[LarryW]

I was never any good teaching or leading, for that matter. Oh, I praised in public and told the dumb bastards how "disappointed I was" in private. If the whole gang needed an ass chewing I would tell them as a group such things as, "We need to do better than this! Whatever it takes, get the job done and get it done right. Don't make me turn into a bigger SOB than I already am! Questions?" When I taught creative writing part-time at a community college in NW Orgeon I would try and focus on "the improvements made since the last draft", or "how anxious I was to see the story develop more" (little ol' bitties (male and female bitties) with dreams of Pulitzers ... chris', it was like breastfeeding alligators).

I've never seen any of the students again, and all the sailors that ever worked for me whom I have seen from time to time I have apologized to with complete abandon.

"Lord, I plumb tuckered out lugging these hunks of pork up the lower slopes of Parnassus knowing all the time that as soon as I turn around, back they'll slip to blurbanity, inanity, and the dearest, dullest people in the world." (T. Roethke, The Last Class)

I would take a bullet for a good teacher or a good leader. I never was one, nor will I ever become one. That's OK, because I've learned from some of the best of both that all one can do in life is to excel at being themselves. As soon as I fnd out what the hell that is I'll have it made.

(sigh)