Today I am 53 years old.
Here is all I have learned.
First and foremost, 95% of life’s problems arise through
poor communication. We don’t listen to each other. We talk over each other.
Practice listening the next time you are in a business discussion or other
serious matter. You will pick up a lot of useful information and you will find
just letting the other person speak uninterrupted does wonders for them.
That the music of the 60’s and 70’s is the greatest that
ever was or will be. Except for Sinatra
and Springsteen. Sinatra was timeless and Bruce got better with age, as
impossible as that seems.
That Franco made a legal catch in what we call the
Immaculate Reception and I love the fact that it still bothers John Madden all
these years later.
That 1979 was the best year ever to be a Pirate and Steeler
fan.
That Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech is the
best possible source of inspiration and comfort to a trial lawyer. We win. We
lose. But we are in the arena …
The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and
again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who
at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat.
That Chocolate Chip cookies and Orange Juice are my (not so)
secret vice. Try it.
That I learned long ago never to draw to an inside straight,
a flush with a pair on the board, or the ass end of a straight or boat. And I
make tons of money off of poker players who never learned those lessons.
That Hyman Roth was right: health is the most important
thing, and that your partners should always make money with you.
That no storage unit is worth the junk you put in it. It’s
an endless sinkhole of money. Avoid them at all costs.
That I will never see a baseball player who had more passion
and grace and élan than Roberto Clemente. But Cutch is pretty great to watch
these days and Polanco reminds me at times of the great one.
That while writing a book is hard, publishing it is the
scariest thing I will ever do.
That the lesson from Many Lives Many Masters was 100%
correct: fear is the biggest impediment to success in life.
That while youth is wasted on the young, parents can lessen
the impact of that.
That throwing a lure into calm waters and seeing a fish
break on it is a thrill I will never get tired of.
That in my mind at night I stretch that double into a triple
and slide head first into third and then causally get up and dust off the dirt,
just like Burt Lancaster said in Field Of Dreams.
And that the only line in a movie that ever made me cry, and
always will make me cry is when Kevin Costner says “Dad, wanna have a catch?”
at the end of Field Of Dreams. And that’s
a good thing.
That I’m glad I was watching when Willie hit a home run in
game seven off of Cuellar’s curveball in 79. Good things do happen to good
people. Willie deserved that.
That after all those decades of lifting weights and pounding
on a spin bike, that yoga is the answer. It calms the mind and heals the body.
That at age 53, I know one thing for sure: that the good
lord blessed me beyond my wildest expectations with the two best boys any
father could want. They have the greatest mother, and all I want is for us to
watch them grow into men.
I think I’ve learned a lot.
PLR.
