Nothing Like A Good Quote To Get You Thinking

In my last blog about my April trip to Toronto and, in particular, my visit to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ontario, I mentioned that I was able to reconnect with a baseball teammate, John Stevens, who I grew up during my teens and early 20’s.

As luck would have it, John  and his wife, Marie, have a bed and breakfast in St. Marys and Cindy (my wife) and I  took the opportunity to stay there during our visit.  We were so glad we did.

Needless to say, John and I had a lot of catching up to do.  It proved impossible to get caught up on 40 years but through the course of an evening and a next day breakfast we sure gave it a good shot.

In summarizing the time that I spent reminiscing with John, the following quote that I have often used in speaking engagements came to me almost immediately:  “You can go through life or you can grow through life” … and John sure has done the latter.

Interestingly enough, we actually got onto the subject of quotes and here is one of his gems that I like because it is funny, poignant and self-effacing:

I never call my wife “my better half”.  To me, doing this sounds like I am incomplete without her or there is some sort of competition to see who’s better.  She’s many wonderful things to me, but I figure it’s my job to be a whole person and not rely on somebody to be half of me … She’s the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.  I am complete all by myself.  Now there might be some who would argue I’m a complete idiot, but that’s another post.

John Victor Stevens

I look forward to sharing more of “John’s Gems” in future posts.