Why so serious?

My aim in life is to put smiles on the faces of others while I try to make my way through the world. If I can make another's day easier, then I feel happy. I think that my cheerful light-heartedness can sometimes come off as "I'm all goofy all the time." Not so.

I had a meeting today with my English department. We learned a great way to teach writing where we read an article and then tried to emulate a certain portion of it using our own voice and words.

I gave it a try and though I didn't take offense to it, my department thought mine was trying to be funny. I hadn't intended that, in fact I'd been deadly serious about it, but oh well. So I thought tonight I'd blog about something that's been weighing on my mind lately that's more in the serious relm.

Winners and losers...our world is full of them. While I watched my son approach his gifts on Christmas morning with a look of glee in his eye and a bounce to his step, my heart slowly began breaking. "My son is so happy right now, but all over the world there are kids waking up to absolute heartbreak," I thought.

For every child who happily got what he wanted and more, there is a child somewhere whose parents couldn't afford gifts. There are families whose presents lay unopened for weeks because of an unexpected death right before the holiday.

While watching sports, a true fan cheers for the opposing team to choke and lose the game in spectacular fashion. Well if you are on the winning side of that experience then that's awesome, however if you are on the losing side...

I watched this year as Boise State played Nevada. If Boise won, it would mean a BCS berth and literally milliions of dollars for the university. All they had to do was kick an easy fieldgoal. The kicker missed so they went to over time. In over time the kicker had another chance to hit a crucial field goal...he missed again. Nevada hit a chip shot and that was it. The Wolfpack fans stormed the field and the Boise State kicker, in tears, walked off a defeated human being. He'll probably never recover from that moment. I felt actual pain in my soul for that guy.

So remember, for every great gift you receive, every game winning shot you or your team makes, and for every great day you have with a friend or family member,
-There is someone out there who got no gift, missed the last second shot, or cried themselves to sleep because of the loss of a friend or family member.

It is for the folks who are down that I act the way I do. You may have missed a shot, but I'm there to tell a corny joke to try to make it all better. It's the best I can do.