Inspiration from a Mentor

Those of you who are my friends and family (which I'm pretty sure thats all who reads my blog) know that Mark and I recently became the owners/managers of a gymnastics facility. It is the same gym (though a different name) that was started by one of the most influencial people in my life, the late Don Kirton. One of the coolest things about now owning this gym is getting to restore the legacy and vision that was his. I cannot in a single blog explain the way this man has influenced me and continues to influence me even now. He is the reason I run marathons. He is the reason I coach. So many of my character traits came through him.

One of the things we want to do in our gym is have a place that honors those who came before us. We have been collecting old photos, newspaper articles, etc. from the gym's history. Last night we recieved a true gem! Chrissy, the woman that took over the gym after Don passed away in 1997 had to clean out his office (his messy, disorganized, chaotic office). When she did, she came accross some notecards where he had written quotes. And she has kept them all these years. Last night Mark and I had the unbelievable privilage of reading them, these yellowed cards with his messy handwriting: his favorite quotes. He didn't site any of these quotes. Some I know came from books he read and treasured, some he may have come up with on his own. Anyway I'm sharing a sample of them here. When you read them you will understand somewhat of the legacy we are trying to restore. It's not about the gymnastics; gymnastics is just a great vehicle to teach life. He got that. I hope we do too; I hope we honor him in the way we run this gym.

These are some of the sayings Don treasured:

"Learning is finding out what you allready know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you."

"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah."

"But if the people understood what silence reveals to them, they would have been as close to God as the flowers of the valleys."

"He learned to listen, to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgement, without opinions."

"Nothing was, Noting will be, everything has reality and presence."

"Kids realize its really a drag to plan for tomorrow their whole life, realizing in really hard terms that tomorrow never comes. You always wake up and it's today. There is no yesterday, tomorrow never seems to come, so what's left is today. Or nothing. There's no reason for anybody not knowing what's real, if they'd only open their head."

"Is it not better to see yourself clearly, then to care about how others see you."

"A great deal of joy of life consists in doing perfectly or at least to the best of one's ability, everything which he/she attempted to do. There is a pride in surveying such work--a work which is rounded, full, exact, complete, in all its parts--which the superficial man, who leaves his work in a slovenly, slipslop, half-finished condition can never know. It is this conscientious completeness which turns work into art. The smallest thing well done, becomes artistic."

"Love descends upon our souls by the will of God and not by the demand or the plea of the individual."

"With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy."

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste; and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surender, be on good terms with all persons."

"The only thing that's real is inside you."

"I enjoy talking with very old men. I consider that they have gone before us along a road which we must all travel in a turn, and it is good that we should ask them of the nature of that road, whether it is rough and difficult, or easy and smooth."

"The probability is that the direction given by education will determine the course of all that follows."

"The just man does not allow the different principles within him to do other work than their own, nor the distinct classes in his soul to interfere with one another; but in the truest sense he sets his house in order, gaining the mastery over himself; and becoming on good terms with himself through discipline, he joins in harmony these different elements. Like 3 terms in a musical scale-lowest and highest and intermediate, and any others that may lie between those-and binding together all these elements, he molds the many within him into one, temperate and harmonious. In this spirit he lives; throughout he considers and calls just and beautiful all conduct which pursue and helps to create this attitude of mind. The knowledge which superintends these actions is for him wisdom."

Thank you, Don. Even now, 18 years after my last gymnastics practice, 15 years after your passing, I am still being coached by you.