Influences

My son Christopher gives a
speech at a retirement party
for teachers Heather Speers (left)
and Shelagh O'Sullivan (right) today.

Artists are often asked who influenced them. That used to
be fairly easy to determine. You had a passion for Diebenkorn
and took classes with Skip Lawrence, loved the portraits
of Lucian Freud, couldn't get enough of Mary Cassatt, and
loved Lynn Donoghue. All of that's changed. Now we
roam around the internet and are wowed by dozens of
artists in a sitting sometimes. We regularly visit certain
artists' sites, and they zip us over to a dozen others.
We may still have our passions, but influences are
too many to tabulate.

But I'm thinking about influences in a different
way. We attended the early retirement party today for
two magnificent, dedicated and inspirational teachers
in our sons' lives. They both taught at the public school
across the street our children were lucky to attend.
At that school a devastating infight happened because
there was an alternative school inside a regular public
school, and that was a mistake. (Two schools inside
one is a set up for tension, and the tension shut down the
alternative school.) But after the grim emotional feeling,
and horrible lies about the alternative school were over,
our children were allowed to continue to be taught by
these two lovely teachers until they left after grade six.

One of the women taught mostly grade one, two and
three, and the other grade five and six. They were
balanced, sane, curious, cheerful, praising teaching
geniuses, and wonderful influences on our boys. It
was so moving today to watch kids in their late teens
and 20s, hugging these two teachers and clearly saddened
by the fact that they were retiring. All of the teachers
in the alternative school were friends, so although
the program has been gone for years, these teachers
continue to be close friends.

And what's even more amazing, is that all the parents
from that school, which virtually ended when Sam was
four, are still friends, meet regularly for coffee (they
can find one another every Tuesday at 10:30 in the
morning at someone's house if they're not working), have parties
together, support one another in hard times, and care
deeply about each other. When our children attended
that little alternative school, we all used to say that it
was a community, at the party this afternoon, it was
clear that we still are.

My youngest dropped in to talk to the teachers before
he went off to work, and my older son gave a speech
honouring the teachers on behalf of all the students.
There was no question in any of our minds that these
two exceptional people, deeply moved by the occasion,
had a meaningful and lasting influence on our children.

Have an enjoying-what-influences-you day.