12

Have a Full Day

Wild blog from me yesterday. That took a wild turn in the middle. Just have to keep cranking out blogs daily so I can bury those crazy ones deep in the pile. If I end up really going big with these blogs I may have to delete that one. Or maybe not. Power play.

I shared this blog with two of my childhood friends on Friday. I said to both of them I was just trying to make people laugh and cry and think a little bit. My one friend responded back “A Full Day!” and it hit me. That was buried deep down in the recesses of my brain somewhere. From being a 12 year old kid and watching ESPN for hours. I remember Jimmy Valvano’s speech. It’s impossible to forget. It makes every hair on your body stand up.

That’s where it was from. Jimmy V, head basketball coach of NC State in the 70’s and 80’s, was dying from cancer and gave one of the greatest speeches ever during the ESPY’s. I could look up exactly what year it was but I’m trying not to do that. Just trying to go from the brain. During his speech he said that if you cry, laugh, and think every day you’re doing something special. It was incredible. It resonates with me now more than ever. I think that represents what I’m attempting to do with these blogs. I want someone to read it and think and laugh and cry, all within seconds of each other. It wakes parts of your brain up that have been dormant. It connects you to other people.

Empathizing with people can be quite scary. It makes me realize how vulnerable I really am. I remember reading Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” and his comment about how the line between good and evil exists inside all of us. If we find ourselves in bad environments and making bad decisions it’s quite easy to become corrupted. I tried to explain this to one of my ex girlfriend’s. I said that I should acknowledge what makes some guys become abusive and empathize with them. I felt this would help me understand how they became that way and resist that. Looking back, I probably didn’t articulate this very well and it didn’t come across effectively. I still feel this is true but I should have approached it in a much better manner. It made her feel scared and uncomfortable.

But back to Jimmy V. That’s really what I’m trying to do. Just sit down and type some shit down and eventually run into something that I’ve been thinking about. Some blogs will have a clear progression and some definitely won’t. Some may make you laugh and some may make you cry but hopefully all of them will make you think.