When we think “icon,” our minds tend to go towards “famous.”
But in the definition, and etymology below, “famous,” is never mentioned.
When I think of my “icons,” I think of John Wayne; Bruce Lee; and Mohammad Ali, in that order.
The Lone Ranger, and Davey Crockett, are on a different level for me, so I’ll leave them out of this discussion.
I placed those icons, in their order, of when I remember them, as I aged.
John Wayne… ever since I can remember.
Bruce Lee from 11 on.
And Mohammad Ali, as I aged, I came to appreciate him more and more.
But the one icon that was with me, since BEFORE I was born… was my mom.
I’ve really been missing her lately, now that I have a granddaughter running around the house, “learning stuff.” Mom would love how inquisitive this kid is.
We were in the kitchen, my wife, my youngest son (22), and I… watching the baby play with her magnets on the fridge.
My wife and I were arguing about the baby being ready for numbers and letters… I say she is… my wife, and most others… think she’s not.
I was adamant.
My son turns and says, “I really appreciate your enthusiasm for teaching kids how to read, I have adults who come to me and ask me, “What is this word?”
Know what “likeness,” “figure,” or “phantom image,” popped into my head when he said that?
Yep, my mom.
And why?
She was adamant about reading too.
That’s… “where I get it from.”
Whenever I’m helping a kid; yours; mine; or a strangers… I’m emulating my icon… my mom.
I’m thinking about doing a book on her life, maybe kicking off a “family series” that hi-lites family stories that folks don’t want to forget.
My mom had 3 goals in life…
- Don’t marry a drunk
- Have 12 kids
- See all fifty states
Well, my dad didn’t drink, she had 8 kids of her own, two miscarriages, and because of her downtown businesses, and letting some other peoples kids live with us, she ended up having a couple hundred “kids” that all called her “Ma,”… but it’s the last one that always gets me.
“I wanna see all 50 states.”
Well, she didn’t make it.
She only saw 48.
But most of those… she walked through, as an 18 year old, mid-western farm girl, working her way out to California, to meet up with my future pappy, in 1957 or 1958.
I’ll have to go through her papers to get the exact details.
But cripes, if that isn’t iconic…
My “other icons” never taught me nuthin’… I can’t round up Ned Pepper, and his gang; I can’t swing Nun-Chuks a hundred miles an hour; and I’m still working out on how to throw a left jab.
And if my mom taught me anything, it was a love of reading, and what’s more… how awesome it is when you help a kid learn how to read!
In honor of my mom, please READ, the word for today…
also ikon, 1570s, “image, figure, picture,” also “statue,” from Late Latin icon, from Greek eikon “likeness, image, portrait; image in a mirror; a semblance, phantom image;” in philosophy, “an image in the mind,” related to eikenai “be like, look like,” which is of uncertain origin. The specific Eastern Church sense is attested from 1833 in English. Computing sense first recorded 1982. ~ Online Etymology Dictionary
“a painting of Jesus Christ or another holy figure, typically in a traditional style on wood, venerated and used as an aid to devotion in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches.”
- model
- a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration. “this iron-jawed icon of American manhood”
- Computing symbol or graphic representation on a screen, program,option, or window, especially one of several for selection.
- Linguistics a sign whose form directly reflects the thing it signifies, for example, the word snarl pronounced in a snarling way.
Origin
mid 16th century (in the sense ‘simile’): via Latin from Greek eikōn ‘likeness, image’. ~ Definition from Oxford Languages
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