Cover Your Head! And Climb that Mountain!

I had to bite my tongue yesterday. It is my habit to, on cold or rainy days, to nag students to cover their heads before heading out. (I also nag them to zip their jackets and put on their gloves.)

As I was about to suggest that they cover their heads, I took a second look at the group I was ready to nag. Religious young ladies. With their heads already covered. D'oh.

***

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of introducing Erik Weihenmayer. Our students had read his book ahead of time and knew what to expect but, I have to admit, I had not.

Erik is a mountain climber. A blind mountain climber. And skier. And ice climber. Dang!

I have to admit that I am a cynic and when I hear that an "inspirational" speaker is coming, I tend to run in the opposite direction as fast as I can. I am so glad that I stayed for this one. It wasn't that his talk was inspirational in the "you can do it, go, go go" kind of way. It was the story. It compels you to look at your own life and say "gee, I can't do that but I can do this better.

The points he makes about setting up systems and surrounding yourself with people who you can trust, about building strong teams -- those are things that stick with you.

The introduction was supposed to be made by someone else. I am SO glad that I had this opportunity.