I Believe...

I’m going to be all over the place today. Bear with me.

I believe that we all have a soul, that sports provide great life lessons, that a person with friends is blessed, that we need to eat the cake, and that Benton’s bacon is a gift from heaven.

I believe that the ’69 Mets were a miracle, that the ’55 Chevy was the first great vehicle, that sushi proves that we need to be open-minded about what we eat, and that Blount County is the greatest place to live in the world.

I don’t believe that curiosity kills the cat. I believe that curiosity keeps us young. I believe that you should never deter a child from asking questions. Same for adults. If you’re curious, you keep learning. And in these days and times, if you aren’t still learning, you’re getting behind

I believe that you can teach an old dog new tricks. I’m still learning new tricks and I’m definitely an old dog. I keep getting asked when I’m going to retire. Who said that we all need to retire at 65? I guess if you don’t keep learning new tricks you should give it up.

I believe we all need to travel. We need to see how other people live and, hopefully, what makes them tick. When I travel, I want to get out and meet local people.

I’m convinced that we all need to be in the minority at some time in our lives. This became crystal clear a couple of weeks ago when a young friend, who is herself an immigrant from Africa, was thrilled to be watching a basketball game in which two of the players had also moved here from Africa. She was so happy for the chance to be around people that looked like her, who grew up like she grew up, who understood where she came from.

Mrs. Geraldine Upton taught me years ago about the problems of always being in a minority. If you want to truly learn what that is like, you need to put yourself in that situation. Maybe it’s simply going somewhere where they don’t speak your language.

I believe that if you always stay within your comfort zone, you will fail to grow as a person. You don’t have to go crazy but you need to try new things.

I don’t believe in regrets. In the first place, don’t do anything that you know you will regret later. But we all make mistakes (goodness knows I’ve made my share) and if your intentions were good, then you should never regret that.

I mostly believe that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. Now if Randall Cobb doesn’t train for 10 years, he will still beat me at pretty much anything I might spend that decade training for. Such are the benefits of extraordinary talent. But if it’s close, hard work wins out.

I believe that opposites attract, that laughter is the best medicine or, if it’s not, then it makes whatever ails you go down easier, and I believe that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.