Favorite Teachers Gratitude Post

Tis the season for giving. Yet, as Courtney reminds us over at Crucial Minutiae, the giving and wrapping and consuming and grabbing so readily gets out of hand. This week, J.K. Gayle at Speakeristic reminded me of the value of giving personal and public credit to one’s best teachers. In fact, he created a meme, and tagged me. So in the spirit of giving the gift of gratitude, here are my responses to his question, "Who are the teachers who have most personally influenced you and how?" And this post is a public "thank you!" to them all....

1. Mom, who taught me "This too shall pass."
2. Dad, who taught me not to be afraid.
3. Sherry Medwin, my high school English teacher, who introduced me to Adrienne Rich and Emily Dickinson and taught me how to write a term paper ("The Voice of the Woman Poet"!)
4. Susan Friendman, Susan Bernstein, and the late Nelly McKay--my dissertation committee members in graduate school--who let a thousand flowers bloom.
5. Grandma Pearl, who died this fall, and who taught me gentle graciousness at the very end of her life.
6. Robert Berson, who taught me I was whole.
7. My cat Amelia, who taught me how to nap.
8. My cousin Howard, who taught me to buy real estate.
9. My writers group, The Invisible Institute, who teach me how to be a writer in this crazy world.
10. Marco Acevedo, who teaches me the most important lesson: how to love.

For those who aren't sure what a meme is, it's kind of a bloggy chain letter, with content. So to pass it on, I tag:

Rebecca Wallace-Segall at WritopiaLab
Any of the awesome writers at the group blog Crucial Minutiae
Marci Alboher at Hey Marci, and Shifting Careers
PunditMom at PunditMom
Patti Binder at What's Good for Girls
Elizabeth Curtis at A Blog without a Bicycle
Alison Piepmeier at Baxter Sez
Marco Acevedo at The Last Palace