MARCH 26, 2006
Name
the top two people you admire most. Name the one individual who inspires you to re-think you life on occasion? At dinner one evening with friends Bob and Sharon we wrestled with the idea of mentor, guide, role model and personality - who influenced our lives and still does?
Bob, a civil rights attorney, has a picture in his office of a noted Unitarian minister who brought the concept of justice into his life at an early age. I referenced Mahatma Gandhi, and upon reflection realized that the pilgrimage to his monument in India in 1963 symbolizes my affection for this remarkable man. I also studied Sanskrit in college for two years under Dr. Bolle. Bob quickly noted that Gandhi was a civil rights attorney in Kenya in his early years. Each of our wives, Katy and Sharon simply noted that there was no one special, but several teachers along the way had encouraged them to be self respecting individualistic women. Those influences worked, because they are.
This started me thinking about environmental heroes. Who are they, and what do they look like? I will bet very few of us have pictures of John Muir, David Brower, Rachel Carson, Helen Caldecott, Thomas Berry, Wes Jackson, John Robbins, Randy Hayes, or Robert Kennedy Jr. etc. etc. etc. hanging on the office wall but, maybe we should.
Posters of celebrities, NASCAR drivers, and professional athletes grace the walls of millions, but where are the pictures of the real heroes of our times?
Are people inspired by other people to be environmental stewards, or is there something else at work? Ask yourself as to what or who inspired you to an environmental awareness or ethic? Most often the answer is a place or an experience in the natural world, not a person. If that is the case, put up a picture of a natural place and pay homage to it by working to protect it.
In my cluttered office there is a large photograph of a full rainbow taken at a clear-cut section of Costa Rica. A rainbow signifies hope. I am inspired to keep going because of that picture.
--Peter