On the Podcasts page of this site, I've posted a number of interviews (and will continue to do so at irregular intervals) asking people who their totem figures are. What are "Totem Figures"?

In the spring of 2005 I came up with the idea that the dominant figures in your life say something about who you are. The musicians whose albums you buy the day they come out. The movie you've watched again and again. The relationship that has outlasted so many others. The place you identify with so strongly. The author you have the greatest numbers of books of on your shelf. The institution you keep coming back to. The interest that doesn't fade.

Which of these things has lasted more than ten years in your life? I'd recently turned thirty. Some things I'd been passionate about had fizzled. Others had stayed. Which ones? Why those?

Mt. Rushmore features the faces of four presidents who shaped the character of the United States.

Who would be on your personal Mt. Rushmore?

For the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles featured the faces of their favourite people: Aldous Huxley, William Blake, Bob Dylan, WC Fields, Alistair Crowley, and many others.

Who would be on your personal Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover?

I wrote a one man show on this subject titled Totem Figures, and toured it in 2008. I outlined the concept. I exemplified it with my own totems. They are:

My father

Jesus/my Catholic upbringing

Luke Skywalker

Bilbo Baggins

Charles Bukowski

George Carlin

Guitarist and composer John Fahey

Fiver, one of the rabbits from Watership Down

and the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit

I told various stories that showed how the works of the real people in my list influenced me as a person and as an artist. I showed similarities between the stories of the fictional characters and my own experiences.

I encouraged the audience to examine their own lives through this lens. We all have personal mythology.

I started interviewing people about their Totem Figures. I downloaded audio editing software and learned how to make podcasts. I built a simple website, and starting posting podcasts, calling the endeavour The Totem Figures Podcast Project. I submitted them to the iTunes store.

Nancy Barber, an English professor from Stetson University in Deland, Florida, saw the show at the Orlando Fringe, and asked if she could use the concept to teach her freshman English course. The class would read the play script, and then read some of the books and watch movies mentioned in it. They'd write papers providing a parallel between something one of the characters had gone through, and something they'd experienced themselves. In lieu of an exam, they'd write out their own "Totem Maps." She told me students' writing for this assignment was far better than what she usually saw them put into English papers.

Not everyone can come up with their list of totems easily. Some people can't think of a single thing. It can take time to sort through these things. Not all patterns are obvious.

So stand back. Look at the currents running through your life. Who and what has influenced you? Who or what gives you strength and courage and inspiration when you need it? What do these things say about who you are, and what's important to you?