Chapel Talk, 2009 September 16: Inspiration / Will Speers

In citing an NPR StoryCorps broadcast of two brothers - one of whom served in Vietnam and the other who could not because of diabetes - English teacher Will Speers talks of what inspiration is and what it means to be inspired: "[I]nspiration is not passive, static or solitary; it is purpose, action, change." and "To be inspired means to risk the comfort for the battle; it means to fight, to get messy in the trenches of life in order to bring opportunity to those without it. To be inspired requires us to leave the shelter of the shore and plunge into the torrents of hatred and small-mindedness and exclusivity. To be inspired demands we forget our own petty worries for the needs and aspirations of those around us."