Frank.... (6)

Following up on the international treads about femininity, the side topic of role-models was raised...
I did say I was going to 'visit', if not contribute, and perhaps draw inspiration from time to time...
I can't imagine anyone here didn't grow up with at least one person in their life who they could look up to...
I had three, and they were/are all teachers...
Frank Taylor was my junior school teacher when I lived in Hayes (greater London), I wasn't to know until much later that he incorporated the elements of role model and everyman....a teacher who taught all subjects with enthusiasm, a teacher who left no kid behind, a kind and caring man, who, if he were alive today would easily make the subject of a film with a human heart...
When I left London to move down south, it was with some sadness that I had to say goodbye to my teacher of two years...
There were two more teachers in my life who left their mark, a young and progressive English teacher, a radical free thinker who got his students to think outside the box, way before anyone even knew they were in a box to begin with , and latterly, another teacher, a man much younger than myself, the man who put me on the path to a whole other career... There's a saying, "teaching is a transfer of enthusiasm", and there's another "you never forget a good teacher"... I'm thankful to Frank, Ken and Simon for being men of character, substance and worth...
What memories do you have of people who shaped who you are today?...

I love how your are putting the effort into the Irish Forums.
I was there when they were buzzing...but hope they are revived...well done.

My Father is my biggest role model in life.
I hero worship him since the day I recognised him as being my Father.

He is honest hardworking...he keeps his politics and religion close to his chest.
He won't ever put you down for your own beliefs as a child or indeed now as an adult..
My Mother is also a heroine of mine albeit, realised at a much later time in life...for singlehandedly raising 6 children when my Father worked all hours.

What I appreciated in my household was that not only were men cheered, followed and supported but women's sport was equally so.
Where in a family of 5 girls he didn't raise princesses even though he was acutely aware of the differences in raising a boy as apposed to a girl...he never made us site on our laurels because we were girls...nor did my mother let my brother disrespect women simply because he was a boy.

It's only sometimes in adulthood do you really learn to appreciate your parents as human beings who did what they could with what they had.

I don't ever need to idolise a celebrity nor a public figure as I got what I needed and wanted from my caregivers.

Nonetheless I do draw inspiration from a lot of people whom I've never met.
Recently I started following the words of Charles Bukowski....Bryant McGill....even the great Oprah would get a mention lol.

I think it's important to draw some forms of inspiration from anyone you meet as we all have both our good and bad sides.

Sorry for rabbiting on but I love this topic.
Hope you get a great response.

Dee, that was great reading, I'd say I've gone over it a half dozen times just to soak up all the pieces that make the whole... I could sit and discect at length, but instead ill go for a few points that might act as contrast and compares...
Yours is, for me the idyll, the dream of every child, and probibly a great deal rareer than we'd like to think ... My father, in contrast to your own, though a good man, did not engage nor encourage me as a child, that role fell to my mother, who most defiantly was my female roll model... She was a stay at home mum from a time locked in the 50s, and she never budged from there... Dad was a quiet private man, who 'did the right thing', but he was from the 'children are seen and not heard' school of upbringing... Consiquently, when I came under the tutelage of Frank and later Ken, these men awoke in me unknown feelings then, which I later came to realize were bondings, and wonderful they were too...
See why I'm skipping things....
You draw interesting lines under role model, inspiration and idolise...definately noted there... I too have been inspired by people who I have never met, only to cross paths with them in later life, so occasionally the wheel comes full circle....
I feel a tinge of sadness for those who have either had no one to be their guide, (because that's how I see a role model) or those who feel they have to be a part of something as vacuous and thin as idolitary, if that's not sounding pompous and old fashioned...
I, not unlike yourself, continue to take 'life lessons' from others, and some of the best lessons come from the people I support....people who are not bogged down with opinion and agenda, but free and open to new experience...
Life keeps on giving, and I hope the experiences I've taken from life so far have been positives to my children in their upbringing and the people they interact with....
Thanks again for sharing your story....

Did you draw inspiration from anyone in particular as you grew up?...
As I grew up I had 'heros', you could say they were the idols of their day, the pictures that adorned our bedroom walls... My heros were musicians, people who did effect my pursuits later in life, Keith Emerson, John Wetton, Percy Jones... Never did I look to football or sports, but occasionally people in political office and the media left their mark....