bydand
Senior Master
Another thread started me thinking about people who have changed the way I look at things. Several of these people are ones I never have or will meet, but still have changed my outlook. So my question would be this: There may be MANY, but what 2 sectarian, non-MA people (living or dead) have inspired you to change, without you actually knowing them and why?
I mentioned sectarian because each of us SHOULD have been inspired to change by our respective religious leaders, and I do not want this thread to fall into a religious debate about who belives what and why somebody else cannot be right. Same with the MA leaders. Sure the answers will be as varied as the members on MT, but I am truely interested in everybodies answers.
My answers: 1) Nikola Tesla: His life showed me that it was alright to think "outside of the box." Personally I don't think he even knew there was supposed to BE a "box." Also, he wasn't stuck with one train of thought and followed many different paths of study. This helped/helps me with my tendancies toward ADD and made me think that it wasn't a BAD thing that I've got 100 things going on at a time, as long as I finish each of them.
2) Sir Ernest Shackleton: Preperation and planning!! How else could you be iced into Antartica, lose your ship, walk across the ice pulling lifeboats, float in tiny lifeboats around icebergs, make landfall on nothing more than a big rock (Elephant Island), make way across 800+ miles of open ocean in a 22' boat to make landfall on a TINY island, then trek across said island taking a course that is difficult to follow using modern climbing gear, Make your way back to the rock island you left 22 men on, and NOT LOSE A MAN! The above taking place over an almost 2 year period. The story of the HMS Endurance and crew in their failed expidition showed me that with proper planning and keeping your cool under some serious stress, even the worst situations are not impossable situations.
I mentioned sectarian because each of us SHOULD have been inspired to change by our respective religious leaders, and I do not want this thread to fall into a religious debate about who belives what and why somebody else cannot be right. Same with the MA leaders. Sure the answers will be as varied as the members on MT, but I am truely interested in everybodies answers.
My answers: 1) Nikola Tesla: His life showed me that it was alright to think "outside of the box." Personally I don't think he even knew there was supposed to BE a "box." Also, he wasn't stuck with one train of thought and followed many different paths of study. This helped/helps me with my tendancies toward ADD and made me think that it wasn't a BAD thing that I've got 100 things going on at a time, as long as I finish each of them.
2) Sir Ernest Shackleton: Preperation and planning!! How else could you be iced into Antartica, lose your ship, walk across the ice pulling lifeboats, float in tiny lifeboats around icebergs, make landfall on nothing more than a big rock (Elephant Island), make way across 800+ miles of open ocean in a 22' boat to make landfall on a TINY island, then trek across said island taking a course that is difficult to follow using modern climbing gear, Make your way back to the rock island you left 22 men on, and NOT LOSE A MAN! The above taking place over an almost 2 year period. The story of the HMS Endurance and crew in their failed expidition showed me that with proper planning and keeping your cool under some serious stress, even the worst situations are not impossable situations.
