Now I'm Listening

You find the best advice from the most unusual sources.

I am currently working at a place that I haven’t been into for over ten years. It is amazing how quickly one slips back into the ‘old routines’ and so on. There are many new faces and an equal amount of old faces that soon become familiar again. There are old friends and there are old flavors of the other variety.

When I first worked there, I was 19 years old. I was assigned as a ‘helper’ to a ‘Mountain of a Man’ who had been there for quite some time. This dude made Grizzly Adams look like a clean cut Wall Street type. Everything about this guy was super sized… from his physical appearance to his very presence.

I often thanked God that this man took me under his wing as opposed to the other options. He made my first year in the industry a learning place and I have never forgotten that.

Over the years, I would see him as he continued to ‘drift in and out’ of the refinery. He was always that ‘giant of a man’, who you knew could crush you with one hand, should he be so inclined. Like I said, he had a presence.

On my return to this work place, I ran into him again, now some thirty + years later. He is not quite the towering giant that he once was. Time has worn him down a bit and he moves a little slower than he once did. But when I stopped to talk with him, he looked at me and in a second, his eyes got the same twinkle that I fondly remember as a 19 year old starting out in a career. We talked for a few moments and both moved on to what we were doing.

A few days later the occasion arose to have him come work in the area that I am working. I drove out to meet him and discussed what we were hoping to accomplish and frankly, to do some catching up. I was amazed what he recalled. He told me stuff about the old times that I had long forgotten.

He reflected that for years, he had often told others how amazed he was that I was always willing to climb up and down 100-foot towers to get whatever job needed to be done…completed. He commented that nothing short of a fire would have inspired him to do the same. He then said that about a year into the job, he realized I was just going down to have a cigarette.

A lot of people in my life have told, asked and pleaded with me to quit smoking. I have always taken the advice and direction with a certain amount of interest. I have yet to find the will to actually quit.

The other day I was driving through the plant and was waved down by my old friend. He asked for a ride to recover a forklift that he was sure was taken from the ‘rightful owner.’ He is very clear that all equipment is HIS when he needs it. He took a few minutes to pull his girth into my truck and off we went looking for that elusive forklift. As we drove along, he noticed the pack of ‘smokes’ in my truck.

He looked at me and said, “You know a few years back, and I ran into John O at the Big Scoop in town. (John O was a character all to himself and to us who knew him.) John told me that he had just quit smoking.” He went on to say, “I think it was too late. John died six months later of cancer.”

My giant friend then looked me in the eye and said. “You know a guy can probably keep smoking till he is 55 and after that…the body kinda breaks down. How old are you now?”

I told him I was 53.

He looked at me with such intense concern for a moment.

“Then you need to start getting ready to quit,” he said as he got out of my truck and slowly walked away..

I guess we never know what God’s messengers look like for sure.