“The Old Philosopher” by Bob Walterscheid (Walterscheid Productions, 2021, 55 pages, $12.00). Available at Watermark Books and theoldphilosopher.com.
Bob Walterscheid enjoyed a career in sales and advertising in Wichita that spanned over 50 years. During that time, he made the first TV commercial for Pizza Hut, training films, infomercials and a full-length feature motion picture. He was also an active family man — married for over 69 years — who coached many Little League baseball teams along the way.
In this book, Walterscheid shares personal experience as well stories he’s heard from others. The slim volume features 26 chapters, generally about one and one-half pages long, devoted to a variety of topics. While short, they each contain a thought-provoking message. Let me share a couple of my favorite bits of wisdom from the book.
In a chapter called “Treasure,” Walterscheid notes that if you “listen close enough, you can pick up words to live by, spoken by complete strangers in unusual places as you go through life.” He relates an interaction that he and his wife had while checking out in a store and uses it to ask: “Do we treasure the things we have while we have them? Or, do we treasure them more when we no longer have them?”
In the chapter on “Discipline,” Walterscheid writes about a sign he saw beside one of his customer’s desks, which read “Discipline creates attitude; attitude creates success.” Walterscheid’s follow-up conversation with that customer led him to this conclusion: “Look at any successful person, and … you’ll find they have a winning attitude about life, and they got it through discipline. That relates to doing things they didn’t necessarily want to do, but knew they had to do them in order to achieve what they wanted to achieve.”
The book’s cover describes it as a “gathering of stories, happenings and events to enlighten your life.” I can think of many people who would benefit from the lessons learned during the life of “The Old Philosopher.”
Contact Ted Ayres at ted.ayres@wichita.shockers.edu.
