Thursday, October 07, 2004

“Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

The Movie: The Pride of the Yankees, 1942 (Jo Swerling and Herman J. Mankiewicz, screenwriters, from a story by Paul Gallico; Sam Wood, dir.)
Who said it: Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, the Yankee Clipper
The context: Gehrig bids farewell to a packed crowd at Yankee Stadium, forced to retire because of the crippling disease that will eventually kill him.
How to use it: To express deep, humble gratitude, especially when saying goodbye.

Mom's going home tomorrow. She'll be home when I get there next weekend. God bless the therapists at the Lake Taylor Transitional Care center.

One of my clients is Steve Bartlett, the CEO of a financial services association and a former Congressman. As part of the association's monthly newsletter, I help him write a column about whatever's on his mind that month. It really has been a privilege to listen to him think out loud. A theme that he comes back to, again and again, is how important it is to keep working at something, even after everyone else has decided it's a lost cause. If you stay at the table long enough, he says, the game changes -- you just need to be there when it does.

It would surprise Steve to know how often I think of that, and how much it's helped over the last couple of months. But I'm grateful.

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