“Not all who wander are lost” - J.R.R. Tolkien P1

“Not all who wander are lost” - J.R.R. Tolkien

It all started with the stealing of the worms. One summer, about fifteen years ago, my grandparents lived on Lake Conroe, and fishing was a mutually adored past time amongst adults and children alike. Lynne, the eldest of eventually twelve cousins, mysteriously disappeared while the rest of us were setting up our rods. When it came time to bait the hooks— the worms were nowhere to be found, but Lynne was. She was in the neighbor’s yard, putting the worms back in the earth thus saving them from a sure demise. And she’s been like that ever since.

Lynne dutifully continues to rescue those she can help. When we were younger, she saved all the miniature frogs in my hot tub, and the June bugs from drowning in the pool drain. I didn’t understand why we had to waste precious playtime on such trivial things. Another such instance took place when a blue bird crashed into the window of her apartment. She took it upon herself to nurse the bird back to health, and received the satisfaction of releasing it back into the wild after it recovered. Another instance involved the man-made lake behind her parent’s house. Naturally, Lynne took notice of the animals occupying it. She would feed the ducks daily, routinely, everyday before school, until one day she noticed that the number of ducks seemed to be slimming. So she decided to find out why. Eventually discovering that the culprits, for the disappearing ducks, were hungry snapping turtles she contacted the neighborhood in search of a solution. Within a few weeks of constant harassment, the neighborhood responded by separating the turtles from the ducks. She proactively saved them both.

Based on her track record for saving animals, it was only natural that eventually she would save or adopt pets of her own. Lynne says that she chose to save Kingston and Cosmo because she had the opportunity to offer the chance of a better life, without suffering, and without the risk of being put to sleep. She found Kingston on Craigslist, posted by a family ill equipped to handle a dog, and unwilling to put in the effort to fix it. So the family just left him outside so he would not shed in the house before finally putting him up for adoption. Lynne read the bio, saw the handsome face of the miniature golden retriever, and decided she could and would change his life for the better. Cosmo on the other hand, found Lynne. The cat was living on the street as a stray, and after Lynne spent days searching for her rightful owner, but never found it. Not normally a cat person, but an animal lover of all kinds, she took the cat into her home as a new member of the family.

Certain traits, expressed in the anecdotes above, set Lynne apart as a person and as a leader. She has an incredibly high moral standard, has an endless imagination, and has a positive, optimistic outlook on life and on those less fortunate. She is motivating, inspiring, helpful, encouraging, responsible, passionate, and selfless. She embraces change as a necessity, and isn’t too stifled by hubris to know when she needs to ask for help. Her patience, awareness, and sympathy towards others originated from her innately ability to listen, really listen. Listening attentively to those who speak: she exhibits a genuine interest in what people have to say. She reserves judgment, and resists the inclination to interrupt, so to truly hear what is being said. Active listening, along with her other expressed traits, plays a vital role in her recently founded business.

Lynne has volunteered with different special-need organizations since she was sixteen years old. She has worked with children with special needs in a variety of different environments including hospitals, inclusive classrooms, as well as pediatric therapy clinics. Last year, at twenty-three years old, she acquired the sufficient resources and qualifications to start her own program for special-need kids. Her fearless expression of love and passionate drive to care and nourish others began to spark interest within the community. She began to embrace and channel her sympathetic imagination into innovative ways to help disabled kids. Sympathetic imagination is the ability of a person to penetrate the barrier which space puts between him and his object, and, by actually entering into the object, so to speak, to secure a momentary but complete identification with it. [1] Thus, she created S t r e a t c h (website here), a unique program to help children with and without special needs. It creates an inclusive environment that enables children to enjoy a fun, social, and physical activity while gaining a greater sense of body control and awareness through yoga. Her mission is to stretch the body, mind, and imagination to help reach each individuals potential. [2] Through yoga, she teaches the children techniques to control their self-stimulating or hyperactive behavior, and to foster focus and concentration, thus creating a more confident, successful, and self-sufficient child.

There is an inarguable correlation between Lynne’s initial compassion for animals, and her more recently developed compassion for special-needs children. Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. [3] She says that both share similar characteristics, and thus need special care. She devotes her life to both because she has the ability to create new techniques to make them feel special in a world that has overlooked or neglected them. Both special needs children and animals, if left without help, are often voiceless, defenseless, helpless, and vulnerable. Lynne recognizes the obstacles they face daily, and takes it upon herself to ease such problems. She truly uses her power, gained from leadership, for good, and to transform lives and benefit society. [4]

Lynne’s leadership ability and approach is undeniably effective. Her ability to sense how others feel, and to understand their perspectives, has helped her articulate a truly authentic and inspirational vision. She utilizes her emotional intellect daily, as gifted leadership occurs where heart and head—feeling and thought—meet. [5] She possesses all four domains of emotional intelligence required for resonance leadership: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Also, she achieves the main tasks [required] of a leader… to generate excitement, optimism, and passion for the job ahead, as well as to cultivate an atmosphere of cooperation and trust. [6] Her spiritual intelligence represents her drive for meaning and her connection with the infinite. Lynne, as an emotionally intell[ectual] leader builds resonance by tuning into people’s feelings—[her] own and others— and guiding them in the right direction. [7] No matter where life takes her, she wants to continue the yoga classes, stating how she could never give up on her students because she forms inexplicable bonds with them.

The lake in her parent's backyard (2006)

Even though we both share an extreme affinity for animals of all kinds, Lynne has always been a sort of conundrum to me because of our vast differences. Her endless capacity to love others, paired with her selflessness, simply baffles my Darwinian life outlook. She is my role model because she consistently lives her life for others, admirably sacrificing trivialities in life that others might become encompassed with. I admire her as an enigma to most societal members, as she is not afraid to feel or express emotion, whereas I try to bury my emotion and focus on my mental intelligence or IQ. The theory of emotional intelligence is destabilizing to people [like me] who have anchored their strategy for success [narrowly] on sheer mental intelligence or IQ—the ability to reason, analyze, think abstractly, use language, visualize, and comprehend. [8] Unlike my expressed emotion impoverished self, she freely embraces her emotions and utilizes them to spark change. [Her] emotions are, in a very real sense, more powerful than [my] intellect, [9] in degree and effective leadership ability. Also, she embraces risks head on to further her vision. She is much braver than I. She patiently works at finding solutions to make life for others a bit more bearable. She is not disillusioned, knowing she can’t change the world, but rather uses this knowledge to focus more arduously on the things she can change, a few at a time. 

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[1] Walter Jackson Bate “The Sympathetic Imagination in Eighteenth-Century English Criticism” (ELH Vol.12, June 1945) p.144-164

[2] http://Streatchitall.com

[3] Arthur Schopenhauer “The Basis of Morality” http://www.ivu.org/history/europe19b/schopenhauer_basis_of_morality.pdf

[4] University of Texas Core Purpose

[5] Daniel Goleman et al, “Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Harvard, 2002) p. 322

[6] Ibid. p. 324

[7] Ibid. p. 322

[8] Ibid. p. 87

[9] Ibid. p. 322