Discover life: Formative men

Was I alive today?

Yes… I’ve been enjoying having some time to tidy up and organise the office in this grey, snowy weather… Next week I’ll be writing more again and, above all, doing a lot of coaching!

What have you learnt about life?

I went to see a play about Kennedy – to mark the 50th anniversary of his assassination. The play mentioned how much Diseases He suffered from severe stomach, intestinal and back problems… He came so close to death on two occasions that he received the last rites from a priest, and he often used crutches in private and wore a corset to relieve the strain on his damaged back… even at the time of his assassination… which meant that he was unable to take cover after the first shot. He obviously knew how to conceal this. How might he have developed further had he lived to be as old as Nelson Mandela, who passed away yesterday. He made a deep impression on me… his constant willingness to learn and develop. „Each one teach one“ – that was the motto he shared with his fellow prisoners in jail: „Anyone who has a skill or knowledge should pass it on to others.“ Not least because of this, he turned his long prison sentence into a formative experience for himself and his fellow inmates. A very impressive man.

What have you learnt about yourself?

Stories fascinate me. Kennedy’s life story. But also the stories told by my friend Rosemarie, who told me what it was like for her, as a young girl, to see Kennedy in person… that was before my time – I wasn’t even born then.