A teacher in 7th grade yelled at me "Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!!", I responded with "But, if you almost pull the pin on the hand grenade.. " and then he stopped me, and so I started with "Ok, but if you almost play horseshoes.. ", and he cut me off again this time iterating "You're just proving my point!". To which I responded "I've almost proven your point, but because you cut me off, now you've proven 'almost' counts for more than just horseshoes and hand grenades".

He smiled in pride at his defeat. He went to his desk and and gave me a small bag of candy. He told me the candy was supposed to be a reward for the best literary project at the end of the semester, however he was a debate champion in college, and he'd been undefeated 40 years just to be bested by a 7th grader. His name was Mr. McCray. He was always saying things like "Other teachers say knowledge is power, but they're only half right, creativity is the ability to turn knowledge into something useful, something that makes a difference, without creativity, knowledge is idle. Creativity can yield knowledge. Now that's power.".

Mr. McCray was that one teacher I still think about frequently 25 years later. Most people would tell me they've never had a teacher that awesome. Even though he passed away 20 years ago, I know how he would want me to respond, by saying "so become one".

In his honor, I want to leave you with this.
"Wisdom doesn't just come with age, it also comes from the ability to patiently listen to the wise, and value what they say." - Me.. a product of the great Mr. McCray.