A Junior College basketball coach took his car in for service.   He noticed a mechanic working under another car, his head on one side, his feet protruding out the other.

“Hmmm …” the coach mused.  “This guy is tall.  I need him as a center on my JC basketball team.”

After the mechanic had played center for two years on his basketball team, the JC coach called John Wooden, famed coach of the UCLA basketball dynasty.

“Hey, John, I’ve got a center for you.”

“A center?” Wooden replied.

“Heck, I don’t need a center. I have Bill Walton coming in as a freshman in the Fall.”

“So, I’ve heard,” said the JC coach. “And who is he going to practice against?”

There was a pause.

“Good thought. I’ll take a look at him.”

And so, Darrall Imhoff went from auto mechanic to gold medalist on an Olympic basketball team to NBA all-star, all thanks to the creative thinking of a junior college basketball coach.

Who you meet in life, and the path you follow, is largely random. More than sixty years ago I did something uncharacteristic. I signed up to judge the oratory finals at the California high school speech tournament. I also contacted the winner and sent him airfare so he could attend the National finals in Washington, DC.

Because I judged at that tournament I met Jim Williams, who remains to this day one of my best friends, and through Jim I met Daveen almost fifty years ago.

All I know for sure is that my life would be quite different if I had never judged that speech tournament and met Jim.

How about you?  I’m betting that many, if not most, of your long-term relationships were serendipitous, simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

It’s not so much what happens to you in life. It’s what you make of the opportunities life inevitably sends your way.

Good luck to all!!!

Alan

We are creatures of habit. Today I‘m celebrating the starving children in China – from eighty years ago.

Years ago, it wasn’t an uncommon practice for parents to insist that children eat everything on their plate. To leave food uneaten was wasteful. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid at dinner my parents further insisted that if I didn’t finish everything, the children of China would starve.

I never even thought to ask my parents how my unfinished dinner was going to be delivered to a child halfway around the world, I just dutifully did as I was told, and thereby formed an unhealthy habit.  That habit, which began in the early 1940’s has lasted for more than eighty years. All that time, I have faithfully finished every scrap on my plate, even when I was uncomfortably full. This year, I decided to form a different habit.

I’m delighted to report that throughout the past year, at every dinner, I have stopped eating NOT when I’ve finished everything on my plate, but when I no longer feel hungry. As you might expect, I’m eating less that way.  And have I lost weight?  You bet.  Almost ten pounds.

Certain habits should stay with us for a lifetime, like, “Look both ways before you cross the street.”  Other habits should be consigned to the dustbin of history, with a kick for good riddance.

Even though it’s not yet New Year’s Eve, I’m going to jump the gun and keep on discarding the old habits that don’t serve me and keep forming new habits that do.

It’s never too late to teach yourself NOT to finish your dinner.

Think about it.  Good habits are something new to chew on.

Alan

. . . with the Sound of Music,

This beautiful, Oscar winning film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, was first released in the United States on May 2, 1965, more than sixty years ago. The film has just been meticulously restored and remastered for the big screen. Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the annual sing along and watch party at the Hollywood Bowl. Attending this event has become a beloved tradition for our family. Daveen and I, together with other members of our family, thoroughly enjoyed this year’s show. We sang out hearts out along with a chorus of our 18,000 fellow audience members

Before the movie began at 7:30 pm, there was a pre-show costume contest, with many members of the audience on stage in costumes represented in the Sound of Music. People were dressed in lederhosen, as nuns, and some had even repurposed their curtains!  As I sometimes say, to Daveen’s consternation, “a timed good was had by all.”

I hope that my two grandsons who attended with us may, fifty years from now, take their own children and grandchildren to enjoy this traditional Bowl summer evening, as they say, “under the stars.”  I believe that Julie Andrews herself is still living nearby. At eighty-nine years old, I hope she was smiling to herself at the vigorous applause.  She certainly deserves it.

I believe that a large part of the reason we are here on earth is to help each other. Daveen and I make a habit of taking on tasks the other doesn’t care for. For example, I shop for most of the groceries, and Daveen handles our social events.  (I like shopping for food. I don’t like long telephone calls.)

But creating a successful work of art like the Sound of Music is complex and requires hundreds of talented individuals, each contributing their best efforts. That to me, is one of the best uses of our time, working together to make one another’s lives better.

And speaking of making lives better, this time at the bowl, I paid $90.00 for valet parking.  Those of you who have attended a concert there know why I splurged on the parking.  If you self-park in the lot, you either need to wait up to 30 minutes to get out, or you have to park blocks away and walk.  I think I’ll continue to use the valet– isn’t that one of the reasons why, in my thirties and forties, I worked on Saturdays?

So, thank you Rogers, and thank you Hammerstein.  Your Sound of Music brought a whole lot of delight to the sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Bowl last Saturday night.

And thanks to my readers for spending a few minutes with my blog.

Alan