Each time I to to enter a competition with a fee, I wonder if that fee couldn’t be put to better use in another “competition”, as in the lottery. That is, what might I be losing out on, or what economists call opportunity costs, in not having spent that money on lottery tickets that could really change my life if I won a jackpot or even secondary prize? After all, few competitions I enter would either change my life as much as a decent lottery prize. Nor would I have better odds of winning or placing well in those competitions, in many but not most cases, like the Boston Marathon. In some small races or other competitions, like writing, I have done well enough to merit some recognition. However, the prizes have always been essentially negligible. That is, there were some value to them, just not much value to me. Well, at least not material value. Moral value like confidence and social value like perception in the eyes of others, also known as bragging rights without the bragging, are another matter, though. Still, as “priceless” as they may be, I can’t help thinking what chances at winning a jackpot I would deprive myself of in putting money towards these competitions rather than to a lottery, for which I don’t often buy tickets. So what to do?
boston
Leafs Lose in Time to Let Canadians See Chris Hadfield Land
I have new respect for the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. Instead of trying to win Game 7 of their playoffs against the Boston Bruins in over time, they gave up the winning goal in time so the game could be off the air just time in for Canadians to see their beloved astronaut, Chris Hadfield, land in his return from the International Space Station.
The Leafs, clearly, put the interests of Canadians above theirs, knowing not all Canadians are Leaf fans… but that all Canadians, are Chris Hadfield fans. 🙂
Chris is a Leafs fan, though. He won’t be happy to hear that upon coming back to Earth. However, he should be consoled and touched by the fact the Leafs lost for him.
Thanks, Leafs! Enjoy your summer. You’ll get the karma back in your golf games.
#niceguysfinishlast
My All-black Adi Zero Light Boston Running Shoes
Here’s a little trick to get your dark running shoes black, or your black running shoes blacker, if you like the look of black shoes on your feet without all that razz-ma-tazz also on them. Keeps them from getting much dirtier in appearance, at least!
My Thousand Mile adidas adizero Bostons
Below is a video showing my newly retired adidas adizero Boston running shoes, after 1000.5 miles of service.
Six Life Philosophies from an Obituary Writer
The Boston Globe recently had a great short article about six life lessons given by Bryan Marquard, their obituary writer of over 800 obits in the past 3.5 years. His perspective was that he looked at life through the lens of death. The article ended by asking “what have you learned from life”?
I’ll summarize the article here and give a few answers for this post.
1. Be nice.
No matter what you accomplish, how you treat people has a lot to do with how you will be remembered.
2. Don’t be mean.
You can be #1 or #2 without being the other.
3. If you want to live long, retire young…
Leave some time for fun in your life.
4. Or don’t retire at all.
Pursue your passions.
5. You don’t have to be rich – or even have a home.
It’s you, what you are and what you do that matter most.
6. Act now.
Don’t put off what you’ve always wanted to do.
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I liked the article because it looks at life through a very different perspective than one that I have. It’s not that I think most people have the view of an obituary writer, but rather how much I stay away from the thought of death. I have never fully read an obituary, even of some people very dear to me. And I don’t have insurance except for where I can’t avoid it, like to drive or insurance with my job. Sure, I appreciate a health plan and such, but insurance is like a constant reminder, with payment, of unfortunate things. As someone who believes that if you think about something enough, it might just happen to you, I stay away from those negative things.
As for some of what I’ve learned from life? For starters, I’ve got 26 life philosophies through this link. But if you’re not interested, I’ll leave three different ones here:
1. Act now, enjoy the moment, but live like there is always a tomorrow.
You couldn’t hope to either truly live every day or moment like it’s the last of your life, or last long doing it.
2. It’s not how you start that matters, but rather how you finish.
Save the best for last, and something better for tomorrow.
3. Everything means more the more you had to earn it.
“Earn” is any kind of effort you have to put in.
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If you want lots of life lessons, please check out my blogging buddy’s Lifelessons4u blog. She’s got more life lessons than you could learn in a life time!
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In the spirit of how the Boston Globe article ends, please feel free to leave comments regarding
What have you learned in life?
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Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 4.2 (pffft! topic is a little beyond grade 4!) 🙂
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