I have read enough and thought about it enough to believe some people are born with magnetic personalities.

 

Maybe it’s a matter of chemistry.

 

Or, maybe charisma is a good-enough way to describe it?

 

Or, as some suggest, maybe it’s about a natural gift known as self-monitoring…like an empathy that both gives and takes without trying or injuring.

 

Regardless of how we define it - these people are real, unpretentious.

 

These people are magnetic in the literal sense of the word.

 

When these people walk in a room the room’s atmosphere is uplifted.

 

[Years ago, I was fortunate to have a mentor who possessed this natural presence.]

 

I see people who strike me as being gifted in the manner I am describing.

 

The actor John Wayne is a striking example. My son, Frank, just loves John Wayne…and I do too. I knew about John Wayne before he died…I had watched some of his movies when I was very young. My favourite cousin was named ‘John Wayne’…my uncle and aunt and many in their generation named baby boys after the screen hero. I knew all of this. Yet, I did not know about ‘the man’ John Wayne until recently. My son and I have watched many of his movies. We have watched You Tube clips of the great actor, being interviewed, and speaking after he won the Best-Actor Oscar. The more I watched the man, the more I was captured by his natural magnetism….his larger-than-life personality on screen was ‘real’. If there was any doubt about that then it was removed when I listened to other actors, like Harry Carey Jr., talk about their experiences with ‘The Duke’….sheer admiration!

 

John Wayne is one of my heroes.