Wanted: Hero
In any creative endeavor, I think you learn to continually be inspired and influenced by people, and you keep that part of your heart open. My father said to me, many years ago, "Hang out with people who are brighter and smarter than you and they'll drag you up with them," and that has actually been the truth.
-- Michael Patrick Cronan, designer
It's always interesting to meet people who are working or preparing for a specific field but feel no need to establish models after whom they want to follow. I don't need to follow the exact footsteps of the people I admire, but admiring them helps me realize what I need to work on, what I'd like to look like when I've become accomplished.
I also like the feeling of contemporaries in different fields but who give off a contagious energy as they pursue whatever their goals may be. I was thinking about how a person builds community in this way. I thought of my present work which, for various reasons, does not involve contagious energy or envelope pushing, just consistent tasks and a place to jettison as soon as time is up. I think academic settings have this kind of potential as do most urban environments.
Had you asked me a couple of years ago whether it could be so in a small town I would have laughed and ridiculed you. Now I can see that community like this in small places requires more time and more personal effort. The rewards are the same. My community here is tiny but I hope it grows.
I'm never short of people I admire in my various identities. As a programmer, a reader, one who writes, one who builds, I find myself staying up late working on inspiration.
So is advancement by association possible? What about physically remote association?
10:36:59 PM 
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