Firsts

“Someone must be first in all things.”

[From the movie “The Emigrants”, 1971]

One risks stating the obvious in stating the obvious.  (May Yogi Berra now rest in peace!) 

And “givens” can hardly be taken as deep wisdom. 

But there are shadows of deeper truth to be gained from simple things. 

The implication of the quote, of course, is that some ONE body has to be the first to stick their neck out and venture into unknown territory if the world – or we, ourselves – are to advance. 

What occurred to me in hearing this line was:

How many “Firsts” have I had, and how many are yet ahead? 

We all have had many “personal firsts” and “personal bests”.  Like learning to walk, tying our shoes, learning to talk, learning to read, going to school, hitting our first pitch in a game of baseball, graduating high school/college, getting a job/first paycheck, etc. 

But there is no end-of-the-line on “firsts” until the line ends. 

“It ain’t over ‘til it’s over”

Yogi Berra 

We’ve gotta keep doing firsts.  Of course, just getting up one day older every day is a personal “first/best” for all of us.  But that’s a “given”, requiring no more effort than moderating the consumption of cheese cake, alcohol and drugs. 

Some things you might think about doing as new “firsts” might include:

• Learn a new language
• Take up learning a musical instrument
• Do journaling / Write a blog
• Start a new business
• Take on an advanced LEADERSHIP role at work or in the community
• Start a new hobby
• Get rid of a lot of baggage
• Volunteer
• Learn a song
• WRITE a song / Write a poem
• Read something more challenging than you’ve ever read before
• Take a shopping cart INTO the grocery store from the parking lot
• Pick up somebody else’s trash
• Make your bed in the morning
• Kick a bad habit / Develop a new and BETTER one
• Go for TOTAL INTENTIONALITY

Tomorrow is coming, and it’s not going to be “Groundhog Day” / “Déjà Vu all over again.” (Yogi) 

If there’s fire in the oven, something needs to be in the pot baking. 

Let’s do something NEW and DIFFERENT.  It will make life not only more interesting but, hopefully, better.  See how many “FIRSTS” you can come up with today … and keep firing for BESTS as far and as long as the universe will allow!  Quartermaster 

NOTE: This entry was written just four days after Yogi Berra’s death on September 22, 2015.  It was not begun with Yogi specifically in mind; he just kept coming up in the fabrication.  In fact, Yogi Berra had an outstanding list of firsts and bests to his credit – more so than most of us ever would naturally aspire to or dream of.  Maybe we need to aspire higher!