Under the Influence

I hate to admit what were my influences growing up. My pop-culture playlist consisted of several different things: He-Man, Charles Barkley, Michael Jackson (I'm sorry now), the Muppets and Jim Henson, MTV, Hootie and the Blowfish, the Animaniacs, Garfield, Dave Coulier from Full House, any stand-up comedian, children's theater, etc.
I'm not sure how all of them worked to produce the man that I am today. I know that I love to laugh and don't take much too seriously. It's what He-Man would have wanted.
I know I value my family, children, getting along with people, entertainment, treating people with respect, and education. I probably didn't get the respect thing from Sir Charles, though he did teach me how to be tenacious and a hard-a$$ in sports. I think there's a lot of positive things to be learned from Fraggle Rock. I make my kids watch it now as part of our Friday Treat. I guess I really don't know what made me me. I know I see a lot of my parents in myself and I have always been a firm believer in the ability of parents to be the ultimate influence in a kid's life. It's not always true, but a confident and comfortable kid, I feel is more likely to see something and not be adveresely affected by it. That's how, when I volunteered at a pre-school, I was able to watch so many episodes of Barney without shooting people. I tend to be off-topic a lot so I guess the point of all this is, I think my family was what really defined me as a person...and episodes of Gilligan's Island.