I've never been much of a football fan, unless of course you count playing touch football with the kids in the neighborhood when I was growing up back in Tennessee. I don't want to brag, but I was a pretty decent quarterback in my day ... yep, I could throw a perfect spiral pass like no other kid on the block. Granted, we were all around 12 or 13 years old, but I was still a darn good quarterback, thank you very much. Other than our neighborhood games and going to the games at Red Bank High School, I just never really watched a lot of football ... I was always more a fan of baseball than football. I'm not sure why that's the case, either, except maybe because my dad loved baseball. In fact, I don't know that I can recall ever watching a football game with Daddy, but I remember tons and tons of times when he and I would watch the Atlanta Braves on television. Now that I think about it, I'm sure that's why I was never really into football ... I worshipped the ground my dad walked on and because Daddy was a baseball guy, I was a baseball girl.
Because my knowledge about football could fit into a thimble, I was more than a bit concerned about my ability to effectively edit the advertising materials for the Kansas City Chiefs football team when my company won their account last year. I remember wondering how in the world I would know if certain information contained in the ads was correct or not, thinking that I needed to take a crash course in football to bring myself up to speed on the sport. To say that I was more than overwhelmingly happy to discover that most of the materials I edit for the Chiefs has way more to do with marketing than with football would be perhaps the biggest understatement of my editing career. For example, today I spent a couple of hours working on a brand guidelines book for the team ... and not once in those couple of hours did I need to know anything about the game of football. Here's kind of a weird thing, though ... I really, really, really like working on the Chiefs account even though I know little to nothing about football. I like editing advertising materials for the Chiefs because they are fun and pretty ... yes, I said pretty ... the ad stuff for the Chiefs is pretty with the team's signature red and gold colors.
I have no idea how many times I've read the tag line for the marketing materials for the Chiefs over the last months, but trust me when I say I've read it a lot. And each time I read the words, I always pause and ponder the truth that is contained with them ... a truth that is way more about life than it is about football. I'm not sure why, but today when I read the tag line, tears filled my eyes as it struck me how very important the words are ... how much meaning is packed into them ... how life-changing they can be. I was so moved by the words today that I repeated them aloud several times as I sat at my desk sniffling as I wiped the tears from my cheeks ... guess it was a good thing that most of the people who sit near me were out today. "Together is powerful." Yep, that's the tag line ... "Together is powerful."
As I sit on my couch typing, my eyes are once again brimming with tears ... not tears of sadness, but tears of acknowledgment, tears of understanding, tears of gratitude. See, here's the thing ... six months ago, I didn't get just how true that statement really is, and tonight I do. Tonight, I get that doing life together is so very powerful ... loving each other, caring for each other, helping each other, listening to each other ... together is so very powerful indeed. There's a strength in standing together, a strength that comes when you realize that you aren't alone ... that someone is cheering for you, believing in you, urging you to be the best person you can possibly be. I have a special item hanging in my cubicle, a large frame that contains several different messages written on note cards and signed by the individuals who wrote them. Each time I look at it, I am keenly aware that I am not alone ... I am keenly aware of the what the power of together can do.
Together really is powerful, friends ... it really, really is.
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