HI-FI HOPE - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #59
Looking for a really great podcast listen? How about my chat with Allana Harkin from Full Frontal with Samantha Bee about how we were both at a Disney event that jump-started my current career and traumatized her? Really Great Podcast
HI-FI HOPE
I took the Pepsi Challenge and won a walkman.
It was the Stratford Fall Fair around 1983. The Pepsi Challenge was there and you could sign up to be blindfolded and taste-test Coke and Pepsi. It didn’t matter if you chose Coke or Pepsi, you still got to spin a large prize wheel that had things like t-shirts, free bottles of Pepsi, probably Jos Louis’s, etc… as well as a chance to spin the smaller better prize wheel.
When I and my friends arrived at the fair word got to us pretty fast that the prize at the Pepsi Challenge was a top of line Akai walkman. Auto-Reverse, Song Finder, built-in FM Tuner and great sound.
It was the kind of walkman that the cool rich kids had.
WAY above my station.
I’m not sure why but for whatever reason I chose to suddenly be filled with hope that I’d win one. Not the wistful kind of hope but the confident kind of hope that holds hands with belief.
I told my friends I was going to go win one.
Being idiot kids like I was, they just took this as pre-established fact and followed me in to watch.
I did the taste test. Picked Coke (I grew up beside a corner store, there was never any doubt - plus I’ve always been a bit of a smart ass).
I spun the big wheel. Landed on spin the small wheel.
I spun the small wheel… and landed on Akai Walkman.
It was wonderful… but here’s the thing. I wasn’t elated. I didn’t jump up and down. I didn’t hoot and/or holler. I just felt like my hope/belief had carried through as I thought it would.
That feeling of pure hope holding hands with belief has surfaced a number of times in my life. It’s got me through some rather dark times and each time, it’s because I’ve quietly chosen it.
I’m not really religious, so for me it’s not that type of higher power hope and belief. Of course, I’m not here to judge… so whatever works for you and doesn’t harm others in any way is grand by me.
It’s about not letting worry and fear create the only outcome you can imagine.
It’s easier said than done some times but if you can choose hope and push it towards belief, I highly recommend it.
It clears your mind of worry and leaves it ready to plan, act and respond accordingly.
It’s like a really good sounding walkman. It’s Hi-Fi Hope.
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(Pictured: Author as young man unaware of his imminent cool walkman ownership)