Fired UP

“Ya know what makes me sick?

Ya know what makes me so mad

I just wanna chew up a box of ten-penny nails and spit ‘em

in the gas tank of an 18 wheeler?

… ”

Earl Pitts, Uhmerikan

What’s it gonna take to get you FIRED UP? 

Gross Injustice?

Embarrassment to a point of shame?

Bankruptcy?

Unmowed grass?

Obamacare? 

The real question here is: What does it take to get us Fired UP enough to DO something about something?  [Truth be told, we’d just rather NOT if we don’t have to!]  

But DOING stuff is LIFE – it’s the game we’re in – for better or worse, for richer or poorer … !

“ … and if you aren’t in it to win, what the heck are you still doing here?”

Linus Torvalds

What about getting Fired UP to realize your Dreams?

 … overcome the tough challenges?

… beat the competition?

… forestay and forestall disaster? 

Where’s your passion?

What’s your poison? 

“People are like sticks of dynamite;

they’ve got awesome potential inside, but nothing happens until the fuse gets lit.”

Mac Anderson 

When it’s half-past time for the rubber to meet the road – and that may well be NOW – somebody’s gotta get out the matches, the flint stones or the blow torch and light the fuse. 

But, let’s face it: It’s not all that easy, even when there’s “Hell to pay” for failing to deliver the goods:  

It’s been said that the University of Kentucky locker room had to have the paint replaced after every half-time shake-down of the basketball team by Tubby Smith on their way to winning the National Championship in 1998.   

We’re better than THAT! 

“It was a rare night when there wasn’t blood on the floor because we were beating each other up … everything was a competition … we strive to make the world a better place … you never rest on the last victory.  There’s always more to do [better], which has sort of created this perpetual-motion machine of energy and exuberance … my father’s admonition [was] that offense is the best defense.  We don’t give up.”  Zeke Emanuel, author of Brothers Emanuel (interviewed by Belinda Luscombe for Time magazine, April 1, 2013, p. 60)

We need to make the world a better place.  We need to make US better citizens and more productive contributors.  The very BEST that's in us needs to be OUT.  We need to create more HOPE for the future – more promise … more optimism.  THAT’S worth getting Fired UP about!   

“I’m not interested in blind optimism, but I’m very interested in optimism that is hard-won, that takes on darkness and then says, ‘This [darkness] is not enough.’”       Colum McCann 

Let’s get FIRED UP and put some darkness behind us!  Quartermaster