The Foreign Prophet…

Dad always said that people would listen and act on the advice of a Foreign Prophet, more readily than they would on the very same advice given by someone familiar to them. I’ve seen many examples of this over the years, such as Rugby Coaches with Accents. They are given instant credibility, while someone you’ve grown up with will have to prove to you that they know something. It’s funny sometimes how the same message said with an accent can have such a different impact. Maybe people assume that since you're not from there you can bring a new outlook to their situation, or you have more knowledge.

So along those lines, this past week, I was running the roads with Nic and Sophie on an Esteem Team Tour– which started in Springhill, led me through River Hebert (pronounced Hibbert), Oxford, North River, Scotsburn, Westville, back to Truro, Stellerton, Thorburn and ended up in East Pictou. It was a great experience and over the 10 presentations I was able to talk to almost 1900 kids.

My message was simple – Set Goals, set them high and then work on a plan to achieve them – I met some fantastic principals and teachers and I visited some great schools – I asked them to share a dream with me, then to work on how to make that dream a reality, and before you know it, they had a goal. A goal is just a dream with a plan afterall. All week I worked on a goal, standing on a exercize ball and completing 5 passes with a volunteer, by Thursday afternoon , I had increased and surpassed my goal, and was able to complete 20 passes before I fell down. While I was trying to entertain the Youth of Nova Scotia - Nicki was entertaining one fussy munchkin (who recently discovered she had arms) back in our Hotel room.

All week we stayed at the Comfort Inns in Amhurst and New Glasgow, nice hotels, awesome continental breakfasts. On Wednesday Morning (6:30 am) while I was eating my Breakfast in the lobby, this guy walked in looking for a hotel room – They told him that they didn’t have any and that he could check back at 11 am – I looked at one of the other people in the lobby and we both said “Wasn’t that JD Fortune?” and it was – the lead singer of INXS couldn’t get a room at the comfort inn, but we had one. I guess that you’re only ever as famous as you are in your hometown.

We were also all able to go visit Uncle Jimmy in the hospital - he's having an Operation this afternooon and my thoughts are with him in Halifax - Sophie got to see her Great Uncle, while in truth so did I.


The Loyalists play the Trojans tomorrow – Should be a Dandy game, Kick off is at 2pm – Rain or Snow…