind, and it made me very, very happy. I called my friend Jennifer after dinner and was like "I just had dinner with Richard Saunders. Richard Saunders!! Skeptic Zone!! And James Randi! THE ONE WHO BUSTED URI GELLAR!!!" She was excited for me, but had no idea what I was blathering on about.
So this weekend I am gearing up to meet one of my biggest heroes, Richard Dawkins. I am going to try to be suave and sophisticated, but I have a feeling it will go like this: "Dr. Dawkins, you know how you don't believe in god? Well me neither. . . Yep,I am still not believing in God! Yeah. We are so much alike! Can I have a picture with you? "
Of course that will be far better than when I actually meet Penn Jillette one day. That will go more like this: "Hey you know pretty much all the beliefs you have about politics? Well, you are wrong. But hearing you spout off always gets me hot, in more ways than one!"
I mainly support public funding of stem cell research so that doctors can isolate whatever gene is inside me that is sexually attracted to libertarians, and just turn it off.
Maybe I don't need to meet ALL my heroes!
