The Most Important Question

I was talking with a good friend yesterday about Republicans and Democrats, Barack, Hillary, and John McCain (it just occurred to me that in McCain’s case we identify him by his last name, not his first–I guess that’s the problem if you share the same first name with 50 million other people! But there is an inherent brand problem there for him–a topic for another time!)

The point of our conversation was nothing Earth-shaking, but we were both chuckling, ironically, that George W. is going to leave office under almost the same circumstances that his dad did; even worse. And funny, up until now I considered George H. to be the worst President in my lifetime, and now George W. is going to leapfrog ahead of his dad to the top of my list. So of course we had to ask ourselves, “how did we get here?” Can we blame the Bush’s and every other politician that draws our individual ire–sure we can.

But the fact is that somewhere between the end of World War II and now, as individuals our focus has become more and more inward–our first worry is how something, anything, affects me. At the end of the day, it’s always about me, me, me. It permeates every facet of our lives: family, work, religion, politics, sports, and it doesn’t ever seem to slow down.

As I head up to bed tonight, and look in on my beautiful, innocent two children, it saddens me greatly that I believe the world that I am passing on to them is not a better world than the one I grew up in. So, beginning today, I will use the Most Important Question:

“If I do (pick an action of your choice), will it make this world a better place for my kids to grow up in than the world that I grew up in?”

I challenge all of us to ask ourselves the same question, because ultimately all we have collectively is what we can pass along to those that follow us. And if we keep going down the path that we’re on, the next generations will be cleaning up our mess.

It’s easy to make life complicated, but I’m going to start trying to make it a lot more simple, and simple begins and ends with the Most Important Question. If you like the idea, try it, and let’s see how it can change us.

I Promise

That as a Minnesota Wild fan, I will never again, and I mean never, say a bad word about Mikko Koivu. And I take back all of the bad things I ever have said about him in the past. Why? In this play-off series against the Colorado Avalanche, he has been a MAN. Clutch goal scoring, great defense, unbelievable effort–it’s truly a pleasure to watch! And for once, I’ll admit that I’ve been wrong, and it will be the only admission of wrong you’ll get out of me this year.

By the way, if you’re a Wild fan, is it problematic that both Todd Fedoruk and Keith Carney have more play-off goals and points this year than our beloved Gabby? Just curious…

No More Sunday Magic

Yes I’m a golf junkie, and as I watched the final round of this year’s Masters I find myself lamenting that the course changes over the last few years has really taken a lot of the fun out of the event, especially the Back Nine on Sunday. In the past you could always guarantee that someone (not Tiger Woods) would make a come-from-behind charge on the final day: the crowds would be roaring on the back nine, echoing through the trees, and sounding the warning to the leaders that they were being challenged. But the roars have gone quiet, and now we spend Sunday seeing who will make the fewest mistakes that will lead to victory.

As a viewer I love the Masters for its beauty and the many things that make it unique. But now one of those things–the drama it always seemed to provide-may happen much less often than in the past. And if that’s true maybe we’ll all cherish it more when we’re lucky enough to see it happen. But the dramas are what have made this tournament legendary, and somewhere in the process of adding yardage, rough, bunkers, and trees, we’ve replaced birdies and eagles with pars and bogeys. And as we all know, there’s nothing better when you’re playing golf than a “boring par”, but it sure takes the fun out of watching.

Welcome!

This is it…my very own blog! Thanks for checking it out!

A little scary that it’s taken me 4 years to actually get a blog up and running (especially since I work for an interactive agency), but “no wine is good before its time”, as an old boss used to remind me! You’re going to find a variety of topics here, mainly about interactive marketing (my work), musings about family and life, and probably a lot about sports of all kinds.

Thanks to my colleague Mykl for getting me going with this, and we’re off and running…