The Personality Age
Written by Paul Landis Delaune

     It has been said we live in an information age for at no other time in recorded
history has so much information been available to so many.  We also live in a ‘personality’
age for at no other time have so many personalities been able to influence people and shape
events.  Have you ever considered the personalities that have influenced your life?  I’m not
talking about just real people but fictional personalities as well.

     In modern day America the one medium of communication that has most impacted our
lives over the last fifty years has been television.  Television has literally given many
fictional characters life and brought them into our very homes.  Some of these characters
impact us more than others, but certain ones stand out in my mind.  Names like Tarzan,
Cheyenne Bodie, Captain James T. Kirk, Kwai Chang Caine, Colonel Steve Austin, Captain
‘Hawkeye’ Pierce, Thomas Magnum, Captain Jean Luc Picard, Vincent, Duncan Macleod of the
Clan Macleod, Hercules these have almost been like friends and all of them I have admired.

     The personalities that have influenced my life the most are those of real people.  Some I
have known and some I have not.  The one person who has impacted my life the most has
been my mother.  Since my father died when I was nineteen and for long after that I hadn’t
made a life for myself, it was my mom who often was my anchor in the storm.  She was
always there, even when hundreds of miles separated us.  I’m glad and proud to be her son.

    Another person who greatly influenced my life has been Jesus through his teachings
and those who have written and taught in his name.  As a child and young adult,
two adventure writers who caught my imagination were Edgar Rice Burroughs and
Louis L’Amour. My friend Paula influenced my life for she introduced me to the writings
of Dr. Wayne Dyer and “A Course in Miracles.  Dr. Dyer helped me realize that there are
other ways of viewing the world than my own and A Course in Miracles taught me of
the divinity within us all and the eternal nature of God’s creation.

    There have been other people who have greatly influenced my life.  One would be
my dad.  My love of the outdoors and my interest in people of other countries I
inherited from him.  Another who definitely influenced my life to a great degree was
a stranger.  He was the driver of the pickup truck that brought about the wreck that
injured my spinal cord, paralyzing me for the rest of my life.  You would think I would
hate him, but I don’t and I never have.  It’s been my belief that the hand of God played a role
in this and the driver of the pickup was a divine instrument.  Who am I to curse the
instrument of God?  Instead, I chose to curse God himself!

     What personalities, real or fictional, have influenced your life?