In the early 1970's, I was doing a state job in management that involved campus food service. We served 3 meals a day to around 1,000 students. I was settled in and played city league basketball and was thoroughly enjoying life.
Then I asked a woman out. She and I had a fabulous date talking the night away. We went out the next night and again talked and talked. She then had to go home to Napa for a few days.
When I next saw her, she had been hired on a teacher contract by the government of Australia and was assigned to teach in Melbourne, Australia for the next two years. We talked and talked again and decided (out of nowhere) I was going to move to Australia with her. I couldn't work so I would be her housemate and have the role of cleaning and taking care of the house.
We moved to a suburb named Toorak which boasted more Rolls Royces per capita than any city in the world.. It was a bit of culture shock to say the least; they had business suits that included shorts! Their beer had twice the alcoholic content (I only realized that after a year of drinking just one beer and feeling pretty drunk) I had a lot of difficulty finding a role leading a productive life.
Then we went to see the movie Serpico. Out of all the things I could have picked up from the movie, I took the following. When I find someone who provided a service or material item, I then had the choice of doing it my way.
Now the blessing is that we lived in Toorak. I hadn't cut my hair since I arrived in Australia. Thus my hair was long and I had a full beard. But I was blessed. When I was out and about the locals took me to be a rich eccentric millionaire and treated me with respect.
Since that day, I have realized that as we go out into the world it is our playground. I have never let surroundings or opulence stop me from doing anything.
We went to Monterey to have a long weekend. While we were there we went on a wonderful bus tour called Monterey Movie tours. It took us through a number of movie locations where famous movies had been filmed. We stopped at the Pebble Beach Golf club. The US Open golf tournament had finished the day before. When we had a thirty minute break at the club, I suggested we go and have a drink at the bar. We got our drinks and sat on the patio overlooking the 18th green as if we lived nearby and it was our home club.
That is one of my main learnings from the Serpico movie and my time in Australia. It is that we belong where we belong. We are the ones who decide how we show up. We are the ones tho determine whether to get a hotel room that costs more money -- and in doing so spoil ourselves. But is it spoiling ourselves or are we enjoying the material world that God create?.
When we vacation in Los Angeles, we come back to the airport area the night before to stay in the hotel and relax for our preparation for our plane flight home the next day. I typically pick a hotel that might have an extra service. for an extra fee, we join the hotel 'club' and have a special happy hour on one of the upper floors with complimentary food and drink on an upper floor overlooking the city. we then watch the sunset because we deserve it!
Thus you decide how your life looks! The world and life do not do things to you. Instead, things happen, and then you make the decision of how you can respond. Check a future blog for more on this subject.........
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