Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo® – 02/04/19
The origins of the phrase “get a life” go back perhaps 40 years or so. As I interpret the taunt, it suggests that someone is zealously focused on relatively trivial matters and needs to reorient to the more important aspects of life.
We all are sometimes obsessed with the fugacious, as many of us were yesterday with the Super Bowl (which was watched by well over a hundred million people). It’s fun short-term, whether for a sporting event, a hike in the woods, or time with a good book.
However, for people in New Orleans to still be upset and investing time about the notoriously bad call the team endured, two weeks later, is mind-bogglingly inappropriate. There are, after all, people with dreaded diseases, loss of loved ones, alienation from society, addictions, and engaged in dangerous places attempting to keep the peace and protect us. Football is a game.
For that matter, there are customers, clients, suppliers, community colleagues, family, and others who need us—and we need them. I become bored quickly when someone complains to me every day about the weather, let alone a game that was lost weeks ago. (And the game could have been won had the Saints played better so that the blown call proved inconsequential.)
The next time you obsess for a long period, particularly about something as minor as a game, ask yourself what’s really important in your life. I root for the Patriots, but whether they win or lose, Monday is a new day and I’ll obsess about neither outcome.
After all, I have a life.
Good things happen when you get your priorities straight.
—Scott Caan
NOTE: SINCE THE PATRIOTS DID WIN THE SUPER BOWL YESTERDAY, I’M OFFERING 25% OFF ALL THE OFFERINGS ON MY SITE THROUGH MIDNIGHT TONIGHT, FEB. 4 US EASTERN TIME! THAT’S NO OBSESSION, JUST AN OFFERING OF VALUE!
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Tony Cavell
Dear Alan,
Unlike examples of sportsmanship and unsportsmanship demonstrated often recently, there have been no riots, no looting or the like in New Orleans in reaction to the league’s choosing of competition (or lack thereof) for the league’s anointed. Ever entrepreneurial, the loyal Saints fans have baked cookies with referee images for sale, there have been parades celebrating the great performance of the Saints this season. During the day of the NFL’s self-aggrandizement Sunday the fans in New Orleans had street parties and other fugacious events rather than include their numbers in ratings. It is a much more enjoyable form of protest than the destruction of property.
Few in the world are aware of the fugacious as are New Orleaneans. Even to the point of traditional Jazz funeral parades lamenting the brevity of life AND celebrating the fact of life as it continues. Fugacious or not, it is worth remembering. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Edmund Burke wrote, “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”
As survivors of hurricanes, floods, subsidence, and government standardization, they are well aware of what counts as important and others would do well to study their example.
Alan Weiss
Dear Tony,
As I’ve repeated many times, I love New Orleans, its people, food, and music. Telling me that people aren’t rioting doesn’t impress me, since that’s a norm I would expect be observed in the U.S. anywhere. Not watching the game (which has no effect on ratings) strikes me a childish. Santayana also said, “A fanatic is someone who loses sight of his objectives and consequently redoubles his efforts.” I’m looking forward to future trips to a great city. My observation still stands: If the Saints had played better, one blown call wouldn’t have made such a difference. Brees was intercepted by the Rams, not the officials. Whining never helps anyone. And, of course, the Pats would have beaten the Saints in any case. I am glad you like the word “fugacious,” but is loses potency when used too often. Best, Alan.