I am a little embarrassed to say this, but I am addicted to junk stores. I love sifting through odds and ends looking for something I don’t need but must have. Seriously, can one ever get enough ceramic Elvis Presley statues? I can’t. I collected metal boxes for a while, I am not sure why, but at one time I had thirty or more scattered around my house. I liked the look, I guess.
I’ve been known to hop in my car on a Saturday morning with my dog Cash and hit every small town in a 200-mile radius seeking out lost treasures. I always find something unique to bring back and stuff on the shelf in my house. Most of the things I purchase make me think of family members, so I often give the treasure to them.
Without question one of my most useful finds is a book I purchased for five dollars in a junk store outside of San Antonio several years ago. “The Philosophy of Life” by Anderson M. Baten. It was even signed and dated by Baten himself on February 17th, 1931.
The cover is a beautiful gold embossed picture of what appears to be Roman soldiers, but I could be wrong. The book is full of inspirational poems, inspiring short stories about historical world leaders and passages about money, marriage, virtue, love, and friendship just to name a few. It has been a tremendous resource for me in my writing and I have used excerpts from this book in all five weddings which I officiated for family members.
You can probably find a copy online. I highly recommend it, but it may cost you more than five bucks!
One of my favorite poems in the book was written by an anonymous poet. From what I can determine, the poem was written in the late 1800s and had nothing to do with sports. It reads as follows:
THINK
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch that you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will:
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before,
You can ever see the prize.
Life battles don’t always go,
To the stronger man.
But soon or late the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can!
Have you read this poem before? I hadn’t until I purchased this book. It sounds like a poem that could have been written by a famous football coach just a few years ago. I am curious who and what this author had in mind when putting pen to paper all those decades ago.
What I took away from reading this poem which was written way before organized athletics is that the ingredient for succeeding in life has not changed, nor will it ever change. The underlying theme in this poem is really amazingly simple and it applies to all levels of society.
Believe in yourself!
Never stop being the person you want to become. I write that statement a lot in my column as a reminder to myself because I need to hear it.
Belief is energy, and energy makes things move. I’m working hard to make my belief a positive energy.
Remember –
But soon or late the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can!
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Todd Howey is a columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose articles appear on Fridays. Email comments to [email protected].
