I’m coaching a boys’ basketball team this year, and when I was talking to the league director before the season started, he said, “The awards are what you make of them. If you make them a big deal, then the kids will treat them like a big deal.” And so I will now work toward making weekly awards a significant part of the season.
When I was in college, I spent a few weeks with some kids at a leadership camp. For those weeks, I was a counselor for 7th grade girls and guys. It was fascinating to watch how their response changed in unison with my response. When I was excited about a game, they were excited about the game. And when I wanted to be done for the afternoon, their excitement level tanked.
A magician provided the entertainment at our staff Christmas luncheon today. I was less than enthused at the prospect of a drawn out session with an illusionist and began to mutter comments about my low level of interest. I stopped, though.
The illusionist was fascinating, especially his trick regarding tearing newspaper. It was amazing to watch my eyes and mind get completely caught up with this illusion. And everything I saw told me that what he was doing was real. And in spite of my negative expectations, I was genuinely pleased and entertained by his show.
I don’t normally get excited about giving weekly awards; nor am I excited to scream and chant camp songs to encourage kids to play their best. I am oftentimes more interested in doing something other than what is prescribed for me.
But in all of the above cases, overcoming my initial (and wrong) expectations allowed me to discover things I never saw before: a bunch of boys, excited to get a green star after practice; a group of kids who seemed to have the most fun while getting creamed playing kickball; or even myself, learning that programs can be entertaining and educational.
If I sat mired in my expectation, I would have missed out on so much of life. I hope that my expectations don’t preclude me from trying new things or being a negative influence regarding good things.

I have always been genetically inclined toward whiteness so it would be an odd thing for me to proclaim that I have a great tan. I could say something like, “I’ve got a great tan for me.” And that would make plenty of sense. But this is a silly example because I would never say something as foolish as that right?
But I think I do.
It’s an interesting display to watch other people brag about things. “Look at me, I did this or that.” Sometimes I hear something nonsensical like, “I’ve been in AA for six months.” Seriously, when did participating in AA make you a cool person?
I can think of many times in life when I have made fun of someone: “They don’t have a good personality.” Or, “They’re so boring…” “They don’t know how to have a good time…” “They’re creepy and weird…” “Their personality is not so great…” And to top it off, “I just don’t think they’re very attractive.”
I’m sure someone else has said the very same thing about me before. And I’m sure they felt superior to me and justified to make those comments.
So that means that I am guilty of the same things that I condemn in others. I must be quite a spectacle.
I’ve watched countless people mock others for the same things they did. Seeing this made me realize that I too am guilty. I feel justified, believing myself to be superior to others. I think because I have X or Y, I am intrinsically better. And because I am better, that gives me a right to verbally degrade them.
That shouldn’t be the case.

There was once a girl named K
Who always seemed to play
She drank and smoked
And liked to poke
On almost every day.
One night she did the same
She drank, she smoke, she became quite lame
And in one instant
And with much insistence
Her eye was set aflame.
Before she thought her eye would burst
She reached down into her nearby purse.
Ol’ K grabbed some eyedrops to
Squirt some of that slimy goo
Into her eyes and rid the curse.
Alas that drop was not
Something that was sought
To place in the eyes
And remove all of the sighs
And restore her to a normal lot.
You see, my friend
Those drops did not tend.
Instead, it was more like a glue
A very tacky super goo.
That did nothing for the eyes to mend.
But those drops did send
Poor K to rend
The eyelashes and cornea off.
Of course, the doctors scoffed
As well as her friends.
In the end her eye turned red,
While she went to her bed
She laughed at best she could
Knowing that she did no good
Putting that drop on her head.

Have you seen football players celebrate after a tackle or reception? You see guys on special teams (who are lucky to even be in uniform) make a tackle and then start beating their chests… It’s very funny. And of course, the best part is when teammates come by and start slapping them on the helmet. It has to do great things for your brain, and I do wait for the day that some player get a concussion from such nonsense.
I wonder how the business world would react if their employees celebrated the mundane parts of their job. Maybe tomorrow I should run down our office hall, screaming, shouting, and beating my chest after I create a website. I could create a “create” dance and a “finish” dance to commemorate these daily activities. Then, maybe, I could be cool like the football players…

I opened my freezer this evening and grabbed a bag of chicken nuggets. I pulled some out to heat in the oven when I noticed an interesting label on the front of the package: “10% More Free.”
I sat and stared at this interesting sight. “Wow, Tyson is so generous. They have decided to fill an average package of chicken nuggets with 32 ounces, but out of their generosity, they are giving me 35.2 ounces. What a deal.”
How puerile do they think the consumer is? How can you arbitrarily set a standard just to make yourself look better? It’s absurd and offensive. Tell me what the package contains, not how wonderful you are.
And then I thought, “Dang, we all do that.” We arbitrarily set low standards in our lives and beat them, all the while proclaiming how great we are for beating this standard. No one would say a man is good because he doesn’t beat his wife 95% of the time. Only saying one mean thing a day doesn’t equate to being good.
Why should we expect to be “good” because we are better than some low expectation? Having 10% more free doesn’t mean the package is better. It just means you’re trying to inflate your goodness.
A standard exists, so why waste our time with labels and definitions of personal goodness? Why try to place yourself in a position where you “seem” better than you are. Measured up to that standard, you fail so miserably, and in the process, you have only wasted your time trying to make yourself seem better.

I’ve begun to realize over the past few weeks that modern American society is built upon the exploitation. Here’s why:
As I was driving to Fort Worth a few weeks ago, I passed a number of billboards for the Texas Lottery. Of course, lottery billboards are nothing new, but instead of proclaiming this weeks’ grand total or mentioning how much money you could win by scratching off some metal from a piece of paper, it announced that the Lottery had pumped over nine billion dollars into Texas education projects. I passed it, and thought, “That’s nice…the Lottery has paid $9 billion to help kids learn to read and write.” But then I thought, “What an odd way to advertise a lottery.”
In reality, what the billboard said was this: “The Texas Lottery is a funnel organization, taking your money and pumping it into schools, while cleverly giving a small percentage back to those who paying for the program.” Some genius figured out that they could snooker a large group of people into paying a voluntary tax with a small percentage of getting rich. If you think about it, it’s a genuinely brilliant plan. Except that it exploits mainly poor people who are looking for a way to get rich quick.
If you consider the stories associated with the Lottery, it seems like a mixed bag. I mean, every time someone wins $200 million plus, they make the evening news with a larger-than-life check and a huge grin on their face. It seems like all smiles. But the statistics tell a different story: most of the people who win the lottery go broke or lose their friends. They go broke because they don’t know how to deal with the money. Or they lose their friends because they were too generous. Or maybe they weren’t generous enough. Other families are torn apart and some lose their lives because of foolish choices. Did the Lottery unilaterally cause these events? Probably not, but if you want to look at an interesting chain of events beginning at one point, then you could peg it on the Lottery. And in spite of the wonderful thoughts of millions of dollars, it just hasn’t been a helpful for those who have played and those who have won.
So what is the lottery then? It’s a state-sponsored exploitation of poor or ignorant people who dream to get rich. This means that our very government is in the business of exploitation.
The old adage goes, “Misery loves company,” and I say that miserable actions also love company. And by no means is the government unique in their targeted exploitation of people.
Every day I stop by my mailbox on my way home from work, and every day I walk away with another set of envelopes, addressed to everyone from Andrew to Russell, to medical and to Mrs. Smithson. And who are these envelopes from? American Express, Capital One, Chase, MBNA (now Bank of America) and more. I receive an average of 12 credit card solicitations on a weekly basis.
I usually wonder how they can afford to constantly send the same invitations over and over and over. I mean, how can this be cost affective? But then again, I assume that the world is like me, and judging by the sheer volume of credit card crap, the world does not operate in the same manner as I do. The constant salvo of advertisements tells me that they are successful in generating revenue. So how do credit card companies make money?
Every time you use your credit card, Visa / Mastercard / Amex gets a percentage of the sale plus a small transaction fee. This amount is split up between the said company and the issuing company, in many cases, the companies listed in the paragraph above. In effect, if I spend $1,000, the financial institutions pocket $20-$30, depending on various factors. Some credit cards offer things like Cash Back or a Reward Program, usually about 1% of your purchases. This is a further incentive: “Hey, you’re already spending a bunch of money, so you might as well get 1% back!!!!” It seems like a generous move, doesn’t it?
But how do these companies actually make their money? I’m sure we’ve all watched Dateline and seen the stories of people who have thousands of dollars of credit card debt, stuck in an eddy of 15%-20% interest rates, and minimum payments that will move them out of debt in only 30 years. And all the while, they pay back their actual debt over and over because of this exorbitant and exploitative policy.
And who do credit card companies target? Everyone, really, starting with college students who dream of nice things but haven’t yet developed the means to pay for this. So you convince a bunch of poor students to buy a bunch of stuff, put it on the credit card, and worry about it later. It’s genius. You’ve just created a market for yourself for the next 30+ years. You build a little debt, and when you really need something, you have to use your credit card because that’s the only option.
It’s not the credit card industry’s fault that people are foolish and can easily be connived into doing dumb things, but I do question the validity of an industry that is totally based on exploiting people who obviously lack the faculties to make good decisions.
Where is the collective societal moral outrage over these two things?
Of course, these aren’t the only ways that business and government exploits people… I can think of several more offhand: sports ticket prices and apparel, fashion magazines, movies, television, among many others.
So why did I write this epic? As I looked around, I was sickened at this repeated and obvious misuse of people, and I wondered, “Does anyone else see this?” And I guess more importantly, I wonder, “Does anyone else care?”

I realized today that misery does indeed love company. It’s a cliche, I know, but it does seem like the unhappiest people want to take you along for the ride–except it’s their miserable ride that they’re offering.
So why this post? I’m not sure, but I thought I’d share this momentous revelation with you…

We’ve all been in situations like this: you’re sitting through a speaker or teacher that is not coherent and is struggling to say anything. Of course, whether or not they realize their difficulty is another story. At any rate, the teacher is not making much sense and your mind is wandering around, praying for the session to be over.
And you’re hating every minute of it.
Why are you hating it? For starters, you don’t feel like your learning anything, and you feel like you’re wasting your time. It’s altogether possible that you are wasting your time, but I say that is your fault.
Why? One of the best times to learn is through a situation like this.
The question is how you deal with the information and method of presentation. The first thing to consider is do you teach / lead like this when you’re the one that is speaking? That will nail you many times and make you quiet your angry thoughts. It’s tough to be upset at someone for doing the same things you do. The second thing to consider is the subject matter. Is it correct? If not, then you can consider what the truth is and compare it to what the speaker is saying. From there you can prepare the best method of stating reality.
These two methods help me to enjoy and learn from even the most taxing of speakers…

Arrogant American – noun – a citizen of the United States who is more concerned about the well being of our economy than the lives of those affected by war.