Inspiration

Perhaps it was because both of my parents were teachers and trained in the art of molding young minds, but I realize more and more that my parents were evil geniuses. Okay, 'evil' is a bit much...just geniuses. I'll leave how they tricked us into doing their bidding for another post, but today I wanted to focus on a recent epiphany: growing up my parents fostered an inspirational environment.

Mostly, we had inspirational artwork around the house, like the Chief Seattle quote "Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. " that hung above the office desk. Right outside the office, in the hallway, hung a framed and signed "All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten" poster that prescribed simple instructions for living a better life at all ages*. Beyond print, my dad was particularly fond of doling out healthy helpings of Vince Lombardi quotes to completion**. So looking around our house, I realize we have no verbally inspirational art whatsoever. Perhaps we need to change that.

I've taken the liberty of rounding up some inspiration, and some less-than-subtle-reminders, to be a better person each day:



*This piece was particularly pertinent as my mom was a kindergarten teacher for over 30 years and an awesome one at that.
** My dad could recite Lombardi like geeks enumerate pi to 20 digits. "Leaders are made, they are not born." Most would stop here, but not my dad, he would continue to the meat of the quote, which I know was totally lost on me, until now: "They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile."