Pep Talk: "The Common Good"

It was a chamber of commerce fall Saturday in the Mile High City. While walking home from a morning workout at the neighborhood gym, I was lucky to strike up a conversation with an elderly man out walking his dog. “The dog’s name is Buddy. He’s 10 years old and slowing down a bit,” the wiry gent suggested. “Kinda like me, I’m 90 years old, can’t see, or hear, worth a damn but still feel pretty good.” He looked good too. I know people much younger who look much older.

We had a great chat in our ten minutes together. I learned Dick Foster was a veteran. He served in World War II as a Navy fighter pilot. “I was all ready to fight, then we dropped the atomic bomb and they told our aircraft carrier to turn around and head back home.” 

The conversation then switched to golf and the 2012 Ryder Cup matches and shared adoration for the teamwork displayed by the golfers and patriotism exhibited by the fans. “I love watching our American pro golfers encouraging each other and the fans going crazy chanting USA....USA....USA!”

The Nonagenarian’s enthusiasm was infectious. Canine companion Buddy began to bark and wag his tail vigorously while I began to remember other recent reminders of the power of like-minded people coming together for the common good.

I told the Denver native about another guy devoted to bringing others together for the common good, Kiwanis International Rocky Mountain District Governor Jack Schwartz. “I believe in proceeding until apprehended,” says the Montana native determined to transform a century-old organization that, like most service groups, struggles to attract younger members these days. “Our average age is 65-years-old. Kiwanis needs to adapt its strategy and spend less time meeting and more time doing in our mission to change the world one child and one community at a time.” 

We were nearing my new-found friend’s Cherry Creek North residence but I still had time to share one more story about like-minded folks coming together for the common good. Former University of Colorado football players featured in an inspirational video imploring the current Buffaloes to not lose heart despite a disappointing start to their season. The video displayed grown men crying recalling the hard work and sacrifice, but great satisfaction, derived from fighting, in their Buff years, to the finish and the joy of singing the school fight song after every victory. I had the honor of introducing the video at a recent CU pep rally. Foster smiled broadly at that story, “I love the Buffs.”

It was time to say goodbye. We agreed to try and meet soon at a nearby coffee shop and continue conversing. Elder man and his best friend went one way, I another, with something pounding in my heart: the importance, and power, of rallying with others and pouring heart and soul into endeavors benefiting the common good. 

This week, let’s search our hearts, find a cause, find a group and find the resolve to serve - home, work and elsewhere. It will require, in some combination, sacrifice of time, talent and treasure. That’s okay. Even if we don’t live to be a Nonagenarian like Foster, whenever we exit we’ll know we’ve lived well for the common good.

Pep Talk: "Fulfill A Promise"

I keep bumping into Alferd Williams. Each encounter is a powerful reminder of something important. It tugs at me. I hope it tugs at you too.

The latest encounter came during a quick weekend trip to hometown Kansas City, Missouri to visit family. On a absolutely gorgeous Midwest fall day, while driving mother and sister toward downtown, and a weekend farmer’s market, a billboard along the highway jumped out at me.

There was the Arkansas native, staring down at me with his broad smile and massive hands, which were holding a book. The day before, I had seen a similar billboard on the way to Denver International Airport for the short flight into the town, once known as Westport Landing, nestled on the bluffs above the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.

Williams was born in the late 1930‘s, the son of a sharecropper and the fourth of nine children. At the age of eight the mild-mannered lad went to work in the fields, picking crops until sundown, on the family farm. There was no time for school. Williams’ mom could read but father could not. Life on the farm was tough, leaving an exhausted mom little time to share bedtime stories with her kids . Williams grew up illiterate but promised his mother, someday that would change. Life went on, Williams spent decades working in manual labor, raised ten children but never forgot the promise made to his mother.

Whenever given the chance to present a Pep Talk to others, we always converse about an important choice we face constantly: being the victim, or student, of life’s experiences, unwanted and desired. Williams chose the latter and seized the moment when opportunity knocked.

As an adult he migrated north to St. Joseph, Missouri, an hour north of Kansas City and birthplace of the Pony Express. A friend, a single mom, needed help walking her children to a nearby elementary school. Williams volunteered for the duty, and in doing so, became acquainted with the school’s veteran first-grade teacher. Her gentle manner gave hope and confidence to accomplish a long-held dream. Williams courageously put fear aside and allowed wonderment to win in asking the teacher, “Teach me to read.”

The teacher agreed and the unlikely duet worked through the summer months. The daily two-hour sessions proved successful and inspired the mentor to approach the school principal with a out-of-the-box idea: allowing a 70-year-old man to continue literacy training in her first-grade class, with a bunch of six-year-old classmates.

I had learned this heartwarming story, first mentioned in a 2008 People magazine article, just a few days before visiting Kansas City during a BNI (Business Network International) meeting in the Mile High City. The presenter, a photojournalist, had personally, and expertly, chronicled William’s story with heartwarming photos and soundbites. Adorable visuals of a 70-year-old man sitting on a short stool amid classmates sitting cross-legged in a semi-circle before their teacher, practicing phonetics and singing sons brought tears to eyes and this to brain: It’s never too late to become superior to our former selves.

While the story’s a bit old, the lesson is fresh. Right now the task before us may be learning to read, losing weight, releasing anger, forgiving self or others, courageously changing careers, retiring unhealthy habits, exercising more - whatever.

The bottom line, thanks Alferd, is this: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. A man never forgot a promise and in the process became a revered member of a school community, gained celebrity status through print, television and radio and inspired others with a “never too late” story.

Where might it be time to find the will to search for the way to transform the circumstances of life? The world’s oldest first-grader is a great example, when the pupil is ready, quite often, the teacher will appear. It is never too late to fulfill a promise. To others or ourselves.

Pep Talk: "Remain Calm"

Often life, and its hectic pace, requires us to slow down, and it is good.

Such was the case recently when teenage daughter’s weekend volleyball tournament had my butt parked at Eaglecrest High School in suburban Denver for the entire day. In between matches there was plenty of time to slow down a bit and read. Not surprisingly, it lead to being reminded of something important. The reminder came from a book, Getting over the Four Hurdles of Life and the remarkable story of a small-college basketball coach, Don Meyer.

The Nebraska native retired from coaching after the 2009-10 season and 38 years as  head coach at Hamline, Lispcomb and Northern State (South Dakota) universities. He played college basketball at the University of Northern Colorado. The father of three retired with 923 wins, second only to Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski’s in career victories for a coach with at least one stint at an NCAA school. Meyer was a winner who liked to joke that his teams used the “f words” often. Lest anyone misunderstand, for Meyer, “f words” stood for “faith, family and friends.”

But like most, the man who won a NAIA national championship in 1986, has been forced to overcome adversity on the path to great achievement. For instance, on a September night in 2008, Meyer was driving back to Northern’s State University’s campus in Aberdeen, South Dakota when, drowsy, he dozed off. The van he was driving veered into the oncoming lane and collided head-on with an 18-wheel tractor trailer.  Nobody was injured but Meyer. He suffered crushed ribs; blood flooded his chest cavity; spleen and diaphragm were destroyed and Meyer’s left leg was badly mangled.

It gets worse. During life-saving surgeries doctors discovered cancer is his liver and intestines. After one of the procedures, the Hall of Fame coach had a tube down his throat and couldn’t speak. He requested his daughter to hand him pen and paper and wrote: “When will I be able to coach again?”

Two weeks later doctors amputated the coach’s left leg below the knee. Finally, after 55 days in the hospital, Meyer returned to coaching having never missed a game despite the horrific injuries and battle with cancer. January 10, 2009, Northern State delivered its coach career win number 903, then a record.

Later that year, at the ESPY Awards, Meyer was honored for excellence and perseverance and told an adoring crowd of the great mentors he had been blessed to know over the years. One of them was former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, considered by many the greatest coach, any sport, ever. Wooden told Meyer long ago, this about dealing with adversity: “Don’t whine, don’t complain and don’t make excuses.” Amen to that.

Meyer concluded his remarks with another gem: “I have learned from this odyssey that peace is not the absence of trouble, trial and torment, but calm in the midst of them.”

In a noisy gym, during a respite in the action, an opportunity to pause and read encouraged a simple dude from Missouri to remain calm despite what ails. I hope taking a few minutes to read this Pep Talk inspires you in a similar fashion. Troubles, trials and torments will appear, or persist, in our lives, let’s take the coach’s advice. Remain calm. It will help us play like a champion too.