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I didn’t know how or when, but I have waited for this day, and tonight I am here.
– Adolph Hitler, quoted in a biography by Peter Toland
We forget the exact context the quote was from. It was from late in the book and it may very well have been from his last day alive, April 30, 1945. Hitler’s headquarters was about to be overrun by the Soviet Red Army. He and his longtime mistress Eva Braun had married the day before and had spent the early part of April 30 preparing to lose the war and saying goodbye to staff members. Later, Hitler compelled his wife to kill herself by biting into a cyanide capsule after which he shot himself in the head.
Hitler, however, died in midafternoon, so it may well have been some other time. No matter. That Hitler was an evil a person as our species has produced is acknowledged. We are not pro-Hitler here at The Thought for the Day. Todays‘ Thought merely illustrates how Hitler had a complete sense of himself and what he was meant to do while he was on this planet. Unfortunately, that meant death and tragedy for millions of people.
I didn’t know how or when, but I have waited for this day…
We should all have a sense of ourselves, a sense of how we are supposed to spend our time on this planet. If we do, and we live the life we were meant to live, we might be surprised at how life works out.
My personal example, not for the first time, comes from sports officiating, something I did an awful lot of for many years and something I still engage in from time to time.
The story starts when I was a boy. I was in the habit of reading The Los Angeles Times with my dad in the morning and one day – May 16, 1981, to be exact – I open the sports page and something called Len Barker of the Cleveland Indians had pitched a perfect game, which is where the pitcher gets every batter out. Nobody gets on base. From then on perfect games had my complete interest and sometimes while officiaiting I wondered if, perhaps, I might umpire one one day.
Came close once, an out away, and the final inning are ten minutes or so of my life I will never forget. I waited, with no guarantee it would ever come, and there I was. I didn’t know how or when, but I always suspected I would get a crack at one.
Will you be there when your day comes? You can’t if you do not put yourself in a position to be there.
…tonight I am here.
One of our favorite themes here at The Thought for the Day is that all of were born were certain talents, that every one of us has something we can do well. The very best way to ensure we are there when our day comes is to get the most out of those talents, to live from the inside out, to live the life were meant to live.
Only when we do that will we be there when the day we’ve waited for arrives.
The Thought for the Day runs occasionally. Quotes are from Gaylon’s private stock and all commentary is original.
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