Phil Collins (the sequel), Shakespeare, Andre Agassi and The Army

Against All Odds

Driven to succeed or just stupid,
That is the question?
Whether tis nobler in the mind to fight, wounded, to the death
Or by opposing injury, end then

Yeah – I know the real thing works better, but here is MY question:

I have a friend who ran a marathon with a broken foot. I was, and am, impressed by her stamina and determination….but, wow – what if she had never walked again? Were those 26.2 miles worth it?

Another impressive friend got me thinking about this topic the other day as he spoke about amazing moments in tennis when, against all odds, injured greats, battled on and won. (The most important of those involving the best ever, Andre Agassi…., but there are many other amazing tales of triumph.)

What is an “acceptable business risk” and what is the decision process these athletes went through when they decided to gamble their millions-of-dollars-worth bodies and play on.

I said to my friend, “There’s a point where it becomes insanity. But, right before that point it is inspiring.”

Part of why Agassi was so successful, and inspiring, is that he was willing to risk it all (and he is talented). I don’t really have to conduct a similar risk assessment – losing a Nike or Wheaties contract or being damaged for life…, but I do wonder what is at stake when I don’t choose to fight a good fight, or incorporate the counsel Polonius gave Laertes…

This above all: to thine own self, be true.

There is much this statement could imply, but for me it is more than just what not to do (like not carousing with lascivious friends or like not giving up in the face of a challenge). It also infers what TO do (like “be all you can be” or live life well….follow your dreams….etc..).

So – I ask: Is my "acceptable risk" inspiring. Can I run a broken-foot marathon?

43 – The Great William Shakespeare

One of the best Christmas presents I ever got was a miniature card game called Authors. The deck includes greats like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Walter Scott, James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Louis Stevenson, and of course, William Shakespeare. The game is played like Go Fish…where a match/set consists of four of the author’s books or works…the person with the most sets at the end of the game wins.

My brothers and I grew up playing this game. Whenever I ended with the most sets, I never considered it a complete win unless I had the Shakespeare set. It was (and still is) my personal challenge to get that set, and I have employed all sorts of trickery to get it (except cheating, of course).

In high school, I was always more excited to memorize Shakespeare lines than any others. In college, when I had to write a compare and contrast paper in film class, I chose two of the versions of Henry V (the ones by Sir Lawrence Olivier and by Kenneth Branagh – who, by the way, does Shakespeare brilliantly). And I continue to notice quotes from Shakespeare more than others – in various facets of life and our culture. I’m not sure what besides the Bible is quoted more than Shakespeare.

I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a Shakespeare expert. Not remotely. I do think, though, within the works of Shakespeare exists something of brilliance and inspiration. Here are some of my favorites:

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Sonnet 116
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

But men are men; the best sometimes forget.

Hamlet
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.

JULIUS CAESAR
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

HENRY V
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in Englad now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

ROMEO & JULIET
O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh.
Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!

But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.

Truly great!!!

#43 on my list of Favorite Things is SHAKESPEARE.

Two Roads Diverged in a Wood

Sometimes, our choices – like taking the road less traveled – make all the difference, and sometimes the difference is made by the choices of others.

Saturday we had a work Christmas party/reunion.

Apart from …..

- the hideous three hours of driving to and from the party in a blizzard (normally only a 25 minute drive),
and
-the lack of appetizers (I left them by the elevator in my condo parking lot),
and
-the AWOL dessert (co-worker assigned to bring dessert turned back after an hour cuz he was too pansy to drive two more hours in the snow),

….. it was a great party.

Getting together with these friends reminded me how lucky I’ve been to work with some truly exceptional people over the years. I could write numerous posts about how my life has been blessed by these folks and their wonderful spouses and children, and maybe I will sometime, but in case I don’t, here are two representative examples:

Co-worker 1 – who, while I was on a business trip took pictures of my entire office (overhead bins, file cabinets, boxes, desk, plants, darts, etc.) so he could move all my stuff into my new office for me – assembling everything just exactly as it was in the old office – thereby saving me hours and hours of hassle.

Co-worker 2 – who rented and watched a clip from Home For The Holidays over and over so he could make me an exact replica of the Aunt Gladdie Thanksgiving necklace I mentioned once that I wanted to wear to my family dinner. (btw- Aunt Gladdie is the “old maid” aunt who has started to lose her mind– sound like anyone?) I wore it again this year –
Yep, FRUIT LOOPS.

Thanks, boys!! You have, indeed, made all the difference.