Who was this guy…”Mentor” anyways?

So, what do you know about The Odyssey?    You’ve heard about it?  A Greek thing – epic – or something like that?  Good!  It is a start.

Homer wrote the Odyssey as a sequel to The Iliad which centered on the Trojan War and its aftermath.

Odysseus was a king of Ithaca returning home after the war – a trek that took him ten years and through numerous adventures. During that voyage home, all kinds of nasty things were happening in his kingdom.

Luckily for Odysseus, Telemachus, his growing son, was left in the charge of Odysseus’s good friend Mentor.  Mentor was an aging, sensible fellow trusted to guide Telemachus and teach him wisdom.

Of course, you cannot have an epic poem without divine intervention – helpful or not.  The goddess Athena, helpfully took the form of Mentor  at times so that she could advise Telemachus on important matters, knowing that he trusted the words of his teacher and friend.  This knowledge helped Telemachus keep the kingdom intact and inspired him to search for his father, Odysseus.

Here in Lakewood we need mentors.  We need people like Mentor.  We need trusted friends, advisers, teachers, tutors, and coaches.   Many of our young people have parents who, like Odysseus, have marched off to war, some have parents who, like Odysseus, are marching back, lost, and unavailable , and some have no parents at all.  What calamities could be avoided if each kid had a Mentor in their life.  What amazing things would they be able to accomplish – even with circumstance pitted against them.

Take time to be a mentor this month and the whole year through.