For years I’ve tossed around the idea that I’d love to be, for at least a moment, the best in the world at one thing. It doesn’t have to be a big thing — or even something anyone has heard of — but just something.
Truly, the world is a huge place, and it’s going to be difficult to top 7 billion competitors, and I’ve never settled on what I want to pursue. But two examples this week reminded me that it’s possible. Sure, we all know Warren Buffett is the world’s greatest investor, and Michael Jordan is the basketball G.O.A.T. (nothing LeBron does will ever convince me otherwise). But these two I speak of are just everyday guys who’ve mastered a particular area; that’s what I aspire to.
First, Max Heath is the world’s preeminent expert in the obscure field of periodical postal regulations. It’s the type of thing no one cares about until they have to deal with it — and suddently it’s very, very important.
Well, Heath, a retired newspaper publisher from Kentucky, is the proverbial sage sitting atop a mountain, whom these pilgrims in search of knowledge humbly approach for guidance. He writes a monthly column for the National Newspaper Association and is always willing to answer questions from the less-informed like myself who need help making sure their newspapers are mailed out properly. As you might imagine, postal rules tend to be byzantine, and there’s often a difference in what’s on paper in the federal files and what’s actually done on the street. But Heath has seen it all and dispenses his wisdom freely to all who ask.
Another at the top of his field is Richard Davis of Joliet, Ill. He’s at the pinnacle of an even more unusual endeavour than post office rules: Wade Boggs fandom.
Baseball fans will remember the Hall of Fame third basemen for the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees who won five batting titles in the 1980s with an unusual stance that favored poking the ball to the opposite field. But most of us, while duly noting Boggs’ considerable contributions to the National Pastime, have moved on to other things over the past three decades.
Not Davis. His Twitter handle is @boggs328, the number being a reference to Boggs’ career batting average. The 44-year-old describes himself as a “Wade Boggs supercollector” since age 11. Photos show walls of his home lined with Boggs posters; he calls his basement the “Boggs Tavern,” and it features not one but multiple life-sized cutouts of the man himself surrounded by hundreds of baseball cards, memorabilia and posters; he sometimes to refers to Boggs as “Uncle Wade” in relation to his children. It’s really one of those things that words can’t describe; you’ve just got to go online yourself and see it to believe the depth of his devotion. Nothing but respect for the man’s singular focus on greatness. Another Boggs’ supercollector posted recently that Davis is the “king,” which just goes to show that no matter how obscure the field you try to be the best at, there’s always going to be competition and to triumph you have to go all out.
Which leaves me back at where I started? What can I do that I could be the best in the world at?
I’m pondering something related to cheese. But everyone loves that, meaning it would be hard to rise to the top.
Maybe find an unknown author and become the authority on his works. But it’s got to be something you’re truly passionate about or you’re not going to put the time in, and most unknown authors are unknown for a reason. It’s hard to get excited about a mediocre book. Clearly not comedic column writing; Dave Barry has set the bar forever high on that one; it would be impudent heresy to attempt to top him. So I’m out of ideas.
If you’ve got any for me, let me know — or try it yourself and beat me to the punch. At the very least, I’ll promise to write a column about you when you ascend to the apex.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at (601) 736-2611 or csmith@columbianprogress.com.
