I have just downloaded another one of Louis Schmier’s Random Thoughts.  These two to three page essays are ruminations following early morning trudging through the streets of Valdosta, Georgia before he sits down in front of the computer to type out his recurring thoughts on education, creativity and, this morning’s effort, spirituality.  Louis found this in his garden upon ministrations to the soil and seed in response to the burgeoning season of life.

Louis Schmier is a Professor of Education who takes responsibility to teach teachers as a CALL from a higher power and in response to the needs he finds in his students to have serious questions addressed and answered.  He is one of the people of whom I know something (we have never met) and who I call a Local Notable. He is a phenomenon in the place of higher learning where he teaches and was recommended to me by another Local Notable from my past, Tom Rookey.  Both of these gentlemen are in the tradition of Norman the Genius who passed away much too soon.

Spring is always here in South Florida, hidden in deep summer all the time.  Our winter is still with us and is cooler and drier than previous years.  I am always amazed at the variety and beauty of the flowering plants, bushes and trees that persist arriving on schedule throughout the year.

Norman was a fountain of creativity. He was interested in so many things and could tweak the new computer thing and bend it to his artistic needs that were expressed in cloth, wood, paint, puppetry and photography.  Louis Schmier is a spring, a fountain and a bubbling source of words that have beautiful expression about his frustration in not being a better conduit for inspiration to students although he is a constant example.

My friend, Tom, is taciturn by contrast.  He had a difficult but successful experience with trying to work with abstract words to gain understanding and become adept at forms of non-traditional education.  He got himself a doctorate and became the president of a college and is still involved in programs that allow for a creative mind to see answers that I certainly could not envision.  Both Tom and Louis along with Norman make up a select few who labor long in the field of education to help future leaders realize the potential that is in all of us.

            There are local notables throughout our society.  They work to inspire and lead. I hope they are given full attention for they are rare and are notably treasured.