Who or What has had the biggest Influence on your life and why?

[cremebrulee]

Who or what (Positive or Negative or both) has had the largest influence on your life & why?

I believe strongly that everyone we meet, even people we meet briefly and share and share a conversation with, but may never see again, have a necessary impact on our lives...and it can be a negative or positive experience, which is a learning experience....

Who or what has impacted your life in a big way and why?

[Parnassia]

While I've met a number of inspiring people, probably the earliest and those who had the most profound impact included one uncle, one high school teacher, and one college literature professor.

The uncle was the only other family member who loved the outdoors and nature as much as I did. He did wonderful exotic things like backpacking the Sierra Nevada, floating the Grand Canyon, climbing in the Alps. My favorite picture of him is on the summit of the Matterhorn looking exhausted, scruffy, sunburned, grimy, but grinning ear to ear. The rest of the family simply couldn't relate. During holiday visits, the two of us would go off in a corner and talk happily about hiking boots, backpacks, tents, rowing a whitewater raft, on and on. He was the storyteller, the sage. I was the eager listener. As I grew up and he grew old, our roles gradually reversed. I had the stories to tell, he became the enthralled listener.

The high school teacher was someone students either adored or hated. He was difficult. His manner was gruff, he was hard to please, exacting, could be stingingly critical, scorned socially accepted boundaries and students who never crossed them. OTOH, he'd do anything for someone who sincerely wanted to learn. I remember asking him to sign my yearbook (anxiously, worried he'd laugh at something so conventional). His note read "I really wish I could be around to watch when your little world falls apart." At the time I didn't understand. By the same time the following year his comment made sense because my little world did fall apart. Best thing that ever happened!

Then the college professor stepped up to take over. He was quite the opposite. Students either loved or hated him too but for different reasons. He was quiet, soft spoken, kind, mysterious, subtle, and fascinatingly wise about the world's arts and literature. It wasn't an act...he was almost painfully humble. His approach to teaching was confusing to more unimaginative students who expected the usual daily lecture/regurgitated notetaking. He'd often start a class off sitting quietly listening and waiting for something to happen. Instead of filling students' ears with material about the curriculum, he acted more like a catalyst. He'd kick off a discussion and let the class run with it. They ended up creating content and bringing in material, not the other way around. He'd step in and quietly re-direct with a careful comment or suggestion, but let the class go again. For students eager to learn, whatever they brought was acceptable grist for the mill. They probably worked 5 times harder than students who weren't let off their leashes.

In case it appears he wasn't very present or paying attention, he was. Each student's exams were prepared for them individually based on what he felt they had NOT considered carefully enough. If your answer didn't end up being presented in written form that was OK as long as you could justify it. I remember one exam while the class read Dante's The Divine Comedy. One student's challenge was to define their personal hell. He took the class to an underground cistern where we spent the rest of the class sitting in total and utter darkness. We wouldn't just read an assigned book, we'd learn about the music, theater, verse, philosophy from that same culture or time period as well. Sometimes we'd learn some of the conversational language the book was originally written in to get a sense of the meter and cadence.

Once I stopped floundering like a typical dumb student and figured out what was going on, it was as if a bomb went off in my brain. I felt like a cat that's walked out onto a transparent glass floor. There had been an entire world hidden under my feet I never knew was there. It was terrifying and fascinating all at once. That high school teacher was spot on. What I learned from him was how to think for myself and to welcome all tidbits of knowledge and ideas that come my way instead of shutting them out. Give them a chance first. Just never know where that life-changing gem will pop up. I cannot thank him enough. Because of him I ended up changing my approach to life, changed my course of study and eventually my degree, and after that my life's work. Never looked back, but often wished I could tell him all about it.

[cremebrulee]

What a wonderful story and learning experience
Enjoyed reading
Some kids never get it
You had some really great role models
I have nothing but admiration for people like that

[Bootsamillion]

Originally Posted by cremebrulee

Who or what (Positive or Negative or both) has had the largest influence on your life & why?

I believe strongly that everyone we meet, even people we meet briefly and share and share a conversation with, but may never see again, have a necessary impact on our lives...and it can be a negative or positive experience, which is a learning experience....

Who or what has impacted your life in a big way and why?

I worked for a leading Automotive Suspension Lift company for 30 years. The owner was my age when I first started there, and he and his wife became my very dear friends. He has married twice since then, and the business sold to out of state investors. I still have a reunion at my home every year for the "oldies" that worked there, and I still talk to him and see them on a regular basis.

He was my mentor. He always supported me in every trial I was dealt, from kids to husband to divorce, cancer, you name it. Always there, always willing to help. His advice was so moving, I still use it today and my children do too. I always looked up to this man, and I so wish he could be President. LOL.

If he called mandatory weekend inventory, he was the first person there, the first person on the forklift. He had lunch catered and appreciated his employees. He would handle issues within the staff without pointing fingers or causing problems. He was by far the BEST human being I have ever met. He is remarried now and she is precioius. The second wife was in it for the money, but the last one would live in a tent with him.

He finally started on his dream house and did in fact finally move in and the economy went south. Business ended up in bankruptcy, and it just went downhill from there. He lost the house, having been purchased by Willie and Corey Robertson from Duck Dynasty. It was very painful and took a while for us to rebound from all of that.

I will love that man till the day I die, and never forget the impact he had on my life.

[stephenMM]

Discovering Zen, a very simple, non personal deity based spiritual practice changed my life. I was able to finally get away from drugs and have clarity of mind. It's often seen as Zen Buddhism but it has nothing to do w/ Buddhism. It's only definition is that its a spiritual practice not based on words or letters, and is outside of traditional Buddhist teachings. You can't get there from something written down or from what others tell you. It's widely practiced in the medical fields now and known as mindfulness.

While simple, it's very difficult to practice on a daily basis because of our old habits and story lines, which are powerful and ingrained. The meditation gets you out of your head and into the present moment. So I don't have to constantly run around in my head and judge things. I don't need to say this is bad, that is good. Things just are what they are, and all that is nothing more than my personal opinion. It's largely based on what I was taught by others, my demographics, schools, elders, authority figures, society, media etc. Now I can think for myself. Or, not think, LOL, as thinking often gets in the way. As my Zen teacher once said, all that is optional. I don't have to do it.

Which is not to say that some things AREN'T good or bad. Of course they are. But I should judge each situation as a unique event, and see what is really happening w/o going back in my mind to my memories, which are often inaccurate, or to my programming.