One month after Marie Antoinette’s head was chopped off, the Louvre Royal Palace became a museum. Artists then started going there not only to see works by the Old Masters but to copy them as well. Because imitation is a form of learning. Even artists such as Degas, Picasso, Chagall, and Dalì continued the tradition because, as Cézanne once said, “The Louvre is the book from which we learn to read.”
Having goals doesn’t necessarily mean that we know how to actualize them. There is the trial and error method that can teach us much but role models also offer important learning experiences. Like the Louvre’s Old Masters, they give us something to copy.
Having a role model doesn’t mean being cloned as someone else. It simply means that we can learn from the successes of others just as we can learn from their mistakes, too. Potentially everyone has a lesson to share. All we have to do is look for it.
Ideals give you a direction.
(from Cool Breeze, aka The Age of Reconfiguration ©)
The Narrative Within 
