Admiring is everything

It was thirty-four years ago, on a balmy October evening. At the clinic, following the monitoring schedule, I awaited the birth of my first child. Night had fallen when the echo of his heartbeat faded. In a few minutes, everything changed: emergency cesarean section, commotion in the operating room, blood transfusion. One bag, two bags… That evening, the blood of anonymous donors saved my life.

Donate blood, encourage others to do so… Jacqueline Barbançon, whose face lights up the cover of this issue, has devoted more than seventy years to it. She would never have imagined that her commitment would one day earn her the spotlight. Others judged otherwise, first and foremost the fifty people who proposed his name to receive the highest national distinction. Because, this year, a path has been opened which allows citizens to make invisible merits known. Those of Jacqueline Barbançon, of Michel Rouquette, sports instructor and local elected official, as of any person “who provides a service to humanity” by having worked “at least twenty years for the country in a function which can be of any nature.”

Who do we want to admire? That’s the whole question. In this period of heavy political and social times and the struggle for influence on social networks, the answer is being sought. Especially since admiration – which is not to be confused with fascination or adulation – is not easy to say. For fear of appearing naive or gullible. Etymology, as often, comes to the rescue: to admire is to be astonished, indicates the Latin origin of the verb. However, allowing yourself to be surprised by the virtues of others is good for democracy.

“Every vocation begins with admiration,” even writes the novelist Michel Tournier. This is also what another great name in literature suggests, the Spaniard Javier Cercas, impressed by the commitment of missionary priests and nuns. Teacher, caregiver, artist… through the person, it is the impulse that drives them, what inspires them and surpasses them, which beckons us. Jacqueline Barbançon made no mistake in dedicating her Legion of Honor to “the blood donation community”. One and a half million French people last year, including a young woman born in October thirty-four years ago, who in turn became a donor at 18 years old. Visible or discreet, immediately or remotely, certain gestures call us to grow.