I think courage and dignity.
He was born on my father's birthday.
He was a dancer.
He loved and rode horses.
My ballet teacher had a meltdown when I started riding horses. He told me it was the worst thing I could do for my ballet body.
I was forty and had taken up riding because my daughter made it look like so much fun. I was forty and ballet was my exercise of choice, not my career. So I didn't stop horseback-riding until the day I fell off just like Christopher Reeves had...it was not my first fall--
I finally faced up to the fact I wasn't good enough to carry on.
And ballet eventually got gently pushed aside for yoga--
What does this have to do with Patrick Swayze?
I didn't know him of course, but his love of these two things--dance and horses, plus his lifelong love for his wife, tell me all I do need to know about him.