Are We Admiring the Wrong People?

"A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker." - Buddha

This will be a shorter post than I would typically write for this blog (lots and lots of M.B.A. work due today), but I ran across this quote and it got me thinking about the way we are so prone to project onto a good speaker qualities of character he or she may not possess. When I was a minister years ago, people did this to me all the time. They ascribed to me spirituality, holiness of life, boldness, wisdom and purity, not because they knew me personally, but because I was good at preaching. We put our ministers on the proverbial pedestal and are emotionally flattened when they fall to earth and reveal themselves to be made of the same stuff as we. Perhaps we should all take a listen to the Buddha. After all, he was a good speaker, was he not?