The Lighthouse Effect

Author: Steve Pemberton

If you picked up this book expecting to read about the rich or the famous, you will be disappointed. Quite frankly, I’ve had my fill of celebrity culture and the adulation and deference shown to its proprietors. I’m not inclined to participate in that narcissism. Instead, the individuals I’ve included here are not particularly famous, they don’t have large social media followings, you won’t see them on the evening news or on the silver screen, and crowds don’t chant their names. Their worth is not measured in material successes, individual wealth, global attention, or public accolades. While I learned a great deal about these people, I didn’t ask them their religion or who they would vote for in the next election. I wasn’t interested in comparing their stories, each one existing in its own unique time and space. Nor did I care about race, gender, or whether I agreed with them on a particular social issue. If I had, I would have constrained them into narrow bounds, when they have so much more to offer us. The lessons from these lives are deeper and greater, their examples enriching, helpful, and necessary in a world that sometimes loses its way. To move past this age of animosity and polarization, we will need to plant ladders of hope on different walls, making room for the heroism of these human lighthouses.