Maybe they were your first real crush in grade school. Or a favorite professor in College. They might be your kids, or co-workers…your significant other, Bff, mortal enemy, the guy who got the job that you didn’t…hell, maybe even your faithful dog. You meet them on stages and screen, and behind them…in lines at the supermarket, in the pages of a book, in your family tree. Sometimes they won the race, or lost it…baked the most unbelievable cake, or can’t even nuke a cup of soup. They give advice to tough life questions, but most of all: they inspire us–To do more. To try harder. To never give up. Never surrender. To never stop: learning.
They are our Teachers.
I’ve had a lot of them. And I’ve learned a lot…(the good, the bad, and the ugly)…from them. And so have you.
…After shadowing one of the most famous ones in the world, for the past two months, what I’ve learned from her is that they are just people like you or me. What’s so special about even the best of them isn’t a saintly demeanor, a genius intellect, the patience of Job, kindness to small animals, good looks, social status, education, or even expertise. The best teachers are the ones willing to get down and dirty, fight through exhaustion, against the odds, often without the technical tools, support, or even decent circumstances to back them. They will take on the mess and hopelessness and pain, frustration, and fear…and power through them.
A good teacher can come from the most inauspicious place, and provide you with a lifetime of knowledge from sheer unintentioned inspiration alone. They needn’t even be aware of it…
…But then, its entirely possible that they would be.
…Because they’ve been literally at your side, every step of the way, every sleepless night, to bolster you up when you need it most, to push a little bit harder to win the race, for late night study sessions, to lend a shoulder when you’ve nothing left to give… to fight for team-you with every affirmation of, “you can do this!”
What I’ve been taught by THIS particular Teacher, among many things, is the behind-the-scene fight that they often must undertake, just to DO the job they do. The utter unabashed fight, tooth and nail, in the name of You. The often hopelessly ignored, “Give me what I need to help this person do what I know they can do!”
…The handicaps so many of them fight to traverse, have nothing to do with the lack of promise in their pupils…but the circumstances they are restricted by…the lack of funding, or information…the violent atmospheres, and overwhelming sense of hopelessness and lack of resources, are often the greatest obstacles they face.
…What our greatest Teachers have taught us, we aren’t even aware of, actually. Because the battle began before we even got there, and will last long after they’ve helped us to whatever enlightenment we will achieve at their hands.
…I’ve only even been playing one for the past two months, and the sheer and total exhaustion of that fight has frankly been pretty damn eye opening.
…And truly fucking exhausting.
In short: as we attack Preview tonight and Open our show tomorrow… I’d like to say a public “Thank You!” to all my Teachers, past and present. And and all the ones yet to come.
The amount of things I would never be and never do without you, is a rack-up on the entire resume of my life that would have left many, many holes in it.
…So, THANK YOU!
…And please, don’t let the assholes get you down! Fight on, Life-Professors! We need you!
~D
