And I stood tall

I saw a story on Instagram that caught my eye. It quoted the comedian Tom Dreesen, who used to be the opening act for Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas...

According to the story, Dreesen said that Sinatra was coming back to his car late one night, passing through a hotel lobby, and a lady approached him, saying she had been waiting five hours to see him. She went on to say that her husband was quite ill and she thought that if she came home with an autograph from the great saloon singer, it might make him feel better.

And at that, went the tale, Sinatra took off his cufflinks and presented them to the lady, and Dreesen was surprised that Sinatra was handing off a pair of links for which he had shelled out $5,000.

Sinatra then said, per Dreesen, "We're all just renting here. When I'm dead, someone else will wear those cufflinks, drive my car, live in my house. Nothing will be around forever, so we're just using things for the now. And if those cufflinks bring that woman and her husband happiness, well, they're doing them more good than they're doing me, so let them have them!"

Now, again, I can't say with any certainty that those are words said by Francis A. Sinatra. It's just something I heard about him, just as I once heard that he always had a couple of goons with him when he went out so he could say, "Hey, go beat dat guy up" if someone displeased him in some way. I don't know that that's true, either. 

But how about those words, anyway? True? I think so. I don't have any expensive cufflinks, for sure. I have a vast collection of books and recordings and tools that I would hope would go to good hands upon my demise (don't line up yet; it's a long way off!) 

And if I happen to have something I don't see a need for, I'd give it away. Peggy will be glad to see a lot of my stuff go.

I have a lot of hand-me-down tools that are better than what's made today, and I am glad to have them. Someone else will be one day, too. 

And one of my upper teeth wears a gold crown. Someone can use one of my many pairs of pliers and remove that once I am done chewing with that molar. That's a couple hundred in gold right there.

So that's today's lesson from Frank Sinatra. Like him or not, I'm doing it My Way.