Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
That’s what I do. So much better than expecting things to work out in the best way when there’s always a chance that they won’t. It doesn’t give you as much of a let down if things fall through, yet sets you up for a nice little surprise if things happen to go in the direction of good.
Today I spent my lunch hour riding to the mall to get a much needed haircut. While I was either waiting on my turn, or waiting on my brother to get finished up so we could leave, I can’t remember which, I was reminded of the following quote.
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
While waiting, the mall janitor, an elderly man, doing his regular stroll through the wing where the haircut place is, noticed what must have been a small piece of tape on the floor. I didn’t notice it at all, so it’s obvious that he had an eye for spotting things, even the smallest, that shouldn’t be laying around. He took a scraper tool from his cart, scraped it off the floor, picked it up and threw it in the garbage can on his cart. Making the floor spotless.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, but I think it was one of the greatest from the 80s and full of unforgettable scenes and quotes. The news of the directer, producer, and writer, John Hughes, passing away has caused the news to mention it today as one of his works, and also spurred this post of my favorite quotes from the movie.
Cameron Frye: The 1961 Ferrari, two-fifty GT California. Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion . . .
Ferris Bueller: It is his fault he didn’t lock the garage.
Ferris Bueller: Cameron has never been in love – at least, nobody’s ever been in love with him. If things don’t change for him, he’s gonna marry the first girl he lays, and she’s gonna treat him like shit, because she will have given him what he has built up in his mind as the end-all, be-all of human existence. She won’t respect him, ’cause you can’t respect somebody who kisses your ass. It just doesn’t work.
If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.
Mark Twain
The rest of the day truly does go better, and to my surprise, sometimes faster after doing the most dreaded task first.
Ask. More often than you’d suspect, the answer you’ll get is, ‘Sure.’
— , My Last Lecture
© Copyright 2007-2012 Shane Holden
All Rights Reserved.
