Some days there are just so many things bouncing around that it's difficult to come up with a single topic for one's blog.  Today?  Such a day.

First up, a link to a website courtesy of my friend, Kelly Bozza--author of a great book about how to make a difference in the world by making every Monday matter. The Every Monday Matters website (lovingly known as EMM) puts out a weekly newsletter.  Yesterday, it contained this link about "Johnny, the bagger."

It's a seemingly simple story about how a young, developmentally disabled man, took a customer service challenge to heart and changed a grocery store.

When you look deeper, though, the story speaks to all of us.  What can each of us do to make the day special for each person we encounter.  A smile?  A hug?  Really paying attention?  Giving someone else priority in line, in traffic?

What can you do right now?

Next (and on a wildly different level), how cool is it that Richard Branson literally unveiled his new space-going aircraft today?  Granted, at this point the short jaunt into space (two hours tops, it sounds like with a mere four minutes of weightlessness before coming back to earth) is only for the ultra-rich at this point.  Folks who can blow $200,000 on an adventure and bragging rights.

But this sort of innovative, barrier-shattering engineering is what propelled us into the industrial age.  What gave us air travel and combustion engines, movies, radio, internet...and what will take us to the next level of invention.  Bravo Branson. 

Now if we can just apply American ingenuity to clean energy...

Lastly, lessons learned through golf. 

As some of you may know, I am a tad competitive at times.  (Just a tad.)

So it was a wonderful experience today to hit a solid seven iron up onto a par 3, closest to the pin.  And to be able to enjoy that moment even though my partner (sweet woman named Cheryl) hit her shot about three inches closer to the hole than I had, no more than two minutes later.

To be able to enjoy my shot, and then to celebrate her besting me is perhaps one of the most profound moments of change in my adult life.

Maybe "they" were right all along.  It's not about winning or losing.  It's about doing your personal best. 

 


Comments

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:53:47

Love Richard's new space-plane! Very cool! And it is just the beginning...

 



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