I’ve had many mentors in my life, as in “experienced and trusted advisors who provide guidance, support and knowledge to a less experienced person” … me.

Mrs. Hudson – Grade 8 teacher at Bedford Park Public School in Toronto

Michael Bliss – history teacher at Lawrence Park Collegiate in Toronto

Jim Bayly – professor in the Carleton University School of Social Work in Ottawa

Joel Brass – psychologist and personal development seminar leader in Lethbridge, Alberta

Gordon Campbell – professor in the University of Lethbridge Faculty of Education

Greg Scharf – teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, USA

Patricia Albere – founder of the Evolutionary Collective, based in New York City

Some of these marvelous human beings are dead.  Some are alive.  They’ve all been my captain … a teacher in the true depth of the word.

And when they leave this planet, the poet Walt Whitman helps me grieve and honour:

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red
Where on the deck my Captain lies
Fallen cold and dead

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells
Rise up – for you the flag is flung – for you the bugle trills
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths – for you the shores a-crowding
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck
You’ve fallen cold and dead

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread
Walk the deck my Captain lies
Fallen cold and dead

***

Rest in peace, dear ones