This week started with the loss of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and a total of 9 people in a tragic helicopter crash. The following days we learned more about everyone who died, their families, and the impact it had for those who knew them.
I might offend someone in this blog, and, if I do, I want you to know that I love you. As I thumbed through my news feed I saw all kinds of comments. Most of them were very good, encouraging, and heartfelt. Most people like myself paid tribute to the impact of Kobe’s life and as we learned about the others, we made post and comments about them as well. It was a unifying moment. A moment that reminded us how short life can be and what matters most.
DISCLAIMER: ( We are not always going to agree, somebody is going to be more right or more wrong in any given moment of time….Regardless, ONE thing can be true. Your greatest adversary can mourn your loss if you had the following: NOW back to my blog:)
I want to address the one “kind” of comment I didn’t really like, and at best, I understood that it wasn’t meant entirely in a negative way, however, it struck me the wrong way. These are the post I’m referring to: “Boy, nothing against Kobe, but he’s just a basketball player, it would be nice if we celebrated ordinary people who died, like we do celebrities” ……and, there were other posts along these lines that even brought in religion and faith as an attempt to remind us of what’s important. At face value, I get it. We don’t “seem” to bring light to the many others who have sacrificed, and are worthy of our praise and prayerful mourning or if you are a person of faith, some post suggest we don’t speak about Jesus or our belief in God as we should……The thing is all these comments are not true. Here’s why…
A few moons and sunrises ago, I moved to Nashville, TN, got a day job at a cabinet shop and worked with my first publishing company. I was pursuing my dream. I met a guy named Ken Dugan. Coach Dugan was a legendary baseball coach for Lipscomb University. He won 1,137 games in 37 seasons ( 1960-1996) He was also a batting champion back in his playing days with a slugging percentage of .824. I met him while singing downtown at what was then “Davis Kidd book store”. It was off of 21st and was a scene for singer/songwriter nights. Coach Dugan took the time to tell me how much he enjoyed my part in the night, and that I should never quit singing or writing. It was also what he said in the course of our brief meeting that stuck with me while talking about songs and music. He was a big music fan, and we had the love for baseball in common too. He said, “People remember the ones that loved”…..those are some of the truest words ever spoken. He passed away in 2000 and believe me, he left a legacy of much more than a baseball player and coach.
I personally believe in God. However, it doesn’t matter to me if you share a different belief because that statement from Coach Dugan rings true for all of us, no matter what you believe concerning life after death. WE are all given what I call a platform. YOUR very own “platform”. It may consist of your family, friends, co-workers, local town hall, church, school, or civic support group. Your platform might grow to reach millions of people like Kobe Bryant’s platform. Whatever platform you have, the people you leave behind are going to remember one thing. Did you love?
Plenty of celebrities have died and hardly no one mourned the loss. Kobe Bryant was not a perfect human being. Who is? Apparently, the verse is true, “love covers a multitude of mistakes”……that’s for all of us. It’s obvious he made the most of his platform from the outpouring of those he touched in a positive way that went far beyond “being a basketball player”…….no one is elevating him to a level because of his celebrity status. No one is forcing hundreds maybe thousands of people in L.A. to stand in vigil and mourn the loss of another human being. And Finally, NO ONE is saying his life was more important than the others who died with him or any person that dies…..He just happened to make the most of his “Platform”……NO different than you or me. The numbers of people we reach or not what’s important. It’s the fact that we reach them in a positive way.
My question is for you and me…..what is your platform? Who do you reach every day? Are you going to be mourned? It’s a sobering question. If you’re like me, you might say, “Man, I think so, I try hard, I hope so, I’ve made some mistakes, I can do better, etc…..Well there’s good news for you and me. WE can do better. Everyday we have a chance to love the people around us better than the day before. The people we reach from our very own platform. There’s only one question for us.
Did. You. Chose….the impact of love to leave behind?
Love is hard, love is kind, love is passionate, and love is tough, and, we have all heard this before….”Love is the greatest of all things”
Have a great weekend!
Love you, Love you Big!