A different twist on your upcoming Memorial Day weekend...
5-20-08

Another summer season opens in a few days. If I have my facts correct the weekend upcoming means the opening of the Quakertown Pool. If you haven’t gotten the grill out yet ( most of us have ). If you’re late to the party you certainly will open the grills, clean off the deck, get the patio furniture out, do some gardening and get outside as we all do when Memorial Day weekend rolls around. There will most assuredly be tributes to our slain service men and women throughout our region in the coming days. Do your best to get to ceremonies that mark this most important of holidays. One of the many things I’ve always cherished about Memorial Day is the ability to take a break. For many of us working folks the last time we saw any real holiday was back around President’s Day.

When I think of the freedom afforded us by those who served and sacrificed and those who still serve today I think about all of the opportunities that are available to all of us. A few weeks ago I was invited to attend the graduation of my cousin. After several years of night school my cousin Christina completed the requirements for a pre law undergraduate degree from St. Joe’s. Paying her own way, raising children and working tirelessly she recently achieved the milestone, and we all convened to wish her best of luck. When I got the call from my cousin to attend we hadn’t spoken for a while. Life intervenes. She’s raising a family, I’m raising a family. Life moves at a fast clip when you’re raising kids. The whole family’s proud of her achievement, and it’s wonderful to see people improve their education.

Staying in the world of academia, I recently was turned onto a professor at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. Have you heard about Randy Pausch? Randy has certainly garnered, and rightfully so, his 15 minutes of fame in the last few months. Randy, a father of 3 and at his prime of 47 years old was told within the last year that he suffers from terminal pancreatic cancer. By now reports say Randy’s health is slipping and his time with us is finite. A few months ago in front of a packed auditorium at Carnegie Mellon Pausch gave his ‘Last Lecture’ and now a best selling book bears the same name. A professor with limited time reached out to faculty, students and thanks to the internet, the rest of us to inspire about life’s most important details. When you have less than a year of ‘good health’ as his doctors explained it puts things in perspective. A life trauma tends to do that.

Brick Walls. Randy spoke for about an hour during his last lecture, a portion of which was called ‘brick walls’. Pausch spoke about the brick walls we all face in getting to our goals, whatever they may be. ‘Brick walls are there for a reason,’ explained Pausch. Brick walls appear in front of things we most want to allow for us to prove how badly we want to reach our goals. Brick walls are there to keep those who truly don’t want to work as hard for their goals out. Profound stuff. How much do our service men and women want to protect us and our freedom? How much did my cousin and so many like Christina want to achieve a college degree? How badly do you want to reach your goals? With hard work, perseverance and commitment we’ll achieve our goals. Pausch’s words resonate to over 10 million the media claims has watched his final talk on the web. Pausch’s remarks aren’t new, but they are still impactful. If there’s one thing about our way of life today that alarms me most is our attitude of ‘instant gratification’. We try to go around all of the ‘brick walls’ Pausch spoke about. What’s the easiest path? What’s the route with the least amount of work? How can I get what I want for the least amount of time, effort or money? We don’t like this or that and although we agreed lets cancel or end our agreement. That’s not progress to my way of thinking. What message are we sending to the world? What message are we sending to the generations that come after us?

Is that what we want to be known for? I hope not. We all have to face some brick walls in our lives. We face them every day in many ways. Our service men and women face them 24/7 and often times in extreme situations. What’s made our country and its people so great is our never letting up on facing brick walls as a country, community and people. Examples are around us. Be an example to those around you and this Memorial Day regroup and recommit to facing those life circumstances, your ‘brick walls’ and doing what you need to break through to goal. Good luck with your strategy and enjoy your Memorial Day Holiday. See ‘ya around town.