"The Most Important Thing In Life Is Showing Up" -
I'm Blown Away by Your Ability to Show Up - Keannu Reeves "Hard Ball" - 2001
This quote comes from Keannu Reeves and Diane Lane's movie about a bunch of inner-city kids in Chicage who will do anything to play ball including playing with a coach who is drunk or hung over half the time and mostly indifferent to the kids as he is being paid to coach the team. He is deep in debt due to his gambling addiction and he half-heartedly takes on the job.
From the Editor Who Shows Up For Life Daily
As the movie rolls on the the kids grab his heart. As any mediocre veteran of Little League like myself knows young kids on ball teams bond together like pro players never do. The kids have nobody else in their life to count on to run the team so they rehabilitate this schlep of a coach (Reeves). Near the end of the end of the film he tells his young boys the quote above. If you want to read about the whole movie click here.
That quote is as true for the ten year old Little Leagues as it is for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed Canadians who must now get out of bed each morning and pound the pavement to find a way to keep the house and feed their kids. In other words. THEY HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO SHOW UP.
They have to go the bank manager and plead for an extension on overdue mortgage and car payments with no prospects. IN OTHER WORDS THEY MUST SHOW UP.
In my case, I keep pounding away at the mountain of underemployment, life-long chronic depression and the discrimination that faces me when I seek to re-enter a society constructed to push disabled people to the side. IN OTHER WORDS I HAVE TO GET OUT OF BED EACH MORNING, AND SHOW UP TO FACE THE WORLD. THIS MONDAY IT WILL BE CITY COUNCIL. I CAN'T WAIT!!
