To Not Have a Backwards Day

The world moves backward more often than it should but your participation is this movement is optional. Yesterday I had a conversation with a coach about a player who got his ear pierced recently and wanted to keep the stud in during a game. He figured he’d just cover it up with a Band-Aid.  I know, right? Norman you make a bid deal out of things like this because you’ve always been this way. You never got your ear pierced or procured a tattoo. Half true. I may have never worn an ear ring or inked up but it’s not because I was always opposed to it. There was a time when I couldn’t wait to do both of those things. But I’m not concerned about a teenager getting his ear punctured. I was more annoyed that the player my coach friend was talking about moved the team backward.

There are certain decisions we make everyday that benefit only one person, YOU or ME. And when those decisions materialize, the day just started going backwards. I used to ask my students what would happen if the whole world was selfish. They’d wrestle with it for a while and occasionally someone would retort, “The World would be more dangerous.” And to that I’d say, “Not exactly, try a stronger word. EXTINCTION.” We’re all selfish as a rule, from the Third World to the land of affluence. From a basic school day to game day in every gym in America, it’s selfishness that threatens progress and of all the things we don’t control, this is not one of them.

Husbands and wives, coaches and players, principals and “Staffulty”, teacher and students, business brass and subordinates bear in common the fear of losing control. But nothing  moves an entity backward faster than selfish ambition because such a mentality is laced with the assumption that there’s not enough for everyone or people cannot be civil enough to accept reasonable input.  Conversely, perhaps, when confronted with the metaphorical “Ear Ring Incident” we’re afraid to enforce necessary rules that establish order. There’s myriad factors involved with a backwards day but the thing I’ve come to accept is that I’m in control of most of them. Today I can avoid gossip, text my wife a compliment, ask a player a tough question about the choices she’s making, etc.  I can write on the Facebook wall of somebody I don’t usually talk to or simply continue to pray for the Haitian community long after the world conveniently sifts the recent tragedy from its memory. There’s infinite ways to make certain today isn’t a backwards one.