It's 11:55pm on Monday night, one full day after the terrible Vegas shooting, and I cannot get my mind off it. We are all confused as ever. In my opinion, with the biggest issues we face as a world/nation, part of the solution is becoming informed, but the most important part is conversation and caring for one another. We all get consumed with the routine of our life, and horrible events like this seem to bypass over time, but today I find myself asking "what can I do?"
Everybody has their own individual battles. We are all dealing with our own "crap." The one thing I love about baseball and sports in general is that it's an opportunity to leave your struggles behind and get lost in the sport you love for hours a day. It can act as a release from the things that are pressing you most. I felt that as a player, and I feel it now as a coach. But when there are issues as significant as the one Sunday night in Vegas, is it right to treat our sport as a release, or to use our platform to engage in conversation to create better? I am NOT talking about letting your political agenda be known, I'm talking about helping young people find simple ways they can create a better world.
We say in baseball "control what you can control." I personally don't have the ability to snap my finger and create massive societal change, and trust me there are things I want done differently... What I do know is that I have a choice about how I treat people from this day forward; that I can make a difference with simple/small acts of kindness. We have an incredible opportunity to help nurture human beings to be positive difference makers. I think horrible events like Vegas should push us to create this positive change. We can have these conversations, and we should. We need to make sense of the "crap" in this world, and find ways, one by one, to create something better. This takes courage, but I believe it's an equation of something powerful if we all buy in together.
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to focus on what I can do, and I'll hold myself accountable to that going forward. My hope is that our program teaches our players to do the same.
In closing, I'll ask you..."What can you do?"
Thanks for reading. Come Thursday, it will be back to baseball.
Yours in Baseball,
Burm
Everybody has their own individual battles. We are all dealing with our own "crap." The one thing I love about baseball and sports in general is that it's an opportunity to leave your struggles behind and get lost in the sport you love for hours a day. It can act as a release from the things that are pressing you most. I felt that as a player, and I feel it now as a coach. But when there are issues as significant as the one Sunday night in Vegas, is it right to treat our sport as a release, or to use our platform to engage in conversation to create better? I am NOT talking about letting your political agenda be known, I'm talking about helping young people find simple ways they can create a better world.
We say in baseball "control what you can control." I personally don't have the ability to snap my finger and create massive societal change, and trust me there are things I want done differently... What I do know is that I have a choice about how I treat people from this day forward; that I can make a difference with simple/small acts of kindness. We have an incredible opportunity to help nurture human beings to be positive difference makers. I think horrible events like Vegas should push us to create this positive change. We can have these conversations, and we should. We need to make sense of the "crap" in this world, and find ways, one by one, to create something better. This takes courage, but I believe it's an equation of something powerful if we all buy in together.
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to focus on what I can do, and I'll hold myself accountable to that going forward. My hope is that our program teaches our players to do the same.
In closing, I'll ask you..."What can you do?"
Thanks for reading. Come Thursday, it will be back to baseball.
Yours in Baseball,
Burm
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