Letters to a Young Poet: Hawaiian-Infused Mentoring Wisdom Instilled by John F. McDermott

Abstract

The year that John F. McDermott was born, Franz Xavier Kappus published Letters to a Young Poet, a collection of letters he received from Rainer Maria Rilke, a Bohemian-Austrian poet acclaimed for his use of lyrical verse and imagery. Similar to Rilke’s timeless advice encapsulated in his letters to Kappus, the value of Jack’s words extend far beyond the specific circumstances for which they were written. I recognize now the enduring nature of Jack’s notes to me sent, not via mail as in Rilke’s era, but electronically, perhaps symbolic of Jack’s investment in merging the past wisdom of child psychiatry with the new era of neuroscience, Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), and, at least for me, telomeres.