A discussion on success
A discussion on success
And an ode to milk men
What is success? Is it the six-figure salary and the investment folder or is it something closer to the heart? I knew a milkman once who owned a rundown cottage and a bucking pickup truck and he never longed for more. When I was the sort of man who would go to pubs, I would see the milkman and he would be nestled around a table with friends and they would be cracking jokes and they would drink but not in the way people who want to escape drink but the way people who feel content drink. And on this table, there would be a farmer and the farmer would drink the same. I know there are very few certainty’s in life but one I do know is that this farmer wasn’t making six figures, the way farming had been around that time I would question if he was even making five. And they would laugh and throw darts into the wee hours and the milk man’s wife would come occasionally and she would put her head on his shoulder and you could see that she was happy and her eyes said ‘things could be worse’ and it was convincing enough for me to believe it.
My Mother talks to anybody because she always has curiosity, always has interest even in the things she has no interest in. My Mother used to talk to the Milk Man like an old friend and the Milk Man would talk back the same and not in a way that felt courteous or because he had to but rather because he wanted to. If you walked around the village during his rounds you’d see how he talked to everybody and how everybody smiled and in his small way, he was keeping the world turning. And I imagine he’d finish his deliveries, he’d go home, put the kettle on, read the newspaper and he probably has a cat that he loves and rarely does he seem like the sort of person who would think about needing more. I see him and I see success. I don’t see grandeur or riches but I see success. I would argue success is synonymous with happiness. We are defined by the world around us but more by the world within us. In where we place and find worth. I have met many that many would say have nothing but they have happiness. But they have love. But they get together every Sunday and eat a meal as a family and I’m not limiting that to blood. If the pockets are empty but the heart is full, isn’t that still a fortune? I think success is the things we can wrap our hands around but not our heads. I think rich is just the opposite of loneliness.
Father Ted was a staple TV show in my house. We would gather around and watch this endlessly. Never getting tired of it. Always laughing. This scene is iconic.
And how could we not put this classic here: