My website has the tagline, “We have today.”  Now, you probably gloss over it and/or nod your head and think, “God bless them, dealing with a poor little boy with cancer.”  Please understand, we very much appreciate all of the support and comfort.  THAT being said, the message applies to everyone and not just in the life and death kind of way.  Lately, it’s just been driving me crazy.

It’s actually based in an observation about sports.  Here in Pittsburgh two things are predominant in the sports world.  The Penguins are in the semifinals (conference finals) and the Pirates are off to a great great start.  There isn’t much of this with the Penguins now that they’ve survived the first round where they’ve floundered the past several years.  Granted, fans are worried that they may not win the Stanley Cup but do a great job of enjoying every moment of the ride.  The Pirates…the Pirates though, are another story.

For the last two years the Pirates have reached a modicum of success through roughly the first half of the season.  Then, in both seasons the bottom fell out and they finished with a losing record.  Now, they are off to a better start and have an even better record earlier than either of the past two seasons.  What do I hear from everyone from friends to EVERY caller on local sports talk radio?  They all say, “Well, yeah, but let’s see if they don’t collapse like they did the past two years.”  Some, many actually, say it with such great disdain (between you and me I can find ways they’ve been let down a lot in life and haven’t processed that hurt but that would be a more typical post).  Other fans, the “hardcore” fans, get bitter when people do get excited and get on board and start going to the games.  They can’t stand the “bandwagon” fans as they deem themselves “true fans”.

My point? Hey everyone, RELAX!!!  Don’t you understand?  Things are good…right now.  They are playing some amazing baseball…right now.  Might it change?  Will it change?  Maybe…probably…maybe not…who knows?  Something that is interesting is the fact that Ben Roethlisberger, as a starter, began his career 13 – 0.  I knew then that odds were against him winning through the playoffs into the SuperBowl.  Others too fretted him eventually faltering and missed enjoying the Steelers incredible run.  This was all before Trey was diagnosed with cancer.  It just made sense to me.  Enjoy today, fretting and worrying about tomorrow rob you of that joy.

I spoke to a group of high achieving seniors during the school year, last year.  They were typical high stress, resume building, do the right thing ’cause it looks good on a college app, freak out about most things seniors.  I told them, “It’s ok to work for tomorrow but make sure that you LIVE today.”  They were too busy living for tomorrow and working through each day.

So whether it be fretting about x,y, and z or simply not being able to enjoy your favorite sports team doing well, stop it!  You have today.  If things are good, yay!  This isn’t new but I suppose some folks just don’t get it yet.  We have today.  We have right now.  Right now, I’m freezing in a Panera (air conditioning) while it’s gorgeous out.  See you next week.