A few years ago, I was speaking at a conference in Milan, Italy. I was excited to eat incredible pizza, pasta, and gelato by the gallon. I was also looking forward to seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper.

The Last Supper is a fresco painted on the wall of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery

The people we meet on the road of life leave impressions on us and shape the way we see the world and those in it. Sometimes those we meet challenge our assumptions. Such was the case for J. K. Rowling.

Banksy is a British street artist who has been active for decades. He has spray painted his artistic expressions on streets, bridges and walls all around the world.

In October 2018, Sotheby’s auctioned a framed copy of Girl with Red Balloon, a Banksy work of art. The winning bid came in at £1,042,000.

Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest people in the world and he attributed his success to the knowledge he learned from the books he borrowed as a child. He set out to give the same opportunity to others.

By contrast, Todd Bol was not a wealthy man…

I recently watched The Beatles: Get Back documentary by Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings. Whether you are a Beatles fan or not, the series is well worth watching. With a run time of almost eight hours, you feel as if you’re in the studio watching John, Paul, George and Ringo as they move from blank canvas to completed album.

If there’s anything that’s universally detested, it’s waiting. We’ve got places to be, people to see, Netflix shows to binge. Waiting in traffic, waiting for a seat at a restaurant, waiting at the airport… it’s unbearable. It’s frustrating. We can feel our lives ebbing away. There’s no way to eliminate waiting, but there are ways to make it more bearable.

[song straining from a bedside clock radio] “Then put your little hand in mine, there ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb… Babe, I got you babe. I got you babe.” And thus begins Phil Connors’ day.

Dash loved his wife. He was heartbroken when she tragically died. To honor her memory, and to help his village, Dash grabbed a hammer, a chisel, and he began a project that would consume his him for the next twenty-two years.

Not everyone is a fan of New Year’s resolutions, but I am. Nothing magical happens at the stroke of midnight on December 31st, but a new year does present an opportunity, and I’m a fan of taking advantage of every opportunity available to me.

How much is a great memory worth? The sound of a child laughing, sharing a sunset with the one you love. Is there any price you wouldn’t pay to have five more minutes with someone whose gone?

But sometimes we neglect to pursue beautiful memories we could later cherish, and instead spend our time and energy pursuing money, success, and fame. Whether or not we admit it, we believe they are the source of happiness.

Most words spoken slip unnoticed into the night, barely heard and never remembered. Others become immortal. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech falls into the timeless category, and those words almost never happened.

Despite the disappointment and disillusionment that comes when our dreams are dashed, sometimes we find a life that’s better than anything we knew to hope for. That certainly was the case for Lee Smith.