Postcards from the Funny Farm

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Everybody has heroes when they are young, some even are sustained until adulthood. As we grow older, the once mystic ways of our heroes become the models of how we ourselves show others the way. I’ve had heroes in music and in my career of teaching. I recall hearing Dave Sharp of the Alarm wail out guitar riffs on records and in concert and thinking to myself: “How can I get to that level.” In teaching I remember my first teaching partners, who were veterans at the time, as teachers who had their “systems” in place and who could teach any subject proficiently with the minimum of invention. I knew I wanted to be like them, but I didn’t want to do it the “same old” way. My heroes and mentors have always been people who did it differently.

Possibility thinkers have heroes and they look to them as models. Non-possibility thinkers have heroes as well, but they never aspire to their level.

Heroes are just possibility thinkers who pushed it out as far as they could. We recognize heroes when we see something beyond our own perception through them.

How to become a mentor, a hero: imagine the possibilities of your work, hobby, passion, or livelihood. Don;;t imagine the way to do it, just imagine the end. Once you see the end, you will find a way there if you want it bad enough. Those around you will make you a mentor, maybe even a hero, as they see you pushing with passion toward something they can’t see . . . but you as a possibility thinker . . . can. Who were your heroes growing up? How have you emulated what you saw in them in your life? Have you thought about people that you may be an example to? Has that affected the way you do things?