I met John about 15 years ago on email, through a lecturer in alternative science called Lloyd Pye.  We both followed and admired his work.

We found that we shared many things in common.  Our birthdate (20 years apart), our interest in the sciences, politics and of course construction.

Our emails would bounce across the world from Canada to Australia, including South Africa the USA and England. He called us the 2 percenters, the other 98 percent were those who weren’t awake to the things we knew.

Then emails became phone calls and we talked more of family and health issues, usually around the time John drove his car to the beach for his morning coffee.

It was when he was stuck on that darn hose as he called it, he had to email or phone from home. Always worried about Lorraine’s health and the welfare of his children or delighting in the accomplishments of his grand kids.

I liked him, he was a good man. In one of his last emails to me was a profound piece of philosophy:

" An old professor held a reunion for some of his past students. They complained about money, stress and work. He set a table with a pot of coffee and coffee cups and told them to help themselves. Some cups were of the best porcelain, crystal and bone china, but others were plastic and cheap. When the students picked their cups only the cheap ones remained.

He then said, you see only the cheap cups are left and all the expensive ones are taken, this is the source of your stress because you only want the best for yourselves. Be assured the cup adds no quality to the coffee. It’s just a tool to hold the coffee. In fact it’s usually more expensive and hides what we drink. What you wanted was coffee, not the cup. You went for the best then eyed everyone else’s.

Life is the coffee. Jobs, money and status is the cup. The type of cup we have does not define us or change the quality of our lives. If you only concentrate on the cup you fail to enjoy the coffee. The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they make the best of everything. Savour the coffee not the cup."