Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom (And Whimsy)

Posted on August 21, 2024 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

The Happy Wanderer

 

“Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends.”

With a Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles

The sweet smell of success.

The Olympic Games concluded a few weeks ago. The Games are quite the spectacle. The opening ceremonies were bizarre to say the least, at least to this old timer. I gave up watching after about 90 minutes. Apparently, the ceremonies lasted well over 4 hours and would have eaten into precious sleep time had I decided to endure the entire event.

I am not a swimmer but for some strange reason, swimming at the Olympics is one of my favourite sports. Like many other Canadians, I was proud of the accomplishments of Summer McIntosh. She dominated her events and captured three gold medals and one silver. Beyond her physical prowess, I was equally impressed with both her poise and humility during her post race interviews.

Despite the fact that events like swimming, running, and shot put are individual pursuits, anyone who wins a medal is quick to point out the team aspect. Nobody gets on the podium without coaches, mentors, family and friends.

Despite her enormous success, do you think that Taylor Swift would be where she is today without her band, management, roadies and countless others? Ditto for J.K. Rowling who relies on editors and publishers and a phalanx of others to take her to the heights that she has reached.

But these are the elites. Elite athletes, elite musicians. Elite writers.

What about your average Joe?

Anybody who claims that they are a self-made man is delusional. Nobody who walks this earth can get far without lots of support from their loved ones.

How do we measure success? Far too often we view successful people as those who accumulate wealth and prestige. In a lot of cases, these people have trampled on others on their way to the top. Hardly role models that we want to emulate. These people are self-serving and power hungry.

Succeeding at any endeavor requires grit and determination. Digging deep when it counts the most is often the difference between success and failure. Common folk, like most of us, rely on family and friends to help us along the way. I’m not talking about gold medals here. Success is an adult who finally has the courage to get their GED. Success is a single parent who raises children. I would submit that a single parent spends as much time and energy on raising their children as any world class athlete who has aspirations of the podium. Success is starting a small business and working 75 hours a week for years before making a profit.

When the light begins to fade and your journey on this earth is on its last lap, most people won’t talk about their wealth, fame or achievements. They know full well that their greatest success was raising children to be good stewards of this planet.

They won’t receive gold medals at the finish line. Just the pure satisfaction of having done their best.

Golden memories.

With a little help from their friends.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. To celebrate my 73^rd birthday, I walked around the Mini Trail, aka “The Cape”. The walk covered 78 kilometers over three days. “With a little help from my friends”, I had people walk with me, drive me to and from home each day and celebrate with me when the walk ended. Thanks to everyone who helped me and thanks to all who sent birthday greetings. In the words of Paul Simon, I’m “still crazy after all these years.”!