The Envelope, Please

Alumni Weekend is over. Friday night was the mixer; a bit loud, lots of eats, not very lubricated -- just a fine time enjoyed by all. Saturday, around noon and such, was the Alumni Family Picnic; a bit loud, lots of eats, plenty of rugrats -- another fine time enjoyed by all. Sunday evening was the dinner and awards ceremony; much quieter, lots better food and wine -- very enjoyable.

But the awards ceremony, it just dawned on me, was skewed and --in my humble opinion-- the correct way. Of the five recipients, three were in broadcasting and two had been my students. One, the top writer/anchor at the top news radio station in the country, publicly credits me as having lit his passion for the radio business and for his success. I say this only because I'm still boggled by the idea that someone who has his own passion for radio can transmit that to another person who never realized he had it.

Wonder how often that happens? When the Great Day comes, will people find out whose passion they turned on? Maybe everybody learns what their example did, how they inspired others. When my "as a kid" barber died (I saw his obituary online in the hometown newspaper), I wrote to his widow to tell her how much he had influenced my life and what a difference he had made. Her son wrote back and said she was just so overcome and never thought Joe the Barber did any more than cut hair five days a week. You never know.