Playing the slots on the YBR. What are the odds?

Because most casino table games demand a degree of “know-how,” I usually head right to the slot machines because all I’m expected to do is drop some coins, or to be more accurate, load the machine with cash.

If you’ve ever played the slots you always start off with high hopes, somehow believing that you are going to hit the jackpot.  More often than not you leave the casino up a couple of bucks or in my case, down twenty bucks.

The slots hook you.  You don’t win anything on five or six spins and then you hit it for a couple of bucks.  Believing your luck might be changing you continue playing and continue playing…until.

Until you realize today was not the day you were going to hit the jackpot.  Better luck next time.

Playing the slots is a lot like traveling on the YBR.  You believe that by putting your right foot forward and investing your time, energy and heart into your journey you will make it to the Emerald City. Just when things are going your way you come across the monkey men or the Wicked Witch hurls a fire-ball at you.  Still, you believe that you’ve got to keep going.

When you’re playing the slots you’ve got to use your head.  You’ve got to consider your options.  Do you keep dropping coin in the machine that’s been eating your money or do you pick up and look for another (winning) machine?  And if you do move, how long do you stay before either finding another machine or calling it quits?

Many of us are guilty of failing to use our head when we play the YBR slot machine.  Even when the writing is on the wall, we keep dropping coin expecting a better outcome.  (Sounds like the definition of insanity.)  But in life we often invest too much time, money, heart and energy without thinking of changing our direction.

I know we are all encouraged never to give up, but sometimes it takes a lot of courage to face the facts and change our direction.

Unlike the slots at a casino, you can’t just quit the YBR. That’s never an option.  But, what is an option is to think hard about your options, heed your heart, and ultimately have the courage to make a decision that you believe is the decision that is right for you.

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Is the bell out of order on the YBR? Let the commencement speech commence!

The 2018 Commencement Address at Emerald University

It is with dubious distinction that I stand here before the Emerald University Class of 2018. I say dubious because last year’s commencement speaker, the Wicked Witch of the West, and the recipient of an honorary doctorate, was stripped of her honorary degree because she ran afoul by misusing her power.  I found it a bit disingenuous that while the university took back her honorary doctorate, they did not return a single penny of the mega bucks she donated to said same university.

In that regard I have  nothing to fear because I have no intention of donating a single Oz buck to this university.

I stand before you a humble man. I say this in gest because I am not the least bit humble. I take pride in being proud. I don’t intend to fill the already hot air with worthless platitudes. Rather, I want to talk to you honestly in a straight-forward manner.

As you all know, or as you all should know, the Wizard of Oz was nothing but a humbug. A man who invented false news. No sooner had he landed in Oz, he began building the walled city of Oz.  And because he was so intent on keeping out what he called the un-documented, aka the “Undudes,” he hired me to stand guard at the only entry point to the Emerald City.

For years I turned back more people than you can imagine. And then I began to wonder what filled the poet, Robert Frost’s’ mind when he wrote  “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out.”

Before I lapse into a political polemic about walls, I want to steer the conversation in a different direction. I want to talk about the wall that separates the splendid garden of learning and the world you will be stepping into after you cross the stage with your diploma in hand.

When Dorothy and her three friends, and Toto, too, stopped by at the gate to Emerald City, you’ll recall that they rang the bell. When I answered the door I confused the matter by telling them the bell was out of order and that they should have knocked on the door as directed by the sign that wasn’t there.

I had no intention of letting them in to see the Wizard until Dorothy told me she was sent by the Good Witch and as proof she showed me the slippers she was wearing.  I had no choice but to let her in.

You are like Dorothy and her traveling companions. You not only knock on the door because you were instructed by a legion of  Good Witches. You have been instructed by dozens of men and woman who were eager to share their learning with you. And not only were these people you called “professors,” your Good Witches, first among your Good Witches were your parents, family, mentors, community and friends.

Today you stand before the grantors of degrees wearing metaphorical ruby slippers, a symbol of your status as a college graduate. You stand knocking on the door and I say “welcome.”  I would also like to suggest that you don’t go looking for the Wizard of Oz, because as I said earlier, he is a humbug.  I also suggest that while your entry-level job was your four-year goal, don’t think of your career as your final destination because I am here to tell you that as you cross over the portal into the “real world,” you are about to step foot on another long and winding yellow brick road.

Make sure you take your yellow brick road and not someone else’s because if you do your life will never be as full as it should have been if you follow your own yellow brick road.

Follow it, follow it, follow it, and when you do come to one of the many crossroads on the yellow brick road that you will undoubtedly encounter, listen to your head, heed your heart and have the courage to make a decision.

I officially open the door to Oz for you.  Welcome. Enjoy the journey of your life time!

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