Monday, January 25, 2010

The Good Fight

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_3rRhWwURFjo/S1zu8sUqt9I/AAAAAAAAAmA/WYw1Ku1HBC0/Silver%20Lining%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800I've been given a blog award. It came from Paul Michael Murphy over at Murphblog, who I consider one of the finest spewers in Bloganada. Thanks, Murph! Appreciate the positivity nod. I love Murphblog and would rather succumb to a knight's sword tip than go without reading it. But I have to be honest (because it's the best policy, and I consistently tell my students to endure this disgusting character trait, which--most of the time-- emits only positive ramifications) I have mixed feelings about the ubiquitous awards circulating within Bloggerville. Here's why:

1. There are too many awards.

 When everyone gets one, they become meaningless, just like trophies have become meaningless in little league sports. When I played baseball and soccer and basketball, only the winners received trophies, and they were usually shiny and gold. On top was a sports figure holding a baseball bat or shooting a basketball. The bat always ended up breaking, but it was still cool to be the only team that WON a trophy. Keyword = won. For those parents out there who are thinking, "Well, my son/daughter got a trophy and he/she thought it was the best thing ever and it made him/her feel good," this is for you:

Life isn't about feeling good all the time. Life is about winning. Losing. And unfortunately sometimes tying, especially in Major League Baseball All-Star Games. Kids should be taught how to handle the euphoria of winning and the misery of losing. It only makes you stronger. In life, not everyone wins. In life, sometimes you lose.  In life, sometimes you lose bigtime and have to deal with it. Again, what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.  

2. Bloggers pass the awards around like condensating potion at a witches' Tupperware party. 

3. The awards come with no prize money.

4. ShamWOWS! "The Germans always make good stuff!"

That being written, I accept this award with the positivity of these people and the smile of this boy.

In a society dominated by the scandalous, where the lead nightly news story is murder and mayhem that makes a Batman-less Gotham look civilized, where the freeway slows to a crawl because of crane necks looking for mangled cars and the remains of vehicular slaughter only so they can turn away in frightening disgust, where people flock to TV shows to live vicariously through others...

Positivity

Remains

Necessary

To

Survive   


Keep Fighting the Good Fight 

and 

Keep The Glass Half Full.

Top Five Positive Bloggers, stop by to claim your ShamWOW!


Myra
Shannon
Sharon
Corey
Tess
Posted by at 9:13 PM
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6 comments:

  1. Tracy, I agree with you on so many levels here. I remember the first neighborhood birthday party I threw for my daughter. I was telling one of the mom's ahead of time that we were going to play a game called Pass the Parcel. It's an English game, you wrap up a prize lots of times, pass it around the circle of kids, when the music stops the person holding the parcel unwraps one layer of paper, the person who unwraps the last layer wins the prize. She was horrified that everyone wasn't going to get the prize. I compromised, I had 14 little chocolate bars and one huge one in the final wrapping. So the winner got to give everyone a little bar, but he/she still won a big prize. I was okay with that, but when I went to another party and they played my game and the last person opened the parcel it had a prize per kid in it. Life is full of wins and losses. You have to prepare your kids for that part of life.

    So, I was surprised by you giving out the award when I got to the bottom of your post. Thanks for including me in your list. I think blog awards are like the stickers I used to pass out to my students. They are a little something to let you know that you are doing something right. (Sorry about going on and on.)
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  3. My favorite thing about this post is that the Major League All-Star tied game link brought up a picture of Tupperware.

    That almost seems appropriate somehow.

    (And you thought I didn't click the links.)
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  4. @Sharon - what a softy parent. Sounds like a cool game to me. I passed this award along only because it came from PMM. Otherwise, I would've ditched it.

    @Tina - well said.

    @ Murph - I fixed it, though I should've left it. It does seem fitting somehow.
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  5. Hi, Tracy! Thanks for stopping by and brightening my day at Book Dreaming. It looks like I've been missing out on the Neil Gaiman fun. I'll have to go back and catch up on my missed posts.

    Thanks for adding me to your list. I'm honored, and I agree with all that you said about awards.
    ReplyDelete

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