The Twist of Fate... - Officiating In Perspective with Barry Mano

The Twist of Fate...
I recently read a book titled: Fluke, authored by Brian Klaas. It offers perspectives on chance, chaos and why everything we do matters. I easily made connections between the life stories in the book and the "life stories" we experience in officiating. They are connected. A twist of fate, a fluke occurrence, and our officiating career or our life in general gets a boost or a boot. Officiating and life are connected. One story in particular hit me hard. It caused me to slow down and to reflect - maybe you also. What follows is a lengthy excerpt from Fluke. Let it speak to you.
In the autumn of 2001, Elaine Greenberg took a vacation to Tanglewood, Massachusetts. While there, she spotted a necktie she knew her coworker would love - featuring Monet's Sunset at Lavacourt. Her colleague, Joe Lott, was known for wearing ties with paintings on them, and Greenberg knew impressionist painting were his favorite. She bought the tie, figuring it would be a nice gesture for Lott, who was due to fly to New York City the following week for a work conference. Lott got on the plane, but with storms across the country that evening, the flight, which should have taken a few hours, took fourteen instead. Lott arrived in Manhattan well past midnight, with the long journey leaving him looking a bit worse for wear. He had been due to have dinner with Greenberg so they could go over their presentation together before the conference, but was forced to reschedule. They agreed to have an early breakfast instead. Before Lott collapsed exhausted onto his hotel bed, he set out his clothes for the next day. As he did so, he realized his crisp white dress shirt that he had been planning to wear for the conference was crumpled and wrinkled.
The next morning, Lott woke up, took one look at his crumpled white shirt, and felt glad he had brought a spare, a pastel-green one that would do the trick. At 7:20 a.m., he arrived at the hotel breakfast room, where Greenberg helped him go over the presentation. At the end of breakfast, around 8:15 a.m., she handed Lott her gift, the Monet tie, with the shimmering blues of the Seine set against a fiery red-orange sky at sunset. Lott was touched. He thanked her and, to show he meant it, said, "Elaine, I’m going to put this tie on and wear it today for good luck." She shot back, "Not with that shirt, you’re not." Lott laughed, but agreed. Even he knew that the tie would clash horrendously with pastel green. He decided to return to his hotel room to swap shirts - even if it meant being a few minutes late. "See you shortly," Lott said. Greenberg waved goodbye, then went up to the conference venue, on the 106th floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. Lott returned to his hotel room and began to iron his wrinkled white shirt. It took him about fifteen minutes, long enough that he was still getting ready when the first plane hit the tower at 8:46 a.m. Lott survived. Greenberg did not. The immediate cause of Lott’s fortune and Greenberg’s misfortune might have been a rainstorm, a delayed flight, and a gift at the right moment.
After reading this heartbreaking piece, I closed the book, put it down on the side table and sat back in my easy chair. So many thoughts came into my mind... thoughts about the chance encounters, the twists of fate that have helped me, have hurt me, have defined the path so far travelled. Thank goodness officiating is normally not a matter of life and death. A story such as this one though, can enable you to consider how chance has played a role in who you are and what you do as a sports official. The whole deal isn’t necessarily just up to you.
Referee Magazine Publisher, Barry Mano's latest Publisher’s Memo. Found in the July, 2024 issue of Referee magazine. For more information or to subscribe to Referee magazine, visit www.referee.com.