My Mentor

Tom Honig

I named my own mentor. Her name is Beth McKnight. She is a 30-year-old journalist who introduced herself to me one day when I turned her down for an interview. I had wondered about her intentions. Did she want to trick me into saying something that would embarrass me or put me in a bad light?

She said: “Why would I embarrass you when I would like to work for you? I would love to learn from you and your years of experience.” I ended up hiring her.

What resulted was a surprise. I was feeling the ennui of the aging, made worse by increasing health problems. Retirement was in sight. My days of work were more yesterday than tomorrow. One day, Beth appeared in my office and asked for some help on a story she was working on. She reminded me of a story I had covered thirty years earlier. We discussed her story, along with the similarities and the differences with my experience. In an afternoon, I felt reborn. And I heard her say: “I have always wanted to be a writer. Now, thanks to you, I feel like it’s happening.”

What was really happening was that my feelings of fear and hopelessness went away. I was once again doing the work I loved and learned that you don’t have to be thirty and healthy to be alive. But it helps to be given a spark of energy. 

Beth is a sunbeam that lights the way even when you thought there was only darkness. She reflects my own occasional sunny thoughts, rare as they might be. The truth is that there is no Beth. She’s a character in a fiction story I once tried to write. But her light is a reflection of others who have inspired me over the years. What a great sunbeam – she’s always there for me.

OTHER CHARACTERS

My nemesis: Father Time, who removes from me the very physical abilities that I need to push back on the advancing aspects of a disease over which I have no power.

My sidekick: My wife. Louise is a resolute champion who like all the great coaches stands by me when I need it most.

Attractor: My big brother. He is on my side whatever whenever I need.

Dark Mentor: My gatekeeper doctor who says that Parkinson’s won’t kill me.

Trickster: My friend Tony who says I’m lucky to have Parkinson’s because it teaches me early how to live life as an old person.