Every moment of our lives presents us with a choice.  Coke or Pepsi, sweetened or unsweetened; sometimes it makes little difference in the world what we choose.  Sometimes, rushing the cokpit of flight 93, it makes a world of difference.  Every choice we make in our lives will have some impact on others, Coke or Pepsi aside.

The Boy Scouts have a creed, “Do a good deed daily.”

It asks the boys to actively look for a way to positively impact the community.

I’m sure the Girl Scouts have something similar.  I’d hate to think Scout Leaders are out their teaching our girls to ignore the opportunity to help others at every chance.

“Do a good deed daily,” and whatever the Girl Scouts version is, are great lessons.  My Scout leader told us walking past trash without picking it up was the same as throwing it down ourselves.  It’s a small thing, to pick up a gum wrapper or one cigarette butt, but, sometimes, he’d come back from a hike with a trash bag filled.  The little things add up.

Being mindful of the little things teaches yourself habit, it instills in yourself a behavior pattern.  Some of our most important choices are reactionary.  They happen when we have little time to contemplate our actions and we just do.  The person with the learned behavior, the habit, the instinct to do the right thing, will, when faced with the split second reaction, make the right choice.

Detroit Tiger’s Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game of baseball, almost.  Pitching a perfect game is a rare and historic feat.  On the 27^th out, the umpire called the batter safe at first recording a hit against Galarraga.  It was a bad call.  It should have been an out.  The umpire apologized afterwards.

Armando Galarraga had every right to be mad.  He could have argued the call.  He could have got in the umpire’s face.  He could have thrown things, maybe even punches.

He did not.  He accepted the umpire’s decision with respect for the game and the other player’s.  Throwing a tantrum would not have changed the outcome.  Reacting with dignity and respect has taught countless people the appropriate way to react.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRPMhqJTXw

I hope the lesson was learned.

There have been about 20 other perfect games pitched in the history of baseball.  Of those perfect games, I can’t tell you a single pitcher’s name.  Twenty years from now, I’ll still be able to tell you Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game, almost.  I’ll still be able to tell you Armando Galarraga reacted perfectly to a bad call, and there is no almost to it.  A bad call robbed an elite player of joining baseball history, almost.  His respectful and sportsmanlike response is an historical event in its own right.

I’ll never have the opportunity to pitch a perfect game in the major leagues (that I even need to qualify it at the major league level, instead of the backyard softball level is fantasy in its own right).  Few of us will.  Every one of us will have the opportunity to react to a bad call.  For that reason, Armando Galarraga is more important than Babe Ruth, than Michael Jordan, than Payton Manning, and countless hall of famers.

Armando Galarraga showed us that we could all have the opportunity to make the right choice, and he showed us we can all make the right choice, to react the appropriate way, even if it costs us the most important day of our careers.  It’s been 20 years since my Scout leader told me that passing litter on the ground without picking it up is the same as throwing it there yourself.  We may not make it to the major leagues, but we all have the opportunity to make the right choice, to instill in ourselves the behavior that allows us to react appropriately, with sportsmanship and honor, with respect towards our neighbors.  More importantly than walking back from a hike with a bag of trash, my Scout leader taught a group of boys the right choice to make and how to make it on a daily basis.

We can teach our children how to throw a curve ball.  Whenever they are on the mound facing a batter down in the count, that lesson will serve them well.  We can teach them to react appropriately and make the right choices, and it will serve them in every aspect of their lives.

Some preachers are planning to burn the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11.  I cannot imagine what they plan on accomplishing.  I cannot imagine any good coming from it.  I can imagine a lot of bad coming from it.  Not just from the people who will be offended, and rightly so, but from the people who look to these men as models for daily living.  As the day unfolds, we will see if they follow through with their plans.  As the days later unfold, we will see the consequences.

I guarantee you, if they do choose to take that action, they won’t pick up the ashes.  To choose to burn the Koran, no one would have ever taught them to pick up litter.  Armando Galarraga would.  My Boy Scout leader would.