THE HADFIELD EFFECT

Aug. 12

I often shake my head today at the voyeuristic and Pavlovian attention certain, shall we say, “celebrities” get for doing so very little. In the worst case scenarios, you have those plasticized human products such as Paris Hilton, Snookie of Jersey Shore and Kim Kardashian, who have about as much humanity as a computer generated avatar. The phrase “Famous for being famous.” seems to be uttered by the very people who follow every titillating move of these humanoid confections and never once does it seem ironic to them.

Then you have the world celebrities who have actually achieved their renown for doing something in a particular sector of popular culture. Some of these celebrities such as your Twilight Saga denizens have devoted weeks, even months of their lives to portraying pop culture heroes in the silver screen, prancing on red carpets, posing and pouting for teen style “zines”. For this somewhat less than Herculean effort and accomplishment, they are magnets for celebrity chasers, autograph hounds, tabloids and out and out stalkers. There are rock stars, movie stars, sports stars, TV stars and political stars in a shining galaxy of single dimensionality, talent, chance, bad behaviour, cuteness and cynical marketing. One wonders if having a good slapshot, nice hair, swell dance moves or an ability to rhyme is all one needs to be, not just a financial success, but a role model for others to emulate. Sadly, it seems a good golf swing is all you need to be considered a great achiever and bad behaviour and poor choices seem to be all you need to keep you in the tabloids. These are lessons we don’t want our children to learn, except of course if you are a Kardashian.

During our recent air show, I was given the truly enviable task of being the “handler” for Commander Chris Hadfield, whose recent address, if you have been living in a cave for the past year, was “c/o the International Space Station in orbit over the planet Earth”. This duty gave me a close-up look at the difficult and taxing life now embraced by this exceptionally accomplished aviator and living symbol of all that is possible through choice, discipline, fitness, education and talent. Here is a man who represents excellence in multiple fields and on a global playing field. Aviator, fighter and test pilot, astronaut, speaker, motivator, linguist, songwriter, musician, but above all, family man and communicator, Chris Hadfield’s accomplishments, combined with an uncanny ability to make it all seem understandable, have vaulted him into the international public forum of late, and now I would have a first-hand look at how this man embraced and worked with his new fame.

So many people have compared Chris to a rock star or movie star, job descriptions which I think are far too simplistic and which fail to describe the remarkable effect he has on people. A movie star is a guy like Tom Hanks who plays an astronaut in a film and a rock star, like David Bowie, is one who sings about an astronaut in a video. Wherever these two go, adult people surge to get their autographs and line up to see them, which of course is the same on the surface as to what I witnessed at the air show.

The difference with Chris Hadfield is that the adoring adults are more concerned that their children see him and be inspired by him. There would be no children in a scrum with a movie star, only adult or teen fans. I saw families—fathers and mothers and grandparents with kids—pressing forward... with their children out in front, kids from 3 to 18, staring in wonder. I am no clairvoyant, but I could read the minds of these parents. They were yearning for their kids to see a man of accomplishment, one who set a goal, stayed the course and remained a human being the entire time. They were yearning for the best for their children. It was beautiful.

These parents were “presenting” their kids to Hadfield so that their children could feel the inspiration first-hand and have a memory to fuel the rest of their lives. There were kids in complete spacesuits with helmets, kids in fighter pilot suits, and you could see that Chris Hadfield had replaced even hockey players and dinosaurs as the object of their interests. He paid special attention to Air Cadets as he attributes his life of discipline and goal setting to this finest of all Canadian youth development programs.

So typical of every encounter I witnessed this day, the parents are pressing forward, eager for their children to meet their hero, hoping for the spark to be ignited in their sons and daughters to follow a dream to the end. It was beautiful to witness. Photo: Richard Mallory Allnutt

The effect on me was powerful too. I now see that parents get it. They see Chris at every level—national icon, music icon, a man of great achievement, still with the humanity of an ordinary Canadian, but above all they were seeing him as the best public role model we have in this country. The engagement with Chris involved the entire family, but they were all there as a support system for the kids so that their children could have this experience, meet this man, see that he was real and human and kind. It shows that Canadians want their kids to dream, to have discipline, and in the end, achieve. It was beyond refreshing to learn that parents (French, English, Indo Canadian, Arabic, African, and Asian—it didn’t matter) saw Hadfield as a beacon of hope for their children’s future. Parents are the key. We must reach out to them with the message Chris was delivering—life is good, and working hard is worth all the effort when your goal is achieved.

For the entire seven hours he walked the air show ramps and sat at autograph tables, Chris was serene, direct, engaged fully with every child, adult and veteran he spoke with. He never had a sharp word, a harried look, a moment of weariness or a single indication that he was anything but delighted and honoured to be where he was. He walked at the same pace and with the same erect grace to each place he was needed. Though it was my job to keep him on schedule and to bring him from place to place, there was no way to break the direct eye to eye and emotional contact Chris gave so warmly to everyone who was lucky enough to speak to him. I could suggest moving to the next location only when he had fully provided the last child his undivided attention and concern.

He asked every child what they hoped to be or what they were doing. He shook the hand of one young tyke, and looked him straight in the eye, holding his hand firmly. He said, without any indication that he was preaching, recriminating or disappointed in the child’s grip, “When you shake hands with someone, young man, look him straight in the eye, keep a firm grip.” Then he asked what grade he was in and what his favourite subjects were. That’s a life lesson in 60 seconds from a man who packs a lot of credibility for every generation.