Voluntary Commitment

Ladies and gentlemen, the theme for this week's blog entry is “Commitment”, and if you take a look at the photo to the right, you'll see my inspiration.

This photo has been all over the news lately.  But for those of you who haven't heard the story, the photo is actually a still taken from a video of a college baseball game that's been making the rounds on the Internet.    The video shows a player from Fordham University who, as he rounds the corner at third base and finds his way to home plate blocked by the catcher of the opposing team, leaps head first over the head of that catcher, doing a flip in mid air, and landing head first on home plate.  SAFE!!!!  Unbelievable, and YOU SHUT UP while you're at it.

Now, I can't help wondering what this guy's train of thought must have been when he rounded third base and realized, too late, that he was stuck between third base and home:  Unable to go back, unable to go forward.  I'm thinking he had two choices:  He could either give up and allow himself to be tagged out, or he could leap over the catcher's head!  Of course!  And that's exactly what he did, in the process becoming a poster child for the idea of commitment to a goal.

I confess that the first time I saw this video I'm not sure if I thought, “Wow.  Now that guy's committed”, or “Wow.  Now that guy needs to be committed.”  What I did know, however, was that I had my theme for this week's musings.

Too often it seems that the idea of committing oneself is seen as a negative thing.  If we are committed, we are “going out on a limb” or “sticking our necks out”, or, if things are really dire, we are out on a limb while sticking our necks out.  And my own personal favorite, comparing involvement and commitment with bacon and eggs:  “The chicken was involved, the pig was committed.”

Of course commitment involves some risk, because we are typically outside of our comfort zone while we're doing it.  But I for one believe that a little bit of risk in life can be a good thing, because that's how we grow.  While I'm not saying that we want to “grow” ourselves into a slab of bacon on someone's breakfast plate (like the proverbial pig referenced above), how else can we find out what we're capable of if we never stretch our limits?  If we never commit ourselves to a goal?

All too often, we are hesitant to commit to something because we are afraid of embarrassment or failure.  It seems to be a yardstick in our lives, a marker for our self-awareness and maturity.  When we're children, we're completely un-self-conscious as we explore new things, rushing headlong into our brave new world.  We run around naked, screaming at the top of our lungs with the sheer joy of being. If you did the same thing as an adult, you would be committed.

And when we hit puberty and our teens, life becomes just one big embarrassment.  And when we're teenagers, we're embarrassed by everything, aren't we?   We're embarrassed by our parents.  We're embarrassed by acne.  We're embarrassed by the massive faux-pas that is social interaction at that age.  And did I mention we're embarrassed by our parents?  We may be committed in our ideals, but often too embarrassed to act on them.  I'm not sure why that should be, but it be.  Religious allegories about banishment from the Garden of Eden due to that Tree of Knowledge thing, and high-fallutin' theories about the Songs of Innocence versus the Songs of Experience surely abound.

But what I do know is that this tempered approach to life all too often seems to follow us into adulthood, until we hopefully reach a point where we're secure enough in ourselves to not really worry about failing or until we're at least wise enough to realize that if we never really try, then we've already failed.

I want you to take one more look at the baseball player in the photo.  That guy did not fear failure when he made his leap of faith into immortality.  And neither should you.  Commit yourselves voluntarily...before someone does it for you!

Thought for the Day:

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.  Don't be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people's thinking.  Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary.”  --From the 2005 Stanford commencement address given by Steve Jobs, Apple CEO.