Preparation

I have a linguist friend who is on holiday in this country after spending two years in Nigeria.  I love it when he gets furloughs.  We always set aside time to talk about the cultural and language differences between the two countries.  I find his work fascinating.  He works with the Nigerian people in a translation school and has story after story of how these people learn language from him.

He hasn't always done this.  It's new for him.  He's been a linguist for a long time, but going to Nigeria was recent.  For about half of his life he worked either preaching or working in a warehouse.  Then, he got his formal training in languages and discourse analysis.  The second half of his life he taught at a university.  Finally, after many years and two halves of his life working jobs to prepare him, he is finally getting to a job that he has always wanted to do - field linguistics.

I admire him for doing this because I know that I couldn't.  But he has taught me a lesson or two about life.  Most of life is the warm-up for the main event.  And, when you get to the main event of your life, enjoy it second by second.  I know that's true.

Neil Diamond wrote a song a long time ago talking about the same thing.  I liked the song then, and I still enjoy hearing it.  It's about the main event.

Did you ever read of a frog
Who dreamed of being a king - 
And then became one.
Well, except for the names
and few other changes,
If you talk about me,
The story's the same one.
(I am I said)

And, how do I know it's true?  I went through the first half of my life working hard like everyone else.  Then, the second half, I got to do work that included what I had formally trained for.  Finally, I got to a place for a main event to happen.  It did.  Every second of it was a memory worth waiting for.