I live in a society that is designed to continually cater to my personal needs. Every day I receive a myriad of marketing messages telling me how I can look younger, stay fitter, be more wealthy and have more sex. If I give in to those missives, I'd be a wrinkle-free, tight-abbed social dilettante. But something would be missing.Word of mouth is what people say about me when I'm are not in the room. There are 4 elements of being "a good guy" and the 4th is altruism. Giving back. Thinking about others. Caring about the big picture and about others who "aren't in the room."
This Saturday November 11 is Remembrance Day in Canada. Buy and wear a poppy this week. It will let people know you possess that 4th element. Even better, buy a number of poppies and hand them out to friends and associates this week. You will find they are grateful for your thoughtfulness. This was a great suggestion offered up by Diana Birrell of The James Fund (our charity benefactor from last week's Knocking down Silos in Toronto) .
A final thought: When I served in the Canadian Navy, we had a tradition of a toast for every day of the week:
Monday: To our ships
Tuesday: To our men
Wednesday: To ourselves
Thursday: To bloody wars or a sickly season [a chance of promotion if senior officers died!]
Friday: To a willing foe and sea room
Saturday: To wives and lovers
Sunday: To absent friends
When you send your 2 cards this week, think about some absent friends.
2 comments:
This is excellent Dave. You are a very good writer. I bought my poppy from an adorable little boy on the weekend, and forgot to transfer it off the coat I was wearing…thanks for the reminder to wear it daily.
I scrolled down further to see what other nuggets you had…and, I especially like the advice of asking 10 associates “if I could do one thing better what would it be…and listen”. I am going to try this.
Anonymous said...
Thanks Dave - some very nice words!
By the way, our church had a beautiful ceremony for war vets last Sunday, and even though I have no family members or friends who "served", I was really touched. Everyone had tears in their eyes! That deep respect is still very much alive!
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