Interesting day yesterday. Got to see Rick Belluzzo, Lou Holtz, Rudy Giuliani, Krish Dhanam, Bob Kittell, Terry Bradshaw, Goldie Hawn, Colin Powell, James Smith, Brian Tracy, Stephen Pierce, Bill Cosby, and Stanley McChrystal. The experience was helpful.
Of course, there’s no hope for posting something meaningful and brief that touches on all of their words. I’ll stick with just one impression. It came while listening to Colin Powell.
He described life as the Secretary of State: airplane always at the ready, red carpet, kings and heads of state clamoring for his attention, and Diet Coke served on a platter. The whole thing. Yet there he was, 6 years 3 months and 17 days after he left office, standing in the Quicken Loans Arena speaking after Goldie Hawn and before James Smith. No personal jet. No red carpet. No official diplomacy. And his Diet Coke came out of a vending machine. American royalty one day, American citizen the next. Power transferred peacefully and every American had something to say about it. And no blood was spilled.
When viewed in the context of world history and human nature, I witnessed nothing short of a miracle.