"Alright Fast Eddie, Let's Play Some Pool"
There’s this great scene early in the 1961 movie The Hustler: Fast Eddie (Paul Newman) and Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) have been playing pool for 25 hours straight, and Fast Eddie has been winning—he’s been wiping the floor with the Fat Man, and is over $11,000 up. There’s a break in the action, and Minnesota Fats goes to the washroom and freshens up. He combs his hair, cleans his fingernails, straightens his tie.
Then he comes out, dries off his hands, slides into his suitjacket—it’s a beautiful three piece suit he’s wearing—fixes his boutonniere on his lapel, and has the steward pour a little bit of talcum powder on his hands.
He looks absolutely magnificent, the picture of masculine elegance, calm, cool, controlled.
And then he looks at Eddie and he says,
“Fast Eddie, let’s play some pool.”
Although they’ve been playing for 25 hours straight, and although Fats has been losing for 25 hours straight, Fast Eddie doesn’t want to stop until Fats calls it quits. Which he doesn’t.
And that moment in the washroom is the turning point. From the moment Fats fixes that boutonniere and chalks up his hands, he begins to win. And Fast Eddie is ruined.
I’d seen that movie as a college student, but it wasn’t until I read Colin Powell’s book It Worked for Me that I remembered that scene. Those words, “Fast Eddie, let’s play some pool” had always stuck in General Powell’s mind and he talks in the book how he would use them whenever he had a difficult or momentous task in front of him, e.g., testifying before Congress, which he did many many times.
He recalls in the book how he would go to the men’s room right before he was due to speak, wash his hands, look at himself in the mirror, and say:
“Fast Eddie, let’s play some pool.”
He says that that little ritual would help calm him down to focus on the task at hand.
I have always loved that anecdote.
And though I’m sure it sounds silly to you, I started doing the same thing before I would preach on a big Sunday—say Christmas or Easter—or had a difficult meeting or was nervous about a speaking engagement.
Of course I pray and ask the Lord for help, but it would also kinda give me a little private smile to wash my hands, look at myself in the mirror, and say,
“Alright Fast Eddie, let’s play some pool.”
I begin a new job in the morning, and it feels as if I’m beginning a new chapter in my life, too.
Twenty years ago, I got my first job out of college.
And here I am starting all over again tomorrow.
I feel kinda like a kid going into a new school. (Lord, be with my children as they have their first days of school later this month.)
But, I really think the Lord has been sheepdogging us to Tulsa, which means he has work for us to do.
So, tomorrow morning before I leave the house, I’m going to brush my teeth, look myself in the mirror, and say,
“Fast Eddie, let’s play some pool.”