> Chris writes that judging from the the biography stuff in my last posting, > it looks as if I could have dropped out of high school -- and still > achieved in publishing, as well as in playwriting. > > "To repeat --- he could have dropped out of high school." > Not accurate, that. On a practical level, I wouldn't have been hired in several publishing jobs without the resume showing my education history, because I didn't have the con man's chutzpah to simply lie about it.
Also: I didn't say I didn't get an education, a broad exposure to "culture" in academia and after -- I said I did it without a "mentor" (using my definition of 'mentor', which even now, just a few hours later, I'd probably sculpt a little better). > Chris writes further: > > That is, by the way, the number one job of mentors -- to identify who is > exceptional -- and push that person into their field of endeavor. > In which case, I certainly never had a mentor. Nobody pushed me anywhere. I did have a high-school home-room teacher in my senior year who was familiar with my aptitude test scores, and who, when she discovered I hadn't even applied to college, nudged me to do so. By my definition, that single remark does not qualify her as my mentor. Even so I worked a year before going to college. During that time I worked for three months side by side with a brilliant seminarian. His specialty was philosophy, and, besides burying me with his erudition, he showed me I could be interested in this stuff and maybe even understand it. But he didn't push me. Nor did he really teach me anything specific that I hung on to. Still, he stirred an appetite for bookish things. All through high school my interests had been sports, girls, and drawing. I was so oblivious to the fact I had zero talent for visual art that my high school yearbook says I was planning to go to art school. Even so, when I got to college I went out for the football team. The team was very mediocre, so it's not saying much to report I was the fastest guy we had, and it was likely I'd make the squad. Luckily, I got hurt. I limped off the field to my desk, and I hit the books. But I didn't do it for any admirable intellectual motive like "wanting an education". The courses did interest me, every one. But I became the most relentless grind in the college because I didn't have any other damn thing in which I could show off. I had interest, stamina, and the not rare ability to learn anything they were going to throw at me in college. But what really drove me was simply the unlovely motivation to be number one. That was what I "got off" on. I eventually made some lifelong friends, and I have no idea how the hell they put up with me, except they had no such smarty-pants aspirations themselves. Just why I was driven to show off, be #1, is another story. When I later "grew up", I came to love and admire my friends, in good part for not having a similar motivation. (Happily for me, as college went on, my interest in subjects advanced to fascination, and I did study many of them for themselves and not just the grade. By my senior year I was almost human.) Nobody pushed me, Chris. I pushed myself -- but I don't think I qualify as my mentor either. ************** One site has it all. Your email accounts, your social networks, and the things you love. Try the new AOL.com today!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212962939x1200825291/aol?redi r=http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp %26icid=aolcom40vanity%26ncid=emlcntaolcom00000001)
