From The Storyteller
|
Hello All: A little background on my life's ever changing story. Enjoy, Doug
Summer “The desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly” is a saying my grandfather, who was a bricklayer, would say often. A google search attributes it to Confucius. I suspect he never heard the name Confucius, but to a bricklayer it seemed like good advice. Which leads to my high school academic bragging rights: I graduated in the top 60% of my high school class. I did not follow Grandfather's wise words because ADHD does not lend itself to slowing the desire to get things done quickly, and dyslexia really does hinder “thoroughly”. And this leads me to explain about summer, and the magic it worked in my life. Pickup baseball started with a toss of a bat ritual between the two best guys. The winner got to choose his first player and they alternated until both teams were filled. This of course always resulted in the worst players being picked last. The worst players always ended up playing right field, and yes, I did a lot of time in right field. Note: Being picked included the hope of one day not being picked last, and being picked last was a whole lot better than not being picked at all. Thus, I was seriously motivated to be a good “right fielder”. This naturally brings me to that summer’s baseball magic. It had to be magic because I was repeatedly picked to play all that summer- and sometimes not even last. Playing that 1st summer with the older guys taught me a lesson that has stayed with me all my life. While school grades were not a big motivator for making myself pay attention, the possibility of being demoted to “not being picked” was. Moral: If you want to play you need to pay attention. |