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On the importance of beer:

When I arrived in Toronto in the winter of 1965 I thought I had a friend here. Found out I hadn’t. It was bitter cold. That morning my high school principal in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario had said, “You have the wrong attitude and will starve in two weeks if you leave school today.” I had just enough money for a beer. Drinking age was 21. I was 19. I did not let that stop me. Clearly, I had the wrong attitude.

 

The police walked in as the waiter dropped a beer in front of me prompting an older man to say, “Drink your beer and talk with me.” He helped me get my feet on the ground.       A few months later that man, Billy Veltzel, told me he was psychic. He said when I turned 34 everyone I knew would turn against me. They did. He said that after losing someone very close to me I would celebrate my 35th birthday in a psychiatric hospital. I laughed. When I turned 34 everyone I knew turned against me. Billy’s mother had been a prostitute. She put him to work at ten. With a mother like that one either kills oneself or becomes someone extraordinary. My brother, Michael, committed suicide May 23rd, 1981. I felt the moment of his death. I descended into a maelstrom. I was not laughing on June 12, 1981 when I cut the cake my sister brought into McMaster Psychiatric Hospital to celebrate my 35th birthday.  As I cut that cake I realized there is more happening than meets the eye. Billy had said to me at the time he made his prediction, “Don’t worry about it. When you come out you will be the richest man on earth.” True riches are measured not in the amount of money one has stashed in a bank. That wealth can and often does make men paupers. “Do you know what is wrong with you?” asked the doctor in charge. I replied, “Nothing. I am on time and on schedule.” I was then. I am now.

 

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”― W.H. Murray

 

That stream of events continues to issue. Because they came into my life an amazing number of people have had their lives changed for the better.   “You are a Crazy-Wisdom-Yogin,” said Jerzy Zaborksi, a high ranking Tibetan Lama who had accompanied the Dalai Lama on his first journey across Canada. I replied, “I hear crazy often enough. What does the rest of that mean?” “It is the highest compliment I, as a Buddhist, can pay. It means you are living absolutely the life you are teaching.” I said, “I would not say that. I know how far below the mark I fall. Would you care for a beer?” Jerzy said, “Yes,” adding, “If you quote me put a flame after my name to indicate my rank.” Luckily, that night I had a fridge filled with beer. Still have the wrong attitude. B.Y.O.B.

 

—Reg Hartt, Toronto, 2023-05-04.                                                                                                                                                          

 

https://reghartt.ca/cineforum/ , reghartt@gmail.com , https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference,  https://www.kqed.org/arts/102557/crazy_wisdom_and_the_madness_of_enlightenment

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