Icon and Tragic Moments

Do all Icons have to be sad? Most all great visionaries have some sort of dark thread of melancholy that underlines everything they do. Chanel had her entire life scattered by tragedy, FDR had the Depression WWII and his paralysis, Gandhi had India's martyrdom, Nelson Mandela had apartheid, Johnny Cash had drug addictions, so many great and influential figures had tragic lives or moments where anyone else would have broken. 

Is this lingering shadow of some great tragedy what gives someone the potential to become great? "When the storm breaks some are dumb with terror and yet some spread their wings like eagles and soar". This moment, this cross roads where each of us are given a chance to prove ourselves and rise above all that is mediocre is when we have the opportunity to become great. This ability to over come overwhelming obstacles is what makes men great. It is what separates those who have the potential to be great and those that are great. 

I always wonder if I will be or have been give my moment yet. Perhaps for me it is merely a series of events that together ask a lot. I do not know yet if I have had my moment but all I can hope for is to recognize it when it comes and take my chance.