Life’s Imperfections & Gratitude
by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com
Depending on when you read this, the U.S. presidential election will already have been held or will be…and then there’s the question of when the vote count will be completed. The way the country is divided, whoever wins will result in about half of the people being upset at the outcome and the other half happy, more or less.
Whoever the next president will be, I wish you good luck. You and your administration will need it. Ultimately, the decisions and policies you embrace determine the country’s and the world’s direction.
Regardless of the winner, we need to get together as a country. We need to embrace our differences and respect others for their opinions. We don’t need to agree with each other’s views, but we do need to respect everyone’s right to have and voice them. On the surface, it’s easy to see our country as divided, but I like to believe the statement is true that there’s more that unites us than divides us. Finding the points of agreement has become more challenging with the way the sources of our news spins things.
I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of the whole process. Years ago, you saw the president on TV once a month or so. In today’s world of social media, you might be watching an AI version of them! I feel the need to fact-check everything! It’s a tiring process. (Where is Walter Cronkite when you need him?)
In our industry, we’re lucky. What we do for a living is provide fun to everyone in big doses, regardless of party affiliation. We want everyone to play our games and have fun without politics. Red, blue or rainbow, we are not divided.
I never wanted to be in a job where I had to deal with life-and-death decisions. Instead, I desired to be in a career where the goal was to make people forget their troubles for a bit and smile.
November is IAAPA’s time to shine and I hope we’ll see a lot of smiles as we walk the show floor aisles. For me, it’s a long week but always productive and full of opportunity. I’m looking forward to the show where I can see many friends as well as the new products the creative minds have brought to Orlando. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. This year, Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of the month and then I’m flying to a pinball show in Australia on Nov. 30. Busy times!
As I write this, Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene have caused massive damage and loss of life in southern states. I hope that the people affected can find comfort, rebuild their lives, and find the strength to work through what will be a long, complicated recovery process.
What they are going through reminds me that on Thanksgiving – and really every day – we should reflect on everything good in our lives and all we should be thankful for. This country and our lives may not be perfect, but things could always be worse. Smile, be happy, be thankful, spread happiness and be a beacon to others.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jack Guarnieri started servicing electromechanical pinball machines in 1975 and has been involved in every phase of the amusement game business since then. He was an operator in NYC, then began a distributorship in 1999, PinballSales.com, selling coin-op to the consumer market. In January of 2011, he founded Jersey Jack Pinball (named after his RePlay Magazine pen name), which builds award-winning, full-featured, coin-op pinball machines. Email Jack at [email protected].