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I ran a six-day creative last week Reading and writing about “Identity and (Dis) Belonging” women’s seminar, I have been teaching every summer for four years. Usually, we meet on the grounds of St. John’s Abbey every week, a Benedictine monastic community on the shore of a lake in central Minnesota. This year, all this happened in a virtual way. Course participants carefully read and analyze the personal essays of cross-cultural writers, and dig deeper into their own personal, family, and public narrative history to produce a short creative writing.
Every year, it turns out that this is a tiring week physically and mentally. When we closed on Saturday, someone commented that part of the reason that made the seminar so meaningful was the unexpected guiding element: how I, through my words and deeds, showed them how to put all their energy into work In, between each other and challenge yourself. I didn’t consciously realize this, but it did make me think about what is a good mentor in the next few days.
In Homer’s epic Odyssey, Mentor is the old man who asked Odysseus to take care of his son Telemachus when he set out. But in the story, it was the work of the Greek goddess Athena that gave us how to understand the meaning of the term “mentor” today. She disguised herself as an old man, went to Telemacos, and advised him to do something for her family.
Nowadays, coaching takes many forms—from formal corporate programs established in the United States in the 1970s to global training facilities for coaching and mentoring certification. But no matter how you guide a person, it seems to be a much-needed, ancient interpersonal relationship, expressed in literature, religious texts, and popular culture.
Life does not always allow me to directly contact the exact mentor I need at any given time. But as early as 13 years old, when my mother’s favorite friend pulled me aside and gave me a little book about the transition from childhood to teenage girl, I could tell who the way I saw the world It had a significant impact, taught me the rules of life, cultivated my potential, and believed in me more than I could believe in myself. These are the names and faces that I will never forget. Every mentoring relationship is different, but I think mentoring, when respected and valued, is always a mutually beneficial and enlightening experience.
One of my favorite paintings The subject is “Christ’s childhood(C1620) Created by the 17th-century Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst. This is a scene of the boy Jesus and his father Joseph. Joseph was the carpenter who taught him to do business. It was late at night, and Jesus was wearing a bright red robe, leaning against On the table, holding a lighted candle in his hand, so that old Joseph can work. Two angels whispering like children stand in the background, pointing at father and son, apprentice and master. This painting has Rich in religious symbolism and meaning. But it also sheds light on some often underestimated aspects of the relationship between the teacher and the student.
Candle created a Chiaroscuro The effect is that there is a brilliant light on the faces of Joseph and Jesus. It revealed several things: the little boy focused on the old man’s face instead of his work, and he looked at him with admiration and admiration. Mentoring is more than just the transfer of skills or ideas. There is also a certain degree of gaze at the face of the tutor, symbolizing their character. The mentors who have had the most profound impact on my own life are the personality traits of those whom I respect and want to emulate, not any advice they give.
Joseph used the light of Jesus to continue to focus on his craftsmanship. I think part of the common gift in the relationship between the tutor and the student is that the student’s presence in our lives lights up our work and our own existence, inviting us to observe more intently what we are doing and our The state does this-it may even exceed what we imagine is the limit of our own growth and development. In this sense, guidance is a mutual call. Knowing a more complete narrative in the Christian tradition, I know that the two characters in the painting include the roles of the teacher and the teacher. But these roles are manifested in different periods of life.
The angel in the background reminds me of the role of the goddess Athena in the classic mentor role. The work of advising, guiding, and teaching someone in any part of the journey of life really has a sacred element. Being entrusted and invited into someone’s life is an act of intimacy that we often take for granted, sometimes focusing more on the position that makes us a mentor rather than directing the transformative force of another life.
I look at oil in the late 19th century “Women’s Life Lesson” by American illustrator (c1879) Alice Barber StephensThis is the first time she posted a photo. It is the result of her petition with other female artists to allow women to participate in life painting courses, which was considered inappropriate for respectable women at the time. In this picture, a group of female artists are sitting or standing, gathering around female models on stage. The women huddled in the room, but got along well with each other, focusing on painting or gazing at another person’s canvas from behind. They struggle to develop their skills. With their existence alone, they will encourage each other.
© Alamy Stock Photo
This makes me think again about the group of women I met last week. They range in age from their twenties to their sixties, and cross culture, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. I think about how they quickly establish contact in just six days, how they listen to each other’s stories and learn each other’s writing patiently and intently, challenge each other to admit their fears, be brave at work, and at the same time, their lives.
I was reminded that coaching can be carried out in all directions, whether horizontally or vertically, across age gaps, culture and socioeconomic status, because no matter how much we “reach”, we will never exceed our ability to learn from each other. I have been reminded that you never know who can walk side by side with you and provide you with what you know you need and what you have not yet seen. After all, in this life, aren’t we all invited travelers to help each other on the road?
Enuma Daro Columnist of FT Life & Arts
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