Former New York
Yankee catcher and baseball hall-of-famer Yogi Berra was famous
for his inimitable style of quotable quotes.
"Yogi-isms"
are legion -- and legendary. "It's like deja vu all over
again," "Nobody ever goes there because it's so crowded,"
and "The opera ain't over 'till the fat lady sings,"
have been told and retold so often that they've even become a
permanent part of our language and culture.
But even Yogi
was speechless when he tried to rattle home run king Hank Aaron
during a World Series game one autumn day.
When Hank came
to the plate, Yogi began working Hank, telling Aaron that he
was holding the bat wrong. "You need to be able to see the
trademark," Yogi scolded. Aaron stepped back from the plate,
rubbed some dirt in his hands and just laughed.
"I didn't
come here to read," he said, "I came here to hit!"
And so he did -- then, and many times after.
Sometimes we
need to refocus and remind ourselves of why we are up to bat.
Leo Bascaglia, the famous "Love Doctor," put it this
way: "When you eat, eat. When you make love, make love.
When you scratch, scratch!"
You get the idea.
The point is that if we let all kinds of extraneous hopes and
fears and expectations muddle up our enjoyment of what we're
about to do, chances are we won't be happy with the outcome.
And when you
bitch, do a good job of it. Then get on to the next project.