Two different events happened this week that made me wonder if you can relate: What if one thing never happened? Would your life look different?
The first event was when a friend had a meeting that he really didn’t want to go to. Yup! I can relate. He thought it would be a waste of time as he knew very little about the person he was meeting. He tried to put it off and even had to change plans at the last minute and, in a way, hoped the man would cancel. Well he didn’t cancel and my friend just reasoned with himself that he would go, spend about a half hour and get it over with. Three hours later he left the meeting totally impressed with the man he met and, who knows, maybe good things will happen soon.
To quote my friend, “You just never know.”
The other event was an interview I watched Friday. Harry Smith of the “Today Show” interviewed Mike Gorman. For those that don’t know, Mike Gorman has been the television play-by-play man for the Boston Celtics for the past 43 years. He’s retiring after this season and it was a great interview.
If you have five minutes, check it out.
(Side note: I worked with Mike Gorman, very briefly, in the 70’s. He did news and sports at WNBH while I was the 15-year-old kid who ran the church shows on Sunday mornings. I met him once in the lobby. Anyway….)
One of the many things that caught my attention in the interview was the story of how Mike Gorman tried to get in to see Gil Santos at WBZ when he was looking for advice on how to get into the business. The security guard at the gate was not going to let Mike in until he noticed a baseball cap on the seat of Mike’s car. It featured the logo of the squadron Gorman flew with in the Navy. The security guard was also a veteran so he made the call to Gil Santos and asked if he had some time for a visitor.
If that guard had not seen that hat or if Mike had just driven away, what would have happened? Now I’m not saying Mike Gorman’s career never would have began without that one encounter but it does make you think. You might say, “If it was meant to be it would have happened one way or another,” and I can understand that thought. But what if?
Look back on your own life and, if you’re like me, I bet there are plenty of times when things might have turned out totally different if things didn’t happen the way they happened.
I asked my wife out for our first “date” on a Sunday morning after church. I wrote about this in my book “I’m Not Done Yet.” We were all gathered outside after service one Sunday when I approached her. I knew she was a tennis instructor so I went up to her and said, “So, when are you going to teach me to play tennis?” Smooth, right? Without missing a beat she said, “How’s Tuesday?” Think about it: If I had chickened out or skipped church that week, we wouldn’t have had that conversation. True, it might have happened the next week or we might have met another way. You could say we were destined to be together but….. I wonder…..
I think that’s why I have always loved “It’s A Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart. Not only is it a classic Christmas movie but that message could be given at any time the year and I think it applies to all of us.
In the movie, Jimmy Stewart’s character, George Bailey, wonders if everyone would have been better off if he had never been born. He’s then shown that this person would not be alive because no one was there to save them. So-and-so would have never succeeded because no one was there to help them.
I think about all the people my wife has treated or saved as a paramedic over the years. Suppose she never went into EMS? True, there are plenty of other responders but she wouldn’t have been where she was when she was. Might there have been a different outcome? I guess we’ll never know.
So the next time you or someone in your life feel like the world would have been better off without you…. play that out in your mind. Is that really the truth? Think about the impact you’ve had. Even those small contributions.
And the next time you have a meeting you really don’t want to go to maybe just see where it goes. I truly believe that certain people and situations are placed in our path for a reason. Maybe give it a chance.
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