Little Victories Need Applause Too

Prologue: “Emo” – emotion as used here is not in the current juvenile vernacular where someone is so emotional that it affects their life in negative ways. It is hilarious to me that the age of individual who are the most driven, plagued, and hindered by emotions are the very ones who list being emotional as a bad thing.

Q: How many non-emotional teens does it take to change a light bulb?
A: No one knows. There is no such thing as a non-emotional teen.

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I am a man who thrives on passion. When I am at my very best is when I am driven by a passion for particular event or philosophy or idea or ministry. When I am at my absolute worst is when I am void of that passion and that ability to dream. And everyone knows that to be passionate is to be emotional about something. This does not necessarily mean in a bad sense, but in the best sense.

The very essence of motivation is emotion. How many underdogged, out manned, over achieving athletic teams have won games against a superior opponent by sheer emotion. Ever watched Hoosiers or The Replacements? And it is not only on the movie screen where that is a reality. The late George Allen and Dick Vermeil made careers out of keeping players playing above their ability by motivation.

Read the passage where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. Read where he overturns the table of the money changers. Listen to him talk about the harvest being plentiful, but the laborers few. Do you hear any emotion? If not, read it again, this time with your eyes open.

All that being said in defense of well balanced emotions . . . I sometimes am a sap for those sorts of songs. (Notice I said sometimes. Sometimes they are just plain cheesy too.) The other week at my faith community, I played a song by a 1980-1990 vintage singer songwriter named Wayne Watson. It got me to listening to some of his other stuff. He had some really good things to say in his day that are still applicable.

I was listening to Watercolour Ponies while watching my grandson Gavin playing and the phrase “And little victories can go by with no applause.” It is in reference to children growing up and our support of them often lacking by our busyness.

I watched Gavin, at a month shy of four years old scream down our drive in his bike and ease on his brakes. This was a big deal for him to learn to ease on the brakes not slam on them as he had. It was a little victory. I walked over to him and clapped.

When was the last time you clapped for someone’s little victory? It does not have to be a child. It can be an adult. When was the last time you clapped for someone’s little victory?

Yeah. That is what I thought.

Missing Concerts

This past week was a difficult week in many respects. There is a lot of personal stuff taking place, but the real issue for the difficulty is regarding missing a couple of concerts. Last week in Pittsburgh Tom Petty and Sheryl Crow both had concerts here. I would have loved to attend both. Actually this summer there were six separate concerts I wanted to attend. Heck, I would have even taken my grandson to see the Wiggles! How bad is that?! Financial realities prevented it, but it did not prevent my desire to attend.

My wife has always sort of laughed at my love for attending concerts. Her philosophy is that you can buy a CD cheaper and listen to it over and over. My response is always the same, "A concert is not simply about the music.” It is an experience! A complete and total experience.

My friend Terry Timm said in a recent post of his that he is an “emo” kind of guy. Well, anyone who knows me knows that to be the absolute truth for me as well. (I will talk about that in my next post too.) But the “emo” thing is why I love concerts. I don’t just attend concerts . . . I “emote” concerts. Even in my younger days I NEVER attended a concert bombed out of my mind or incapacitated with substance abuse. I have never done that anyway, but even if I did I would never have done that at a concert. One beer, maybe two, is it! The concert is to be experienced and I want nothing to reduce my ability to experience it.

So, I am doing a very shallow thing. I am grieving missing concerts this year. I love Tom Petty’s stuff, I wear the shirt shown here with pride. I will not miss the next one!

Writer's Block

Several years ago a ministry colleague mentioned to me that he knows some folks who simply HATE to write articles. I remember thinking, “Not me.” I love writing. It is one of my main joys. I had heard about people experiencing writer's block, but never imagined I would ever feel it.

Until now that is. I know you don't believe it, but it is true.

The past few months have been extremely difficult ones for me. Consequently, since I am a private person by nature, I have been struggling with my blog and writing. Most people accuse me of being too prolific not too brief, so this time has been tough. This has been something totally foreign to me. (Many of you could never see me with “talkers block” either but that is another subject entirely.)

It is not that I did not have some things ready; I have at least twenty or twenty five articles in various stages of completion. It is that I just have not felt (there is my Myers Briggs getting me in trouble again) any of them have been appropriate.

So I guess these brief paragraphs are me confessing “writer’s block.” It is my AA sharing or my “coming out of the closet” moment. (I am not making light of those difficult decisions by folks, so PLEASE do not comment and make some hair brained accusation here that is totally inappropriate and totally misses my point. It is a metaphor people!!)

I promise to get back at this regularly, but at least folks now have a SMALL bit of explanation.