My Sunday morning starts with coffee and the CBS program Sunday Morning. You know, the program that featured Charles Kuralt, Charles Osgood, and now Jane Pauley who provide insight into current political events, pop culture, stories of art, ballet, and perhaps, stories that move their viewers to tears.
Very rarely am I moved to tears while watching this show, but something about the show on February 5 brought some tears to my eyes.
I cried in a hotel room with the view of the St. Louis arch right behind me on Sunday morning.
I was introduced to a football player by the name of Malcolm Mitchell, probably along with everyone else that watches this program on Sunday mornings. What was so moving (for me) is that Mitchell is not only a football player (a Wide Receiver for the New England Patriots), but he is an avid reader.
The moment the tears came…when Mitchell said that while he started out as a college football player at the University of Georgia, he had a junior high reading level…
Regardless of how you feel about college athletes, the courage that this young man had is inspiring…because while randomly shopping at a Barnes and Noble, he was invited to a book club—full of women about a generation older than him…and he went…
Now, you may think, “why would he go to a book club with all women?”
Well, watch the video and see…
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-bookish-football-star/
Mitchell was called a “nerd,” and that was something he really never heard before…he was randomly invited to a book club, where he was the only male, and none of those women knew about him as an athlete or as a reader who wasn’t quite to college level reading.
Malcolm took every opportunity to read…while getting treatment after a practice or game, any moment of free time, he was reading.
I love that.
Think about it–if we all put our effort into something as Malcolm did with reading–how motivated, how successful, and how happy would we be?
Have you ever had to work for something? I have. I am not a gifted scholar by any means, I spent a lot of time with my nose in a book, I spent a lot of time reading, taking notes, making sense of my research—I spend a lot of time working on being a better teacher–a better person–a better wife–a better mom…life is work, folks.
Working hard for something we set our minds to can bring us so many blessings–I am rewarded every time I step into the classroom–with students who are starting to understand the writing process…I am blessed to be in a loving home with my family, and we can sit down and talk about our days, laugh so hard we cry, and comfort one another…we all have something we want to work for, right?
I have to say, I agree with Steve Hartman on this one…as he said, “If we could all follow in your [Malcolm’s] footsteps, the country would be in a perfectly good place.”
I hope you find your Monday motivation with this story, or perhaps another “feel good” story…