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The words above come from the company, Shutterfly, a business that advertises saving memories that combine photos with many other items. They specialize in gifts and trinkets like blankets, magnets, puzzles, mugs, tumblers, engraved picture frames, games, apparel, and many other personalized gift ideas.
Researching the company the VFTB came upon the words in today's title, that fit very well with two lines from one of my favorite movies, that all together can give everyone something to think about as we go through our lives.
The movie I love watching every time it pops up in my channel surfing is the film, "Field of Dreams." I am not speaking of the soliloquy of Terrance Mann, perfectly portrayed by James Earl Jones, though that was a brilliant piece of writing, but a line delivered by another character in the movie who was a real-life baseball player named Archibald Graham, who showed up in the film, first as a retired doctor, after that a young baseball player, before returning as a children's doctor, later in the movie.
Doctor Graham's early years were spent as a young baseball player for the NY Giants in the early 1900s, where he earned the nickname "Moonlight." He played in the minor leagues for seven years before being called up by the Giants to play under baseball legendary manager, John McGraw, where on June 29, 1905 (five weeks after his call-up, he replaced Giants right fielder, George Browne after the bottom of the ninth inning. "Moonlight" waited, probably very impatiently, to get to the plate, as he had never batted in the Major Leagues. Unfortunately, he was left in the on deck circle when the third out was recorded.
He played defense in the bottom of the inning, but never had the ball hit his way, so he never even got to make a play either. He returned to the minors and played until 1908. (Hollywood changed a few facts from his life, but that's what fit better in the fictitious movie.)
Graham earned a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Maryland in 1905, where he also played baseball and football in '04 and '05. He obtained his Medical License the following year, and began his practice in Chisholm, Minnesota.
In "Field of Dreams," young Archie Graham was masterfully portrayed by Frank Whaley, and Old Doctor Graham was brilliantly played by Burt Lancaster, making his final motion picture performance.
In the scene where Ray Kinsella and "Moonlight" walked over to the Doctor's office, and sat down, all the while talking about not Graham's not getting a chance to bat in the majors, Lancaster's character said to Ray, "You know we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, well there'll be other days. I didn't realize that that was the only day."
William Patrick Kinsella, author of the novel, Shoeless Joe, the inspiration of "Field of Dreams," was once quoted as saying, "Hardly anybody recognizes the most significant moments of their life at the time they happen. French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, considered to be the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. He was best known for his first novel Madame Bovary. He was quoted as saying "The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life."
There are many times in our lives when we put things off or say, "I'll do that tomorrow," "It's too late," "My chance has come and gone," or we get dejected and decide to do what "Moonlight" Graham did and "hang them up" (speaking of his spikes).
Things happen in life that "roadblock," maybe even stonewall us, as we are on a path to reaching a goal. I'm sure we've all felt sometimes those happenings are omens that whatever we want to happen in attempting to reach a goal or accomplishment isn't going to happen. In some of those moments we may give up, or despairingly try to trudge forward, or make excuses like it's too hard to do it now.
Another favorite movie of mine was based on the All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League, starring Tom Hanks where Garry Marshall portrayed Walter Harvey (depicting Phillip K. Rigley in the actual All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League) established a successful women's baseball league to play during World War II. One of the women, (many thought she was the best player in the league) was contemplating quitting, and when her manager was inquiring why she would quit, she said something along the line of, "It's too hard." Her manager, Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks) responded by saying, "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great." Sometimes, the significant moments come in accepting the "hard" and facing what roadblocks that pop up in our pursuit of what we are trying to accomplish. If we quit before we give ourselves chances to reach our aims, we take away any opportunity to achieve them.
So, what does this all mean? From the perspective here in the Bullpen, I think we need to heed the words, "Carpe Diem" (translated: "Seize the day,"). Those words were first written by the Roman poet Horace in 23 BCE, and later made famous by the character, John Keating (amazingly played by Robin Williams), in the movie "Dead Poet's Society," and ask ourselves, when we get close to a high note in something we work for and hope we can make happen, "What if this is the only day, I'll be the closest I'll ever get to my goal? What if there is no tomorrow?
In my often search for motivational prompts offered to my kids, students, and athletes, and what is part of my e mail signature used on social media, I have six motivational statements, I use. One of them asks the question, "If tomorrow wasn't guaranteed, how hard would you play today?" I've come to feel that tomorrow is only a word. The day itself is non-existent because when we get to the day after today, it becomes another today, and we just use the word tomorrow to really refer to that next today, ad infinitum.
It may make a little more sense if we ponder the question, what if today a moment that may seem insignificant, is the one we're really looking for?"