Squandered Opportunities

Sometimes, I just can't see the forest because of the trees. At other times, I am so focused on a particular goal or project that I lose sight of the big picture: the forest.

A couple years ago, Randy Starkman, a well respected and loved (by high performance athletes) journalist wanted to get together for a chat over coffee. I "wasn't" able to make it. Randy, the Toronto "Star's veteran amateur athletics journalist and a two-time National Newspaper Award winner, died April 16, 2012" (1) so this opportunity to be mentored by a man who already was where I intend to be is forever lost to me.

Why didn't we meet? It was inconvenient for me. A pathetic less than excuse. I live in Scarberia and Randy wanted to meet at a downtown coffee shop. I refused to make the time to make the trek downtown to see him.


"You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." (2) Zig Ziglar, Secrets of Closing the Sale (1984)

I believe this and I live by it.

On July 30, 2010, I was shooting the Canadian national track & field championships at the University of Toronto Varsity Centre. Shortly after I arrived, I ran into a veteran high jump coach, Gary Lubin. Gary asked me to photograph one of his athletes, Marie-Eve Chainey. I was happy to take her photo and provide Gary with a printed copy later. Gary doesn't do email.

A little later, Gary introduced me to Randy Starkman. He was writing a blog about Marie-Eve's journey as a high performance athlete despite her battle with kidney disease and wanted a photograph to accompany it. I was happy to provide Randy with a digital copy of the photo for his blog.

Gutsy high jumper aims to have ImPACKD on kidney disease
http://thestar.blogs.com/starkman/2010/08/the-power-of-sport-is-often-underestimated-it-was-marie-eve-chaineys-strong-desire-to-return-to-her-love-of-high-jumping-t.html

Thanks to my willingness to take a photo for a coach and God's providential leading (being in the right place at the right time, with photo journalist media pass and camera in hand), I had my first published photo -- in Randy's Olympic blog.

Happily, I don't do what ifs'. :)

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References
1. http://www.thestar.com/authors.starkman_randy.html
2. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar
3. Randy Starkman's blog about Marie-Eve
http://thestar.blogs.com/starkman/2010/08/the-power-of-sport-is-often-underestimated-it-was-marie-eve-chaineys-strong-desire-to-return-to-her-love-of-high-jumping-t.html

The View from 30,000 Feet

It's interesting how one views life much differently at 55 than at 30. I recently took a trip via airplane. One of the things that I took particular notice of was the ages of the flight attendants on each plane that I travelled on. A few of them were in my neck of the woods.

I was really impressed to see that at least a couple airlines (United, Air Canada) do not put their flight attendants out to pasture when they no longer look like beauty queens (or kings).

Written on an iPad using an Apple bluetooth keyboard (just because I can). :)