"Friday, I'm in Love"

Last Friday was a day full of action and activity. The plan was to drop the kids off at school, quickly attend a little “art show” in my son Bryson’s class, take care of a bunch of work and then wisk Jennie (my sweet spouse) off to a weekend on the beach in Florida (just us, sans kids!). In all candor, my mind was going a hundred miles an hour, trying to fill about five hours of “stuff” into a four hour window…nothing new, just another example of not “being in the moment.”

I accomplished the drop-off and the “art show” well, enjoying the work that Bryson and his classmates had done as part of the school’s annual auction. As I was heading off campus, I absentmindedly tripped on uneven sidewalk and dropped my BlackBerry. “O”! “M”! “G”! My BlackBerry. As I saw it bounce I feared the worst and went down on a knee to see if “my precious” was working. (I hate the idea of referencing me mimicking Gollum, but it wasn’t far from the truth.) With a quick check, I saw that it was working, seemingly no worse for the wear, and at that moment a little girl skipped on by.

Wearing a flowered top, bright green Capri pants and pink crocs, this little five-year-old literally skipped right past me, book bag on her back, heading to her kindergarten class. I couldn’t see her face but it didn’t really matter. Immediately I said out loud “happy kids.” This image of sweetness, joy, energy and optimism penetrated my BlackBerry mania to remind me that “happy kids” was what it was all about… or maybe what more of life SHOULD be about! In a recent essay in this blog titled “The Lens of Success.” I talked about how Jennie and I aspired for our kids to be “happy, healthy, self sustaining productive citizens.” Here I was, kneeling on an uneven schoolyard sidewalk, watching the embodiment of part of that aspiration….”happy kids”

Well, the rest of the day, including the four-plus hour flight delay, didn’t quite go as planned. Not all the work was finished. We made it down to Florida later than planned. There was a 1 a.m. fire alarm at the beach resort. And so on. With all that said, it was a wonderful Friday and a marvelous weekend getaway with my wonderful wife of 23 years... and yet, one of my lasting images of that Friday will be of the little girl, skipping to class, unintentionally reminding one knucklehead (yours truly) that joy and happiness is more important than a working BlackBerry!

As a final note, I want to give a little “shout out” to the band “The Cure” and its great anthem, “Friday, I’m in Love”:

I don't care if Monday's blue

Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too

Thursday I don't care about you

It's Friday, I'm in love

Monday you can fall apart

Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart

Oh, Thursday doesn't even start

It's Friday, I'm in love