Hi
I was wondering...
Is it right, or justified to have a posthumous respect and even love for someone you haven't met? Like say a dead family member that passed before your time. Or a deceased public figure.
The reason I ask is because I greatly admire and look up to my maternal grandfather. He died 15 years before I was born due to a stroke (it was his second in two years, the first of which forced him to live back at home with my grandma and his children). He was in his 50's, pretty young to die.
I've heard many things about him a lot of good (He was a brave hero of WWII, won many medals for bravery and valor, was a kind and easy going man, loved his children, never hit them, never called them names, loved animals, paid child support after my grandparents split) and some bad (a compulsive gambler, cheated on my grandmother, though she was very mean and abusive) This was a man who used to bring home ducklings and baby chicks every Easter for his children. So I'm not sure if I should respect him as I do since I never met him. I only know him through the words of others, and through the scant pictures and films of him.
Do you have any people you feel this way for? Posthumous respect or ambigous feelings?
I was wondering...
Is it right, or justified to have a posthumous respect and even love for someone you haven't met? Like say a dead family member that passed before your time. Or a deceased public figure.
The reason I ask is because I greatly admire and look up to my maternal grandfather. He died 15 years before I was born due to a stroke (it was his second in two years, the first of which forced him to live back at home with my grandma and his children). He was in his 50's, pretty young to die.
I've heard many things about him a lot of good (He was a brave hero of WWII, won many medals for bravery and valor, was a kind and easy going man, loved his children, never hit them, never called them names, loved animals, paid child support after my grandparents split) and some bad (a compulsive gambler, cheated on my grandmother, though she was very mean and abusive) This was a man who used to bring home ducklings and baby chicks every Easter for his children. So I'm not sure if I should respect him as I do since I never met him. I only know him through the words of others, and through the scant pictures and films of him.
Do you have any people you feel this way for? Posthumous respect or ambigous feelings?