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I just wrote a friggin’ long and involved review of the past 11 days, only to get disconnected from Scatterthought and lose it. So now, a quick recap of the recap in reverse chronological order, beginning yesterday.

Yesterday I went to Canadian Tire to buy a new toolbox using a gift card I had received. I bought the toolbox, but in doing so forgot to use the gift card. This is, sadly, not the first time I’ve done this.

We had a housewarming last Saturday and a good time was had by all. We stalled on our unpacking for a few weeks, but accomplished mostly everything in the two days leading up to the party…and hid everything else away in the garage.

On Friday, we held the last Battle of the Bards of 2006, which was a very good show as usual. I’m quite pleased with how the year went for Bards, and we’ll be back in February 2007.

That same night, I witnessed a very strange accident. I was driving south on King Street late at night, and had just passed under the highway overpass near Conestoga Mall (for those of you who know KW). Suddenly, a Toyota Camry going the other way turned 90 degrees into my lane and stopped before the curb. The car sat there, perpendicular to oncoming traffic led my myself. The driver then realized the problem, threw his car into reverse, and gunned it out of the lane.

Just as an ambulance was passing by.

Luckily the ambulance was nearly past, so the Camry’s bumper caught the rear quarter of the van, putting in a sizable dent. Also lucky was that the ambulance was not in a hurry to go somewhere for an emergency. 

Everyone stopped, we all turned on our hazard lights, and we all got out. And not knowing what to do, I walked up to the EMS technician and asked:

“Is everyone okay?”

Yes, this felt like a dumb thing to say, since the guy is a trained medical technician, but what was I supposed to do? I had no idea. Usually you would stick around to the authorities show up, but in this case the authority was already there. The EMS tech, who was obviously displeased with the situation, told me to go, so I goed…I mean, I left. Though in retrospect, I probably should have waited for the police. Ah well.

I still have no idea what the Camry driver was thinking, and I guess I never will.

On Wednesday I attended a marketing conference/seminar where I learned many interesting things, most of which I’ve already forgotten. But the most important thing I heard was this:

“You are either giving joy or relieving pain.”

Obviously this was presented to us in marketing context, suggesting that services and products are sold based on one of these two premises. But really, it applies to much more than just marketing. It applies to life. Well, unless you’re evil by nature. And I suppose that the win/lose nature of competitive sports doesn’t quite fit with this, either. But those are exceptions.

For the most part, society would be much improved if we all subscribed to the idea that we are either giving joy or relieving pain. We shouldn’t even have to think about it. There would be far less negativity and selfishness, and much more happiness and satisfaction, as far as I’m concerned.

My father has impressed upon me the importance of legacy. Not in the sense of being known far and wide (that would be “famous”), but of being remembered the way I want to be remembered. As he puts it, “what will they say about you at your retirement party?”

(He used to say, “what will they write on your tombstone?” But that’s a little too morbid for some people, even if the statement is more powerful and compelling.)

I would like to think that I will be remembered for giving joy and relieving pain. I would like to think that I’m already well along my way to being remembered as such.

I would like to be remembered as someone who gave more to this world than he took from it.

And now, I would like to eat lunch.