Super Sunday

I'm no football fan.  But there are things to appreciate about Super Bowl Sunday. 

As groups of party goers huddle together around chip dips and big screen tvs across the country, commenting more on the commercials than the game, I can retreat to the quiet of my uncluttered office, collect my thoughts, and possibly post them before the end of the game.

If that plan fails, I can sneak out to our local super store and grab some groceries, confident that the aisles will be relatively empty and I might actually return home with the one thing I set out to secure.

I like a good gathering as much as the next person, but I absolutely savor the times I can slip into something comfortable and soak up the silence that sets in at twilight.  Abbey, my resident muse and guardian angel dog, just curled up next to me as she has done every night for the past month as I sit down to blog. 

She knows the drill.  There will be much movement.  I seldom settle in one position for more than a paragraph.  Then my foot thinks it should jiggle, my leg wants to fold under my seat, my back needs to crack, my wrist longs for a good stretch, and I crave a snack at the precise moment Abbey craves a Busy Bone.

What a writer needs as much as a good idea is the ability to sit still and focus. All this contorting of arms and legs is kind of like the pregame show.  It's required to build the hype and get me fired up and ready to write a few good words.

Ideas flirt with me throughout the day and compete for my attention.  Sometimes they even wake me up and insist on expressing themselves before my eyelids are open. 

This morning thoughts of the Brrry Scurry woke me.   I volunteer at the 4-mile race sponsored by our college and many local businesses to help raise money for scholarships for CCC students.  Yesterday I got my best assignment to date.  Actually any inside job is a good one since it's usually quite cold outside, putting the brrrry in the scurry.

Yesterday I got to volunteer at the water table.  This meant after the runners were done I got to greet them with a "Woo-hoo!", "Way to go!" and "Would you like some water?"

Some jobs are thankless jobs.  This one was just the opposite.  I've never heard so many thank-you's in one afternoon.  The more thanks I got the more "woo-hoos" I gave.  It was an endless appreciation loop,

Since Friday night I completed the blogging equivalent of a 4-mile race in cold and snowy conditions, I felt especially inclined to celebrate the success of the runners and walkers as they completed their goal.  While runners are their own brand of crazy complete with outrageous outfits, it was fun to acknowledge every one of them who came up to the water table.

We all have that thing that we will make time to do, not because we're getting paid the big bucks, but because we cannot not do it.  It's who we are at our core. 

What would make someone want to run 4 miles in February in Iowa?  Over 500 people showed up to do just that, each with their own reason for being there, some traveling from neighboring states.

I love the idea of manifestos.  So much so that when I had one of those milestone birthdays, I put together my midlife manifesto, made a  little movie illustrating my ideas, and started declaring all kinds of things. 

But manifestos are only the beginning.  Like mission statements, they only work if we actually abide by them.  To paraphrase the good book, in the beginning, there might be the word.  But if our actions don't back up those words, we might as well save ourselves the trouble of uttering them.

So on super Sunday I'm skipping the shenanigans that go along with the big game and instead celebrating the commitment that got the teams there, got friends together to watch, got creative people putting out their edgiest, funniest or riskiest ads, got runners running for a cause, and got me back in my blogging chair.

Game on!


PS - Just as I was about to hit "publish" the ad I'd been waiting all night to see came on.  If you're guessing it was the Budweiser one with the puppy, the "ponies", and my favorite song by Passenger, Let Her Go, you're right.