The Eternal Shine For Your Dancing Shoes

I am in a real pickle. I have been invited by a bubbly cute girl I met on a Methodist youth trip to a dance in North East, PA.  I have two left feet and if the band doesn’t play 25 slow dances in a row I will be embarrassed out of the building. Where is Kevin Bacon when you need him to teach you rhythm and a few dance moves. I was so desperate, Kevin James and his “making the pizza dance” from the movie, “Hitch” would have given me something! But of course, what do I do, make some lame excuse and don’t go. I was chosen and instead of being excited to enjoy the opportunity I baled.  So disappointing to let fear and what others might think to get in my way.  Why wasn’t confidence invited to go with me?

Why bring up dancing now? Well, the “Big Dance,” the NCAA Basketball Tournament for men and women got selected 10 days ago and between television commercials, picking your bracket and betting, it seems to be the talk of March.

What entices me to watch these championships is to see a group of individuals come together by sacrificing their egos for a common goal.

What you really need after you scour the terrain is a group of individuals that all have passion and something unique to bring to the ballroom.  Remember the 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team that was so young and the clearly impossible task that faced them to win the Gold Medal by having to defeat the Russian Team that had played together for 10 years.  Kurt Russell, the actor playing Herb Brooks, the head coach for the U.S. had some motivating lines in the movie, “Miracle on Ice.”  Paraphrasing Herb, “When you pull on that jersey you represent yourself and your teammates.  And the name on the front is a heck of a lot more important than the one on the back!  Get that through your head!”

The other profound line by Kurt Russell in that movie propelled from the lacksidazical practice game approach his team put forth before the start of the Games.  “You think you can win on talent alone?  Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.”

That captivating line that you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone funnels right in to why there are early upsets in the NCAA Tourney.  On the men’s side, with the one and done theory being so prevalent, many prima donnas may be more concerned about their brand than team cohesion.  In the first round on the men’s side, Yale and James Madison pulled upsets with mostly juniors and seniors in their starting line ups.  North Carolina State only got into the NCAA’s by winning their conference tournament

and now they are through to the Sweet Sixteen, again with a senior and junior class of starters.  On the women’s side, South Carolina is undefeated with a senior and two juniors leading their team.  Lastly, Caitlin Clark, the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year is a senior and her team, the Iowa Hawkeyes are through the first two rounds with victories.  Working together over a period of time not only brings continuity but it gives you intimacy.

No matter if it is Coach Dawn Staley of the favored South Carolina Women’s Team or Dan Hurley Coach of the Men’s number one seeded Connecticut, you need another key ingredient.  A group of players that are willing to take responsibility.  Baffling to me is that we don’t stress enough how huge this character trait is, in all education, from home to school to work.

Please examine two key paragraphs from lifehopetruth.com,

“The Importance of Taking Responsibility”

“A responsible person is one who is accountable, can be counted on, is trustworthy, upholds his or her word, and is reliable. Responsible people will even make sacrifices for the good of others.”

“A responsible person is what a spouse looks for, what a family needs, and what makes a strong society and nation.”

Being responsible is not a flexible concept.  When do you feel most responsible?  With me, it is when meaningful people in my life are counting on me to come through.

As we approach Easter,  I cannot help but think of what happened almost 2000 years ago.  A far more important selection process was going on.  Jesus had to figure out who he was going to choose to be his twelve disciples.  I highly recommend if you have not seen the first several seasons of the drama about the life of Jesus, “The Chosen,” please put it on top of your list.  Jesus prayed about these monumental selections, which is a wonderful fundamental reminder to all of us, when making decisions.  Jesus ended up picking ordinary men because he wanted the most comprehensive approach to connect with everyone.  I am just assuming that God thought it would be a good idea if some of the men had experience in netting their catch, so Jesus asked several fishermen.   Easter Sunday celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and through the Holy Spirit, the disciples overcame fear, despite insurmountable odds and grew the church.  According to “Wikipedia,” as of 2023 roughly 2.4 billion people are followers of Christianity.  That is 31.2% of the world’s population.

As I appropriately stumble back to thinking about that dance I did not accept the invitation to, my mind wanders to, if I only had a pair of magical dancing shoes.

Beckoned by the clicking of Dorothy’s shiny red shoes in the renowned movie, “Wizard of Oz,” I cannot help but feel there is a correlation with her famous repeating line, “there’s no place like home,” and what the disciples were taught to instruct.  The beauty is, this selection committee has a limitless supply of rooms.  To confirm, check out John 14: 1-3.

Happy Easter!