The only currency we have is time.
I don’t know if I came up with that saying or if I read it somewhere – probably the latter. I’ve always liked it, because it’s about how we spend our time. We only have so many seconds on this earth, and what we do with our time is our investment. We can blow things off, or we can get things done. See the world, enjoy new things. Live.
One man who spent his currency and spent it well was James Randi.
James AKA The Amazing Randi passed away this week, at the age of 92. He was a magician, a charlatan, a skeptic, a storyteller, a legend.
He debunked faith-healers on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, he performed magic on Happy Days, he did the “gags” for Alice Cooper’s first blockbuster tour. And that’s just SOME of what he did.
He was amazing.
Had the chance to meet the man twice, 30-years apart. The first time was when he was speaking at my college, and I was in the AV department. I had my (personal) SVHS prosumer camcorder and tripod, and I asked him if I could record the lecture. “SURE!” he said, and I did. After I asked for him to autograph the tape. He did, and I still have it today.
Then, decades later: Randi was appearing at DragonCon in Atlanta. I literally ran into him in the lobby of a hotel. I said, “Mr. Randi, I know you don’t remember this, but you spoke at my college and I videoed taped your speech…”
“I remember it like it was yesterday!” He said, lying.
I laughed, and said “I just want you to know, I’m a huge admirer of yours and I’m so happy to meet you again. Thank you.”
“Thank you!” he said, and shuffled away.
I’m thanking him again, today. Thank you James, for making a young me more skeptical and critical of “conventional wisdom.”
I know Randi was an atheist, and the day he died I and many of us tweeted RIP hashtags. It was the first time I felt conflicted about sending that type of message out there. If James was right, there was no peace to rest in. There was no anything.
But that’s not what I believe.
So… Rest in peace, James.
