September 23, 2017, we had the opportunity to hear two very touching, meaningful, well written speeches, done by both Bobby Harrington and Peter Wong. 

Fortunately, we have been given access and permission to post both written speeches by these two excellent speakers, we hope these will be read by those folks who missed the event, for one reason or another.....or for those who couldn't quite hear them at our very successful 40th Reunion Event.  

 

Bobby Harrington’s 40^th Reunion Short Talk
 
Thank you to Connie, Marilyn, John Grisdale, Lundy Seto and everyone who organized this event. You have given us all a great gift by your organization.
 
I noticed something weird as I was leaving pre-reunion gatherings both Thursday and Friday night – I told people something that I don’t think I ever told them before.
 
As I was leaving, I said, “I love you.!”
 
40 years ago, I would have never said that to Byron Coates and Kevin Suffern or Peter Wong – even after a few too many drinks.
 
Strange words to say “I love you” …. to men … to friends I rarely see anymore.   
 
But In the last 40 years I think I get the award for changing more than anyone.  Physically, I have lost my hair and gained too many pounds and too many wrinkles. But those are only surface things.
 
When I was in grade 12, I was handsome, the student council president, the captain of the football team, popular and many other things, but they were all surface things. Inwardly, where things really matter, I was a self-centered and a selfish person.
 
About 12 months after graduation, toward the end of my first year at the University of Calgary, I became a follower of Jesus.
 
And it changed me on the inside.
 
I immediately went off to the United States to study the Bible. Now for the last 30 years I have been a pastor of 3 churches and I help lead a network of churches in the United States. I have a doctorate in theology and I have studied at places like Princeton and I have been to Israel about 12 times to learn as much as I can about the Bible.
 
Let me summarize everything that I have learned in the last 40 years.
 
It all boils down to 2 things: following God and loving people.
 
I am not going to talk about the first part of that – this is not the time or place.
 
But I do want to talk to you about the second part – loving people.
 
It is an important thing to say tonight. After 40 years, I hope I care less and less about being the self-centered and selfish person that I was and that I am learning more and more how to love people.
 
Let me state it definitively – life is about relationships. Period.
 
Those who love well, live well. Period.
 
Two stories.
 
#1 … My little sister Cindy died about a year and ½ ago. I loved her more than I can describe. In the last couple of years we did not see each other as much as I would have liked. She was such a wonderful person. She loved me, she cared about me … whenever I needed it, she tried to help me in life. She was more precious than I fully grasped.
 
I had one last weekend with her before Crutchfield Jacobs disease suddenly destroyed her brain. But when I had that last weekend with her, I did not know that it was the last weekend I would ever have with her again.  
 
I just wish I had one more night to tell her how much I loved her.
 
“I love you Cindy” … that is what I would say if I had one more conversation with her … “I love you Cindy, thank you for being in my life!”
 
#2…  Last night I was at Schanks and a man walked in who had flown to be with me in Memphis Tennessee when I got married at 21. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. He, like me, has lots of faults. But he has been my friend.
 
And I love him for it.
 
I saw another man walk into Shanks last night. When my brother in law could not get into Canada to save his marriage with my sister, so my friend went to work and got him through immigration and into the country. He, like me, has lots of faults, but he has been a friend.
 
And I love him for it.
 
I remember how we got together with several others to play golf a couple of years ago. I am a terrible golfer but he did not make fun of me. We just road around in the golf cart and he told me stories of telephone companies in the Carribean and of his life in Florida. He, like me, has lots of faults, but he has been a friend.
 
And I love him for it.
 
I am telling you because I did know it or show it very well 40 years ago …  and I have learned that it is ½ of what really matters in life.
 
On the other ½ … I have an eBook on the God’s part, how God loved you first and sent his son to save you from your sins, so that you could have a relationship with him and learn to love people well. If you want that eBook, let me know and I will happily email it to you (BobbyH@Harpethcc.com).
 
But back to the second part.
 
When I leave those of you who have been my friend tonight, if I can, I am going to say the only thing that I know to say … that really expresses what I think about you … Yes, it is mushy, sentimental and all those things.
 
But I am just going to say it anyway … to you my man-friends, my female friends, and to friends I have not seen in decades
 
And I do not know if or when I will ever seen you again.
 
Maybe we can all say it to each other tonight.
 
Here it is … I love you … I love you man! … and thank you for being my friend.

Bobby Harrington
Sept 23, 2017
 

40th Reunion Speech by Peter Wong 

To the grads of 76, 77 and 78  my name is Peter Wong, and I want to thank the organizing committee for this opportunity to reprise a speech I gave 40 years and 3 months ago, as a valedictorian.  I am sure that they had gotten wrong then for me to address the class, and I am convinced that is wrong of me again, but I’m here and I hope that my comments will not keep to long from doing what you really should be doing which is reconnecting with your past and finding meaning to your life.  Reunions are about understanding the past and connecting it with the present and the future. 
 
Let me start with saying that everything old is new again.  You think that 40 years has made an advance on being 17.  Think again.  In 1977, the first Apple computer was put on the market.  Quick, for everyone here, tell me by holding it up whether you have an Apple device somewhere on your person. 
 
Queen Elizabeth the Second is still the Queen of England.
 
You think we’ve advanced politically?  Trudeau was prime minister.  Trudeau is still prime minister.  He still hates Alberta.
 
Someone in North Korea named Kim runs the place and wants to nuke us. 
 
In 1977 the big movie out was Star Wars starring Mark Hamil as Luke Skywalker.  In December of this year, Star Wars will be the big move out with Mark Hamil as Luke Skywalker. 
 
In June of 1977, Elvis held his final concert, but trust me, he is still somewhere near Graceland, and he is still coming home.
 
40 years seems like a long time, but in a blink of eye, we’ve past those years, and if you think that those memories are gone, think again, they are more vivid and more intense then you can believe.  I looked at the guest list and saw names that instantly transported me to my days of long hair and wicked acne, and the first name I was Brenda Hahn, and I was transported to the time of my youth when I was in chemistry class, trying to titrate some white powder in Mr. Razada’s chem lab, when the powder blew up in our face as we had put the Bunsen burner on too high.  We scraped it off the counter, and carried on like nothing had happened.  I knew then that chemistry was not for me and decided the practice of law was more forgiving. 
 
I saw Laurie Lee Bowie’s name and I was transported to a time when double flips were possible, by young Olympians that invented the sport. 
 
I looked at the missing persons list and saw Shelley Thompson, and thought, wait a minute, isn’t she the Mom on the Trailer Park boys? 
 
40 years ago, we were finishing a chapter in our lives, that still marks a turning point.  For some, it was the end of formal education.  For others, it was the end of high school and the beginning of post secondary education.  I like to think of it as the time that we transitioned from teenagers that knew nothing, to young adults that knew nothing. 
 
Have we acquired wisdom in the 40 years?  Well, we obsess about our health a lot more.  When you get together with your friends, do you talk about your colonoscopy?  You haven’t lived until you had one of those.   
 
One good thing that many of us have done, is that we have had another whole new generation.  I often have the experience of speaking to the children of high school classmates, and thinking, when did they become old?  The continuation of our species, is a noble pursuit.  If you’ve done nothing else in life but raise children, then in my book you’ve done your job, and your children and grandchildren will thank you for graduating from high school and having them.  Two achievements that they can’t take away from you. 
 
So, should we look behind us, and say what we have accomplished, like satisfied old men in the New York Park playing chess and kibitzing about the good old days?  I don’t think so.  Consider the reality of our current lives, that men and women are living well into their 80s and 90s, that we’ve really only reached middle age, and if we stop now, our money is likely to run out before our hearts give out.  That would really be a tragedy, given that we are unlikely to be supported in our old age my the millennials that are all about their own lifestyle and living life to the fullest.  They will barely make enough for themselves, let alone for our support.  Our revenge is that we will live so long, that we will spend their inheritance, or they will be too old to enjoy it, which is just fine by me. 
 
Are you depressed by all of the hopeless despair, of terrorism, of the inability of politicians to get anything done, of Donald Trump?  I bring you a message of hope and peace, as I have heard from very reliable, not fake news, that aliens will descend upon the earth in the year 2525, if man is still alive and bring a dawning to the Age of Aquarius, sorry, wrong speech.  What I meant to say is that we actually have to take a step back and measure a few things that we can be thankful for in 40 years from the time of graduation to now.
 
Here goes:
 

1. No government has dropped a nuclear bomb on any other nation in anger in that time. 
2. We have had wars, but nothing like World War I or II where Canadians had to fight to defend their freedoms.
3. For those that still live in Canada, we are still among one of the most prosperous countries in the world, with freedoms that we enjoy and a rule of law that gives us belief that if we are wronged that we can fight for our own rights. 
4. We have been given opportunities to decide what work we’ve done, how many children to have, to have our families close by us, and to succeed in our own unique way.
5. The Chicago Cubs have finally won the world series
6. We are still alive to talk about it. 

 
And for those that are sentimental and ready to talk about the true meaning of life, I leave you with this thought.  All of the earnings that you’ve amassed, and the lifestyle that you enjoy, don’t matter.  All of the accomplishments that you can write on a resume, or on your linked in account, all of the great posts on your Facebook page are meaningless.  At the end, there is only the love and relationships that you share with your family, friends, coworkers.  When you come to the end of days, hopefully a few more decades from now, all that will matter is how you lived your life, and cared about others before yourself.   You will live on in the lives of the ones that you loved and loved you. 

Peter Wong
Sept 23, 2017