" Radiating Grace "
My "Teachers "
Blessed with so many "teachers" from all walks of life, it is difficult to choose which ones to share here, so I will begin by sharing some of my amazing "teachers" in the Woodland, CA area.
I was blessed with a brilliant ballet teacher/dancer/choreographer, Earl Riggins, who passed along his love of dance and continued to dance himself in the area into his 80's. Mr. Riggins had been in the original San Francisco Ballet Co. and I learned a lot not only about ballet, but also folk dance, which he taught, tap etc. His teaching method was the opposite from those around him--I never heard him shout at anyone!
Prior to joining the Riggins School of Ballet, I had had an experience with a woman who sat in a chair pounding out the tempo and shouting at her students as we learned "I'm a little teapot" etc. For someone who was adopted and shy, it was not a pleasant experience.
I was more than pleasantly surprised at Mr. Riggins idea of quietly coming up to you as you had difficulty with a step and with a great deal of patience, helping you through that and then moving on to the next person needing assistance. I was impressed with his choreographic skills, too. He always took into consideration the ability of his students and how they and their talents would appear on stage. He re-choreographed "Nutcracker" and other "clasic" ballets in that manner and offered them to the community through the March of Dimes with the slogan, "We dance that others may walk." Need I say more!
I will, however, comment that he also taught folk dancing through the Recreation Dept., Those participating had a lot of fun as well as enjoyed his ability to turn three times in air and/or do Russian dances.
Another "teacher" was a football coach who was a friends of my parents and who usually didn't say a lot. I had been visiting, made a comment and then he asked me where I had found that, so I said "in a book." At that time I thought anything I read in a book was true. He then turned to me and said, "Just remember, a book is only one person's opinion." It was just what I needed to hear at that moment. And would later be followed up when I lived in San Francisco and worked with White Russian glass glaziers. I had taken to re-reading a big philosophy book, "Being and Time" by Martin Heidegger. My philosophy teacher had told me I couldn't understand it; however, after quitting school, marrying and moving to SF, I had decided otherwise. Now, naturally, I did not expect my glazier friend to have any idea of the book etc.However, he surprised me by saying, that he had read it years before, but liked another book better, one about "Twentieth Century Devils" which we could not even get in the states! The point of both of those stories was to remind me not to pre-judge who will and will not teach me!
Another very special Woodland "memory" and teacher was a farmer. Now Francis du Bois, was a very unique farmer who had attended Stanford and had even taken himself to Europe where he had bicycled around and attended various philosophical conferences etc. My parents divorced when I was a teenager in high school, so I credited Fran with getting me through high school and considered him to be my "intellectual" Father. Whenever I saw that white pickup truck down the street I headed there and we talked about books and ideas and listened to wonderful music etc. Fran also was very much a part of "my" family and later even let me and my then husband stay after his parents had passed away in their home across the street from his and Dorothy's home. I was also very grateful to Dorothy for sharing Fran with me. Fran had come up with a way of getting into rice fields using huge tires, often had student's from foreign countries intern with him and his business partner. Once he was offered to be head of the California Agriculture Dept., which he turned down. He, did, however, much later make "People to People" tours as well as share his knowledge of rice growing. I am grateful to Fran for so many wonder-filled hours when we talked into the wee hours. And I am also grateful to have had the opportunity to have him be part of my children's christening and read Kahlil Gibran's "Children" from "The Prophet,"and something I had written especially for the occasion. He also got to be a part of birthday parties for my family and I even got to honor him for his. I am extremely grateful and feel that I was exceptionally "gifted" with a friendship and love from this very special man.
One other person I must at least mention in this memory blog was Kate--Katherine Hallar Cushing, who actually came from the area near where I was residing when in Washington. Kate took care of me when I was very young and although I never had her specifically as a "teacher" she taught me much. She and my mother were the best of friends and polar opposites. Kate was very organized, a teacher by profession and at one time I assisted her in correcting papers etc. She was always very supportive of me and as a "Mills College" girl herself, helped me get into Mills with a partial scholarship and work study there. When I married and years later became pregnant with my daughter, Holly, Kate had a beautiful baby shower for me, too. She was so much a part of my time in Woodland and also Davis, where she and Phil later moved and a lot of what I knew about "Picnic Day" came from her. That was important when years later I was able to bring together foreign students, alumini etc. Phil always had a big garden and was more than generous in sharing it. He used to love that I would eat red lettuce after washing it off, straight from his garden. As someone in charge of grounds at UC-Davis, we also got to share in so much of the abundance of crops and gardens etc. He also designed much of the UC-D grounds. He also taught me about cooking corn on the cob immediately after it had been picked. In my childhood he, my uncle and father used to go hunting frogs on the Sacramento River. He and Kate also had duck and other special dinners.
From childhood to adulthood and beyond my "teachers" were supportive of me in so many wonderful ways as I continued to work with each of their and so many other's ideas, teachings etc.
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