Keeping score…we all do it. It’s a gift given to us the moment your newly unwrapped eyes lock onto the people playing the role of Mom, Dad and the Grandparents. One smile or gitchy gitchy goo and you’re hooked on scoring.
What is it going to take to get more of that really cool junk called attention? I got five today…can we latch these ten little toes and itty bitty nose on three more tomorrow?
Scoring is a numbers game. If I eat all my green beans and zucchini surprise…I’ll have enough brownie points collected to seize control of the ice cream scoop, or if I constantly give my boss extra unpaid hours of dedication and loyalty he or she will write good things about me for the yearend evaluation.
Coming from a family of eight kids, one hundred twenty five rabbits, a dog, sixty or so pigeons and a herd of chickens…keeping score during the early chapters was essential. How was I going to gain access to the front seat of the car? Taking out the trash and keeping the bedroom clean was a brilliant first step—Mom’s dig kids who don’t demand loads of their time.
Then it occurred to me: Quickly grip the future before it reaches you…start building your career at the ripe old age of fourteen. No matter what you sacrifice and how many close friends you lose become a point collector outside the ranks of the four walls of parental comfort.
Meaning…those who keep score easily become life’s biggest bore. But what’s wrong with that?
I know a school teacher who had so many unpaid sick days built up she could retire nearly a decade ahead the pack. The cell phone industry banks on individuals who place value on collecting roll over minutes. Birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas are secret hideaways where millions run to even up the score.
I literally ran away from home because I got tired of competing. A trick I learned in junior high school where teachers tend to give more attention to students who over and under achieve. Those in the middle waddle through the pages like baby ducks in search of a lake to plant their butt—once there, goals change; why score points from someone known for handing out points like candy…take on the world and lay your hands on new adventures that earn, “Wow points.”
Businesses put too much energy in the keeping score point system. Research shows you should be performing at this level or else. I keep waiting for the single voice that’ll publicly admit the most recent recession and banking crash was solely based on cheating the keeping score system. When you have too many people reaching for thin air eventually the stuff that keeps us alive disappears.
The point system used to be about having the biggest flat screen television, the most rooms in your house, best looking SUV and kids that were too pretty to be tough and rugged…one slip and they haven’t got the knowledge to pick their tails up and brush the dirt off their knees.
Which is why keeping score is quickly becoming a dinosaur. Those behind us aren’t creatively searching for points to stuff into their pockets; they expect you to collect it for them. I’m shocked their aren’t more parents wearing soccer and Little League baseball uniforms…the tiny people want nothing to do with kicking or hitting the ball—just get me to the end result so we can do something new and less boring.
Video games keep score. ATM’s and online banking are all about how well you keep score. Grocery stores give out free samples to score high marks from shoppers who’d rather be chasing dreams than reality. The most valuable lesson learned is how we truly look to the outside world…we reach for an item then shove it into a basket we spend an hour trying to push away.
Now watch someone who’s come to the store to score a carton of ice cream or a DVD from the Red Box…they hold onto it as if to say, “Look what I just scored.”
Drug companies are making zillions off our passion to keeping a tab on the number of days we feel sick and not in the mood to do what we do. So, they make new drugs that will give you cramps, make your feet swell, could cause a completely different problem in the bathroom, make your eyes pop open at 3am but it doesn’t matter…you feel good now and when you’re keeping score…feeling good is how you stay ahead of the competition.
Can you break free of this addiction to keeping score? I always assumed RV’ers were the great masters of letting score keeping go…then I went to a convention center show where they displayed the biggest, smallest, thinnest, lightest and fanciest RV’s and trailers this side of the Mississippi… That totally says keeping score!
No matter where you go, what you taste, see, rub your fingers through, jump over, climb up or around…everything you do and will do is based on keeping score.
In martial arts we collect belt colors. Black belts continue to learn because the more one knows the more points you score. But in reality how many pages of a 2,000 year old tradition will save your life?
Where is the peace and quiet on a journey oversaturated with point and compare? Be aware of how you keep score. Be open with how you collect and what you do with each point after it’s been delivered. The hardest thing to digest isn’t the failure of collecting points but rather the unspoken knowledge of knowing none of it is going with you the moment your feet touch the horizon.
Be good...play fair and never stop being you.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
No comments:
Post a Comment