Heroes

Today it has finally hit home that Lance Armstrong lied for years about doping. I don't know why this is bugging me so much. I guess it is because I have enjoyed watching the Tour de France so much  - I've devoured information about cycling and I truly believed that Lance was a force for good in the world.

I believed him when he swore that as a young cancer survivor he would never put drugs into his body.  In my mind he was above reproach. I guess I just wanted to believe. It's important to have heroes in the distance, people who seem different and somehow bigger than us. They challenge us to reach high (climb mountains for Pete's Sake!), test boundaries. But then sometimes they fail.  Sometime they fall.

No person is perfect or without flaw, but there are some biggies we just can't get past and this will be one for me. You cannot honorably represent athletes and survivors by picking and choosing your truths.  I don't doubt that he convinced himself it was for a higher good, but mostly it was for his own good.

We are also enduring a nasty political season and for the first time in my adult life, I think we might lose friendships over some of our beliefs. This vitriolic kind of manipulative politics is not new - it is as old as organized people.  But that doesn't make it less disheartening. The televised debates boarder on disgusting and mostly it feels as though to get to the top of the pile a person has to be willing to compromise their integrity.

Don't be that person. Let me say it again. Don't be that person.

God made you just as you are, with a good head on your shoulders and a strong heart in your body. You are destined to make mistakes, maybe some big ones. Mistakes don't make us bad, lying about it does. It is better to lose the race with honor than to win without. No one really wins in that case anyway.

Breaking rules matters. I know there are bad rules, rules to be broken, but know WHO you are breaking them for before you do. 

Be truthful.

Be true to what is right.

Don't lie to yourself, 99.9% of the time you know what is right. And when you don't honestly know, pray. 

Don't be selfish - to me this seems humanity's biggest downfall. We care most about our own goals.

Let me say it again. Don't be selfish. 

True to the letter of the law and the spirit of the law are very different things. Know the difference.

Stand up for people, not on people.

Live your life like you're being constantly fact checked. Check your own facts periodically - its important to keep learning, checking and double checking what you know to be true.

Remember that thinking your right is not the same thing as being right - they feel exactly the same - but there is a lifetime of difference.

I am not perfect.  I have not run for office. I'm not sure exactly how I am making my mark in the world.  But I can promise you, that raising you with all my best effort, is a big part of how I try to be a force for good in the world.

Your life is a gift. You've been cherished. You've been loved.  You have no excuse. 

Run for politics. Work for the church. Volunteer.  Start a nonprofit. Raise a family.

But promise me that whatever you do to change the world for good, you will do it with your heart, your integrity intact.  I promise you that I will do the same.

Let's be each others' heroes.