Life lessons to help prepare us for 2020
Last December in this space, I offered a bit of advice on how to handle the coming new year based on lessons to be learned from the great game of baseball.
I pointed out, for example, that by observing Mickey Mantle’s inability to put the ball into play more than 3,400 times in a legendary career, you could learn that life isn’t always going to be magical.
Twelve months later, I’m back with life lessons for 2020, taken not from baseball, but from … well, life. Lesson1: On the day he attacked French forces at the Plains of Abraham, British Gen. James Wolfe wrote to Brigadier Robert Monckton that he believed his battle plan was a good one and would succeed. “If I am mistaken I am sorry for it and must be answerable to His Majesty and the public for the consequences.”
The takeaway: Understand the importance of assuming responsibility for your actions before you act. That way, you’ll think hard about your plans. Lesson 2: Winston Churchill, the man who led Great Britain though the darkest days of the Second World War to ultimate victory, was once asked who he would like to be if not himself. Napoleon perhaps? Maybe Caesar? Said Churchill, “If I couldn’t be me I’d like to be Mrs.
Churchill’s second husband.”
The takeaway: Recognize what you already have. Yours may be the greenest grass in the neighbourhood. There’s no need to covet what’s on the other side. Lesson 3: On Nov. 20, 1863, newspapers across the United States, or at least in the north at this time of civil war, published reports of the previous day’s dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa. The Steubenville Weekly Herald in Ohio spilled a lot of ink on the address delivered by Edward Everett, a professor, diplomat and statesman who spoke for two full hours. The paper also dutifully reported that, “President Lincoln was there, too.”
The takeaway: The first reaction to events will not necessarily stand the test of time. You should consider matters before rushing to judgment. Lesson 4: In 1960, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a noted ladies man, paid a visit to Ottawa. Just before his first evening in Canada ended, he turned to our minister for external affairs (who we now call the foreign affairs minister) Howard Green, and said he’d like a woman sent to his hotel suite. Green happily sent a stenographer.
The takeaway: Innocence in life is a precious and rare thing. You should appreciate it when you see it. Lesson 5: When Tony Blair resigned as the prime minister of Great Britain in 2007, one of his former top aides, Alastair Campbell, was ready with a book, “The Blair Years.” It was a hot commodity. Campbell knew that no advance copies of the book had been released to the media, so he was surprised when12 minutes after it hit the bookstores, someone went on television to say, “There’s nothing new in the book.” It was, after all, 800 pages long.
The takeaway: Slow down. We’re moving too fast. You don’t have to have an opinion on every topic, and you certainly don’t have to have the first opinion. Lesson 6: Before Walter Cronkite became the revered television anchorman for CBS News, he had been a hard-working war correspondent.
In September1944, he flew with American troops in a glider to Arnhem in the Netherlands to witness one of the Second World War’s major battles. He landed under heavy fire, the Nazis making no distinction between soldiers and journalists. Adrenalin flowed through his body as bombs and bullets surrounded him.
Above the appalling noise he heard another reporter shout, “Just remember Cronkite, these are the good old days.”
The takeaway: When things are bad, think about the stories you’ll have to tell your grandchildren if you survive. Lesson 7: I can’t help but return to baseball. Tug McGraw was a fabulous relief pitcher in the 1980s. He signed a big contract one season and he was asked what he was going to do with all his money. “I’m going to spend 90 per cent on good times, women and Irish whiskey,” he said. “The other 10 per cent I’ll probably waste.”
The takeaway: Life is short my friends. Relish every single day.
Happy 2020.