by Jeff Thom
Before I launch into the theme of my final president's message, I want to take a moment to do two things. First, although they aren't going away, we owe
a tremendous debt to those of our leaders leaving the board of directors. This is especially the case with Immediate Past President Donna Pomerantz and
First Vice President, Eugene Lozano, Jr. Their knowledge, selfless devotion to the organization, and high degree of integrity provide a model for future
leaders. Secondly, July will begin a new era in CCB leadership, and we can be proud to have selected Judy Wilkinson as our president, Frank Welte as our
first vice president and Gabe Griffith as our second vice president. With their leadership and hard work from all of us, CCB's future can indeed be a bright
one.
I have great admiration for those I consider as having philosophical minds or as being visionaries, as I am definitely not in that camp. Nonetheless, I
thought that, for my last message in these pages, I'd share a bit of my personal creed that, if I could live up to, would certainly benefit me and those
with whom I come into contact. As this article title indicates, I want to talk about the three L's that are important to me.
The first L is "Learn," not only about the world around us, but about ourselves. For me anyway, learning isn't easy. It is hard not to reject lessons that
take you out of your comfort zone or that violate long-held beliefs. It is also tough to take a hard look at oneself and try to apply life's lessons. Learning
is about looking back, reflecting and then moving forward. Applying a platitude from the world of football, when you give up a touchdown pass, you need
to shrug it off and figure out how to do better next time: not burden yourself with your past failure. As an example, the realization that I could have
done a better job of transitioning from president to immediate past president of CCB the first time around will give me the opportunity to do a far better
job this time. When we lose an advocacy battle or a fundraiser doesn't achieve everything we had hoped for, we need to use these incidents as building
blocks to learn for the future.
The second L is simply "Live". How many times have we heard the aphorism "live life to the fullest," or something similar? I don't mean the old "eat, drink
and be merry" view, although enjoyment is part of living. To me "live" means spending your time in ways that are important to you. Being with family and
friends, one's vocation, working for the betterment of the world as we do in CCB, or any other way in which you feel that spending your time is valuable.
How often are we told that life is too short to waste, and the older I get, the more I value the truth of that statement.
The final L, as you might guess, is "Love". I don't intend to wax poetic about something that I know each of you can talk about just as well or maybe better
than I. I will say however, that far too often, I let emotions like ego, pride, anger and others carry the day when love would be a far better star to
steer by. Every family, including the CCB family, goes through times of turmoil, and love for one another and for our mission will see us through the bad
times and make the good times even better.
I can't thank you enough for giving me not one chance, but two, to be the leader of our organization. I've learned a lot, including some hard lessons,
lived through some tough times but far more that have been extremely rewarding, and am ending my tenure with a fierce love for the California Council of
the Blind and our wonderful CCB family.
