Jason and I have been having a conversation over at his
Antioch Road blogsite about what constitutes a person of substance. I googled around a bit and found a few articles that speak about being a person of substance.
This article talks about Rosa Parks being a person of substance.
This article says:
Substance is hard, gritty stuff, gained only by much life. You don't come by it easily--a man or woman of substance must labor hard and long to gain the substance of selfhood, and never truly finishes. Substance is internal--the core of knowledge beneath a statement, the belief system that determines an action, the real person behind an external personality.
This article asks these questions:
How substantial is your presence? To what extent do you feel yourself to be here? Do your words ever carry weight? Do you think for yourself, or do you blithely accept others’ views as truth? Are you responsible? Are you kind?
What quailities would
you include when you think of a person of substance? Do you have anyone in mind?
I don't know that I agree with the article you quote. In it's definition of substance, it assumes that few people have any real qualities about them. To me "substance" is the "real stuff." I think we all are people of substance, but it only becomes apparent when we push forward in openness.
ReplyDeleteI feel like anyone I get to know beyond general niceties grows to be a person of substance to me.