My daughter and her husband bought me Storyworth for Christmas. That company sends me a question each week. I write an answer. They send it to her and collect my answers. Later, they will offer me copies of the answers in a little book.
This week, their question was "Who inspires you?" It has prompted me to think about inspiration. I feel I am inspired by someone when I want to be like them, when I want to develop a skill they have or they make me think of having. It can be tricky. A serial killer or an arsonist can inspire me to avoid hurting or killing people or burning their property. Some female faces make me immediately think of kissing them but I don't think that I am being inspired. I'd rather use the word "attracted" or maybe "drawn".
I looked up "inspire" and found that it is related to "breathing in". When a person inspires me, I am breathing in something. That something can be an intangible. When I see a baby that seems jubilant about being alive and I realize I too am alive, I can feel jubilation from the baby's presence and my interpretation of what I see.
I don't have any doubt that much of my inspiration has come from reading authors. Some has come from colleagues and friends. I ended my list of inspiring people with these links to books that have been important inspirations:
https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/reading-list-1983,
