In my first two columns for the Write Team, I gave you an idea of how I feel. I would like to show you the way I think.
Why should you care how I think? Fair question. It is to gain perspective.
As I have witnessed or experienced the trials of life, I have been forced to learn other perspectives in order to resolve conflicts. I have dealt with many people who just do not think like I do. Can you imagine such a thing?
I spent most of my career in major hotels with large groups of people with the same goal in mind, but they had very different ideas on how to achieve it. Some were interesting and some were just plain wrong. Hence, conflicts. So I needed to learn different perspectives and either validate or correct. Surprisingly, much of hotel management is teaching.
I think I know enough to know that I don’t know enough. So I seek, and would like to share with you the great thoughts of the great minds of the educated and the anointed. Some have learned well and some have a gift to know truth, they are the anointed with insight or perhaps spiritual instinct.
You have heard that “history repeats itself” or “history teaches us that man learns nothing from history” or “learn your history or you will be doomed to repeat it.” Several takes on the same truth.
As a society, we are facing large and consequential realities. I don’t need to list them, you know them. However, for the most part, they have happened before. So let’s learn history, so we can be prepared for what is coming. Let us seek the great minds and thoughts they shared. This is to be the thrust of my writing going forward.
I propose to put before you the great thoughts and who said them. If one strikes a chord, do a little research of your own about who said it. Can you begin to trust what they say? Are they right more often than not? Hopefully, you will gain perspective.
It is believed Al Capone said, “never bring a knife to a gunfight.” As right as that may be, and I’m sure a lot of nefarious types have said something similar, you wouldn’t take advice from this guy. But even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while.
It has been said, “Wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever you say, say it, say it, say it with love.” Do you know who said this? I wouldn’t say he was a great thinker, but he nailed this. This is what I call anointed. This was said by Justin Hayward, the lead singer of the Moody Blues.
And let me leave you with this from another anointed composer.
“Life is a song worth singing. Why don’t you sing it.” Written by Teddy Pendergrass, best performed by Johnny Mathis.
I hope this makes you smile and I would like to assure you that I don’t live my life according to pop music, but once in a while, they find a nut. In the weeks ahead, we will look at history, so we can wade through what is coming our way.
• William Peterson recently retired to Ottawa after working in the hotel industry for 40-plus years. He can be reached at dbarichello@shawmedia.com.