More on teachers...

Anyone who really knows me has heard me speak about my 'mentor', David Cole. I always think the word 'mentor' is a funny one; there was a saturday morning show during the '70s that depicted the DC comics superhero "Shaazam" as having had a mentor. In the show Shaazam was actually this teenage kid who wandered from town to dusty town alongside his 'mentor', an older man who I want to say was played by Brian Keith (father from "Family Affair" - - now THATs old school!). At the appropriate juncture in each story, the mentor would remind the kid that perhaps the particular situation/predicament called for, uh, Shaazam, and then the kid would do a whirl or something and transform into a grown a** man in red tights, yellow cape and yellow boots. A**es would be kicked, and then kid re-transformed into a kid and he and mentor would walk on into the suneset. So I must admit every time I think of a mentor I think of Shaazam. But what's really funny/interesting is that although I may not be a superhero (at least for all you know, and I'm not telling) what my main man David does for me, how he functions in my life is actually kinda on a similar model. He's always nudging on me to reach for my best, to exceed whatever limitations I may be placing on myself at a given point in time. During a formative period in my early adulthood, David helped me orient myself in some directions I yearned to go in but wasn't sure where to begin. 

Ostensibly, David was another of my guitar teachers and I did learn a great deal about music and guitar from him. However, what he's taught me, and continues to teach, about life has proved of even greater value. I'd say the single greatest impact he's had on my life thus far was in convincing me to go back to college and get a degree. At the time I'd dropped out (flunked out to be precise) of college and truly believed I was done with school. I thought it was boring and repetitive. I'd had a really fantastic prep school education that rendered college a largely moot exercise. It seemed as though there wasn't much more anyone at college could teach me about how to learn. And learning how to learn was all I was really interested in, cause once one learned how to learn one could teach hisself literally anything.  That was one of the handful of lessons I remembered my pop laying on me. By that time I was pretty much convinced that although I admittedly remained pretty ignorant on most topics I was confident I could figure out how to educate myself on a given subject whenever necessary. Sounds pretty arrogant I know, but thats what your SUPPOsed to think when you're young and stupid. Helps one generate the self inflicted misery by which one will emerge from youth and stupidity, or at least reduce one's quotient of youthful stupidity. Anyhow, David told me, hammered at me, that a college degree was a must. That especially for a black man in America a college degree was a shield against forces that, if they weren't actively trying to tear me down, were at the very least not actively seeking to build me up. I'm truly grateful that I listened to him. I'm convinced that possessing a college degree created access for me to a wealth of opportunities that I'd likely otherwise have missed out on. For example, being able to be hired for above entry level work facilitated the early days of my striving to live out my dreams. I'm pretty sure life would of been alot harder edged if I hadn't had that degree to fall back on during some iffy moments.

And I never have to wonder 'what if' I'd finished school. I graduated college cum laude, by the way, missing out on magna cum laude by a couple hundreds of a point. I missed out on magna cum laude because in my last semester I got a "C" in - - get this -- guitar. When I came back to college I largely put down the guitar and focused on studying and my instructor (that means u Wayne Goins!) gave me a "C" for lack of consistent effort. When I told him that his grade had cost me an honor he was shocked and apologetic and offered to change the grade but I told him not to bother. I guess I earned a "C" in his class. Anyhow, the older I get and the less I remember of that young Eddie Crockett chap, I grow more proud and self amused that I took an extended sabbatical from school in which I literally flunked out with a 1.2 gpa, lost my scholarship, did nothing but learn music and sing and dance and run around for as long as it pleased me and then returned to the scene of the crime and showed 'em who's boss. It may not be an accomplishment on the level of my pops, who as he graduated high school at 16 yrs old took the DC city wide exams given to every high school student in various subjects and won the highest score (and the accompanying scholarship money that went along with each) in EVERY subject. Heck it may not even be in the same universe as that amazing academic accomplishment but at least I know that I'm capable of significant achievement when I put my mind towards something...My man David's encouragement facilitated that growing bud of self awareness, along with too many others to mention...