my 50

We all carry a group of people inside our heads. This group changes throughout our lifetimes, but by adulthood is significantly in place. These people are who we look to, to measure our lives by. They are forever "watching" our actions. We live our lives trying to please them, surpass them, or escape them. They define us, even though we're often unaware of their presence. They are from our present, our past, or are thousands of years gone.
I call these people my 50. I plucked that number out of the air, as the size and makeup of each person's group is as unique as each person. Some are virtual prisoners to their group, others less so. I've suspected that i am less bound to mine than the average person. A tiny handful (pyschopaths, geniuses?) might have no such group at all. Fictional characters and non-humans might even belong, though i won't include any here. I've never before attempted to enumerate my 50. Such an undertaking is fraught with pitfalls, as there is a staggering level of self-awareness and honesty required. My attempt:
1) my grandfather Morty
2) Martin Luther King, Jr.
3) Kurt Vonnegut
4) Henry David Thoreau
5) George Carlin
6) George Bernard Shaw
7) Edgar Rice Burroughs
8) Harry Chapin
9) Gandhi
10) Amanda Parke
11) Eugene O'Neill
12) my grandmother Shirley
13) George Bradley
14) Tom Stoppard
15) Aunt Joyce
16) Jack Lemmon
17) William Shatner
18) my brother John
19) Melissa Gilbert
20) my sister Jaymie
21) Aaron Lacombe
22) Isaac Lacombe
23) Linda Rossi
24) Jean-Paul Sartre
25) Jeff Kulie
26) my brother Dave
27) Clint Barrett
28) John Lennon
29) Shelly Skolfield
30) Tia Tiemens
31) Lady Godiva
32) Roger Waters
33) Uncle Cork
34) Elisabeth Schreiber
35) Renee Morton
36) Randie Brotman
37) Tony Mallous
38) Simone de Beauvoir
39) Sting
40) Meghan Gerhardt
41) Judi Lehrhaupt
42) Charles Nelson Reilly
43) Bruce Hornsby
44) Chris Capp
45) my father
46) Sarah Packard
47) Ging Steinberg
48) Dr. Seuss
49) my mother
50) Carol Giles
That was...hard. Harder than i expected. It's possible i may have failed miserably. Not an exercise for the faint of heart. At first i despaired of coming up with so many names, but when i finally stopped i had around eighty. Sixteen are in my life today, fourteen are from my past, and twenty i've never met. One of my doubts concerns the relatively low positions of my parents, but they were originally even lower. Let's let it stand.
Who's in your 50?