It's hard to say who I admire most, becasue I admire many people for different reasons.
One person who comes to mind was a guest at our final presentations for a class on permaculture. We all took terms presenting our projects, explaining the details and taking questions. Our guest was a prominent designer whose critique and feedback was wonderful.
But his own story (I wish I could recall his name) was tremendously inspiring to me.
He had started as a biologist, and become a biology professor. From there he got a job for the government managing wildlife areas, in a place where environemntalists and ranchers were fighting over how the rivers would be used. So he became a diplomat, proved himself the friend of both sides, and forged a solution.
And then from that career in politics he went back to school to become an architect (8 year graduate program, btw)! So of course with his experience with both politics and biology, he was a natural architect to become involved with sustainable design. No wonder he was so full of good ideas!
But no, he explained, he wasn't doing architecture any more. No???
No. He was enrolled at Bastyr College, a prominent academy of natural medicine. He is now studying to become a naturopathic doctor!!! And when he described taking a patient's pulse, and how listening to the flow of blood was like checking the flow of a river... it all made sense.
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