Football...MLK...etc

Football
Yesterday, I was watching football. NFL playoffs and all. Well, I'm sitting and watching the Bears and the Seahawks - cheering, of course, for the Bears - when I started to wonder. What is going through the minds of these players. There were a few that were buddy-buddy on opposing teams, and there were a few that were definitely not. Are they out there having a good time, playing the sport they love? Is it niggling in the back of their minds that a win means more money? Or that a win means more fame, power, prestige? Are they concentrating on just winning the game that they came to play? Are they there to work and then go home? Are they enjoying the time with their team? Are they focusing on the road to the Superbowl? What's driving them?

I suppose it's different for each person, but that probably also then drives the success of the team. With such different motivations for each person, is the coach to try and put them all charging for the same goal (of course, a win, but does he try and tap into their personal motivators or is that up to the individual as a way to achieve the team goal?)...or is the coach just there to orchestrate the larger picture of how each person plays into the strategy of the game? Am I way too much of a girl and totally over-thinking the whole scene? Is it probably good that I didn't end up playing for the Bears as a linebacker? Would've had a chance at a SuperBowl ring though.....
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MLK
So, I was watching the news tonight. Saw the clip of MLK and his "I have a dream" speech. But for some reason, the end of the standard clip resonated with me tonight. He states, "I have a dream that my children will live in a world where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (I might have missed a word or two) So, do we really think that we're at a place where people are judged by the content of their character? I would vehementely say NO. Not just in a skin color sense, either.

First, if everybody expected to be judged on the content of their character, I think our world would have a lot less problems. Eh? When I step back and look at myself, I am not sure that character is all that I want evaluated. When we really get to the root of it, our culture/society/world judges based on what can be seen. It's not always skin color, but it's always on what we can see in the other person. In a world of snappy, quick, three-second first impressions, that's all you get. And the thing that I think we forget a lot is that our background/family/culture influences how we interpret another person. Yeah, I can think that I am being extremely friendly and nice in those first three seconds I get, but if I'm wearing something that is unusual or use an inflection that comes off different than what I meant, I'll be judged on that instead of how friendly and nice I was.

So yeah, MLK, you have a dream. And it's still a dream. An amazing dream....One that would be revlutionary if we were all judged on the content of our character instead of our outward appearance.
And so, think about it...
Yeah, we can't change the world. And we can't change how our world works. But we can change our personal world. We can strive to have a character we would want be judged by. We can strive to see the good in everyone. To judge by the content of their character, instead of the character we assign them. What an amazing world that would be.