Win the Day?

So the Ducks just lost their chances at the Championship game tonight. Being the OSU Beaver fan that I am, it was difficult because I didn't want to watch it (out of principle), I wanted the Ducks to lose and kind of wanted them to win (gasp!) all at the same time. It was exhausting, to say the least and I'm glad all the hype is over. At the very least, I won't have Ducks shouting they are #1 for the next FOREVER. I'm a bit sad because I really wanted a Pac-10 team to win a championship (before we are the Pac-12) and most importantly I wanted an Oregon team to get noticed and a little respect.

Well, none of the above happened.

I read a blog post earlier today by on of my favorite authors where he talked about the Oregon program, Chip Kelly, and Winning the Day. In it he states, "Kelly preaches a single message to his team, and it’s this: Win the day. Who cares about tomorrow, who cares about yesterday, all that is demanded of you is that you win the day. That means have an excellent practice, that means have an excellent day of rest, that means every hour of every day, be there, be present."

I wonder, not just, what would happen if I lived my life like that but if the collective 'we' lived our lives like that. What if we as a community, as Portland, or as a Nation or even as just a citizen of the world, lived like this? What would that change? What would the consequences be?

I'm amazed at how we (speaking to the western and industrialized world)have as much information at our fingertips on the condition of the world. The economic crisis, people losing homes, whole NATIONS going bankrupt, genocide and needless wars, sexual trafficking, women and children being abused, men being emasculated and the list could go on and on. It is amazing how we have all the statistics on what poverty, substance abuse and mental illness do to our neighbors, our brothers and sisters and we do what seems to be, nothing. There are a lot of bleeding hearts out there, and I, on most days could be considered one.
But what are we doing? How are we loving? Are we loving ourselves by buying big TV's and houses, filling our cupboards with food, and looking down on those that don't have a home? Doesn't it seem that the more we have the more we want, the more we get the lonelier we feel. So we go out and buy more (with the money most of us don't have) to fill that void up? What are we doing to Win the Day? Surly, this can't be it?

I don't think that working hard and having nice things is the problem. I just think part of it is that the massive amount of information that is at our finger tips has become like white noise. Something is is always going on around us, but something we never really pay attention to, unless it pertains directly to us. I understand that we can't all always feel and take in every world, national or even local event going on, but I think that Win the Day challenges us to become better people in what we do. Therefore, if we become better people by demanding excellence from ourselves, we can be better people for others. Better people for our friends, our children, our spouses, our co-workers, our neighbors and beyond.

Win the Day, to me, is about incremental change. I get very easily caught up in how big some of the worlds problems are, and easily overwhelmed.
It is easy to think it is to big and we can make any change. Little by little, when we challenge ourselves, we make change. That little change can culminate into big change.

This does not make me a Duck fan, not in the slightest, but I'd like to think that I can appreciate Chip Kelly's mantra. That it is bigger than just football. But don't tell the Ducks that.