Listening to the radio as I wound down the coast to the dentist office in town this morning, I heard a car ad appropriating axioms as if they were apt analogies for rushing out and buying a new car. They used the old classic, "He who hesitates is lost." But the one that really caught my ear was, "Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them."
I wasn’t interested in buying a new car, I like to make autos last as long as possible, but I did want to know who this unattributed quote was from. Back at home, I made a " google search" and learned of a man who is apparently oft quoted, William Arthur Ward (1921 – 1994).
He is also responsible for: "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." If he were still with us today I think he would be realistically concerned about the economic meltdown of our time and just as quick to remind us to take a much longer and deeper view of life. "Wise are those who learn that the bottom line doesn't always have to be their top priority."
I missed sunrise this morning, but I feel like I "got a message" and it lurked in me while I went about my day. I’m not buying any new cars, but I sure enjoyed the sunset tonight and I hope you did too.
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3 comments:
What a rare opportunity to hear and fully appropriate a good word from an otherwise banal source (car commercial). But William Arthur Ward is like a sunrise himself. I hope I can hold onto that thought when the next sun rises and meet the opportunities so generously supplied to me the way you have.
Hi Jeannette, I really appreciate your message, thank you. I guess the car ad on radio wasn't that successful in converting new revenues, but you got something more valuable out of it, I hope you enjoyed the sunset that night, and hopefully capture all the sunrises and sunsets in the future. Good luck with everything.
Being a fan of quotations, I appreciated this very much. One never knows where inspiration comes from, even dredded commercials can spark something in us occassionally. Thanks for sharing and the photo is beautiful...
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