carbonated joy

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I absolutely love this picture!!
It’s pure joy in pigtails!!
Look at that face!
I got to say that I love museums, but I’ve never seen a kid make a face like that in a museum.

I remember in the nineties, hearing that Emmitt Smith kept all of his touchdown footballs, he would tuck them under his arm and put them under lock and key.
That means that by the end of his NFL career, he had 175 footballs (if I googled correctly) sitting around his house…
memories under glass.
That is fine, it’s his achievement, it’s his prerogative.
This is America, you get to choose what you do with your success.
In contrast, Cam Newton has given away everyone of his touchdown footballs.
He runs over to the end zone and shares his moment of gridiron glory with a kid.
That kid gets to take a football home where it will become much more than a football.
It becomes a story, a forever moment, a memory to be handed down to future generations…that’s a pretty big deal.

There a lesson there…We can turn our achievement into a museum or a moment.

You can choose to store or share your success.
If you store it, it becomes a museum.
If you share it, it becomes a moment

Sharing your success doesn’t cheapen it.
On the contrary, it multiples it.
It turns your success into someone else’s story.

You can’t worry about what others think of of you.
It’s interesting that between the two players, Cam is the one that has gotten criticized the most.
Cam is criticized for what he chooses to do with his success!?
He celebrates the moment, then he shares the moment.
And, people can’t stand it.

An interesting aspect of the human condition is that we are okay not taking a ball home as long as nobody else is taking a ball home.
But, we get angry if someone else gets a football and we don’t, even if it is a precious little kid in a pink stocking hat.
That’s sad.

As a resident of the Carolinas, I’ve noticed that Cam’s attitude has become contagious.
It has spread to the rest of the team, and to the fan base, and to the city, and to the two Carolinas.
Something real cool has happened…
the team has gotten bigger!!
We can’t fit in a locker room.
The team has literally passed the ball to the fans.
And, the fans have ran with it!!
Thank you Cam and the Panthers for sharing your moment with us.
Your story is ours.