Me ‘n Pop, we’re teammates. He’ll chunk a stick and I’ll go fetch it. We both make sure that Lula Belle and the missus are protected and safe. We do lotsa stuff together as a team.
Pop was talkin’ the other day about how he’s been on a bunch of teams – sports teams, work teams and even how our family is a team. He said that although it’s only right that individuals get singled out from teams to be honored for doin’ something really good, that don’t change the fact that most of the time those individuals got that honor because their teammates were either right there with ’em makin’ something happen or had things set up behind the scenes that helped ensure that person’s success.
What got him started talkin’ to me about this was a sermon his pastor preached recently. The pastor referenced some scripture from Corinthians where St. Paul was explainin’ how everybody in the church is all part of the same body – they’re teammates.
Pop said it made him think about some of the teams he’d been on.
Back in his Marine Corps days, even though a fella could’ve got a Distinguished Flying Cross for bein’ a real good pilot, that fella usually couldn’t have done it without the rest of the team doin’ their jobs; like the guys who made sure the plane was ready to fly and so on.
He said when he was flyin’ his airline trips it took a whole bunch of teammates to make sure they could get folks around the world safely and on time.
But the one that really got him waxin’ nostalgic was recollectin’ about his first Auburn football team. That team was recognized last year for their exploits 40 years ago. It was made up of players (from first-teamers to bench warmers), coaches, managers, trainers and some others that helped make everything happen. They were all part of that very special team. There were very few players who got individual recognition but there’s one in particular who seems to think that not everybody who made a contribution to that team even deserves to share in group recognition. Pop doesn’t know much about this fella ‘cept that he’s made a livin’ selling insurance. He’s probably pretty good at it. But it seems he’s spent most of his life since his football days tryin’ to make sure that whenever the spotlight was directed on that team he was front row, center and tryin’ to tell folks where to shine it. What’s sad, though, is that he’s tried to push some of his teammates out of the light altogether. For whatever his reasons of figurin’ folks unworthy, he either lost or never had the big picture of how a successful team works.
This is what St. Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 12:14-26
“. . . the body is not made up of one part but of many . . .
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor . . .
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
That pretty well sums it up. Whether you’re buildin’ a house or runnin’ a Boy Scout troop (that sounds a lot like tryin’ to herd cats to me), it takes a team to do it right and everybody on the team deserves either the credit or the criticism or both, dependin’ on how good of a job they do or don’t do.
I reckon that’s why me and Pop get along so well together. Whenever the missus hollers at us ’cause he called me and I jumped on the bed, I hop off and he hunkers down for a wallop from her with a pillow. When she’s happy for somethin’ we did, we both get a nice pat on the head.
Me ‘n Pop, we’re teammates.