Don Welsh was a Baltimore City kid who loaded bags for United Airlines at what was still called Friendship Airport, watching the silver birds leave and deciding he would not be staying like the rest of his Irish-Italian family. His late brother’s job at the airline unlocked the free passes; his mother flew him to Hawaii and Las Vegas before he was old enough to know those trips were rewiring him. At a United ticket counter at O’Hare he met a flight attendant named Jean, married her, and moved her more than twenty times across forty-four years, through airlines, hotels, casinos and the CEO chairs in Seattle, Indianapolis and Chicago, before he was called in to rescue the industry’s oldest association, now Destinations International, coach to the more than 770 places on earth competing for the world’s attention.
At Towson, fifty years ago this fall, he played on the team that reached the national championship under a coach named Phil Albert, who never yelled after a loss. Albert’s reasoning gave this song its name. The scoreboard, he taught his players, is not the measurement; the measurement comes later, alone, when you face the man in the mirror. If you gave everything you had, you can look him directly in the eye. If you held something back, you will catch yourself shying away, and no final score can overrule that verdict. That is the mirror test, and Welsh has taken it every night for fifty years, through every job, every city, every season. Jean died last October after an eleven-year fight. This October, Welsh will fly from Malta through Istanbul to Baltimore for a single day, to stand with his old teammates one more time. He calls the year ahead his last season at Destinations International. Nobody who has met him believes he is capable of a last play. This song is for him, in the big melodic singalong style he would program himself, from a man who turns meetings into shows and tells two thousand people to put their phones down and feel something.
The Lyrics
Verse 1 Baltimore boy with his eyes on the sky, Watching the silver birds taxi on by, Loading the bags in the summertime heat, Dreaming of towns at the end of the street. His brother had passes, his mama had plans, Hawaii and Vegas in a young boy’s hands, And he looked out the window and quietly swore, I won’t be staying here anymore.
Chorus Look yourself in the eye, look yourself in the eye, If you gave all you had, then you know why. Win or lose, it’s the mirror test, The coach never asked for more, just asked your best, Look yourself in the eye.
Verse 2 Ticket counter at O’Hare, nineteen and green, That’s where the boy from Baltimore met Jean. Forty-four years and twenty-some moves, She flew beside him through the highs and the blues. Airlines and hotels and neon casinos, Seattle to Indy to windy Chicago, Every seat in the house, every job on the floor, The bag man was learning what wisdom was for.
Chorus Look yourself in the eye, look yourself in the eye, If you gave all you had, then you know why. Win or lose, it’s the mirror test, The coach never asked for more, just asked your best, Look yourself in the eye.
Bridge They called him in when the house was on fire, He went door to door like a choir for hire, Saying what do you want, what do you need, What will you stand behind? Now it’s Destinations International, seven hundred seventy strong, Every town like a wine with a soil of its own, No two the same, but they all sing along, When the coach turns the meetings to shows.
Verse 3 Now October’s coming and the old team calls, Fifty years gone since those championship falls, Don Welsh flies the world for a single day, ‘Cause the friends of a lifetime are starting to slip away. Jean’s up ahead where the islands are green, He’ll rent a little house where they both had been, And don’t you call it an ending, he’ll tell you with a grin, The season’s not over till the coach walks in.
Final Chorus Look yourself in the eye, look yourself in the eye, If you gave all you had, then you know why. Win or lose, it’s the mirror test, Don Welsh’s last long season, not his last play yet, And he’s looking that mirror in the eye.
An original composition for the GatheringPoint Wisdom Bank profile of Don Welsh, President and CEO of Destinations International. All story details are drawn from David
