Whatever You Do

WHATEVER YOU DO…
My family and I were fortunate enough to snag the last few seats on the Friendship boat from Disney’s Hollywood Studios back to our hotel, the Yacht Club. We were exhausted in a good way; the way one generally feels after a day and evening at a theme park – sore, spent, content. As the lights inside the craft dimmed and we sailed toward the Boardwalk area, my son chuckled and pointed: “Look, we ought to take a picture of that and send it to Alex.” The Boardwalk hotel and the arcade area are decorated with hundreds of tiny lights, the kind you’d find at a real seaside resort, and on this night, one of them, the largest, proclaimed…”AL.” The lights on the rest of the “Boardwalk” sign had burned out. The following evening, as we walked from our hotel to Epcot, I glanced across the lake to the Boardwalk area, and what I suspected was exactly what I saw: they had replaced the lights, and “BOARDWALK” now beckoned.
While it might be easy to imagine that little light fairies, friends of Tinkerbell perhaps, flit around the Disney grounds at night and replace missing bulbs, the simple truth is this: not much gets past the folks at Disney. It’s unusual to see a burned out light on a sign, an empty plate at a restaurant, or pieces of trash on Main Street linger for long. Yes, there are cast members whose job it is to fix up or clear up or pick up after us, but there is a deeper principle at work here; the principle of excellence. By keeping Walt Disney World pristine and ship shape, an image of perfection is both created and upheld. Disney is often criticized for its attempt to create an alternate universe, “the happiest place on earth,” if you will. It appears that there was some point in history (that I clearly missed) in which it became un-cool, dysfunctional, or even wrong to aim for excellence.
External excellence was the first to go. Remember when men wore smart suits to work, and women saved their jeans and holey shirts for cleaning days? When people dressed up to go to church? Granted, it seems silly to imagine a woman dusting furniture with Pledge in her lemon chiffon dress (a commercial I grew up watching), but isn’t it equally silly to see young men out in public with their underwear hanging out of their pants? Is it really too much to hope for that we show up for work, for school, for a run to the grocery store…clean and well groomed? I remember visiting colleges with my son and seeing a dozen or so kids scattered in the dining hall in their pajamas. Really? They couldn’t bother getting dressed?
Excellence in the workplace used to be admired and modeled. We grew up in awe of the self made millionaires, the mavericks who started with an idea and created an empire. Now they are reviled, particularly in the media, where they’re portrayed as selfish sharks whose lives revolve around themselves and their fortunes. In school, we respected achievers, those who made straight As and got gold stars for good conduct (yes, it was rewarded). Now we’re careful not to put too much emphasis on outcome; grades, after all, make kids feel bad, and respect for the teacher…that’s so 50s. A man who works hard to provide for his family and tries to advance at work is now a “type A,” and a woman who keeps a pristine home and makes gourmet family meals (OK I confess, this one is me) is “O.C.D.” or worse – “anal retentive.”
Excellence in relationships takes work, and we don’t have time for that kind of work. It’s easier to send a text than to speak to a human, to shoot off an e mail rather than to sit down and have a face to face chat. We are too tired and too overscheduled to keep in touch with our friends and our families, and too stressed and pressed for time to spend time with our spouses. Technology has encroached on everything from our family dinners to our family vacations. I shake my head in sadness when I see mother, father, and kids sitting around a table at a beachside bistro…each texting on his or her cell phone. Sacrifice is an outdated principle; rather, it’s “What can you do for me? “ -- “What have you done for me lately?” and “You were supposed to make me happy! “
Excellence is not out of our grasp. It can be as simple as a pat on the back to the child whose team lost the game, a note (OK, I surrender, an e mail!) to our spouse just to say I’m thinking about you, a smile directed to the hapless stranger in the grocery line. Excellence is about showing up, doing what you said you were going to do, and doing it to the best of your ability, even when you don’t see an immediate reward, and even more importantly, when you don’t feel like it. Excellence is more than mediocrity. It takes pride in its appearance – it sets a standard and then sticks to it. It changes the little light bulbs that are used to create great big signs.
In his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul writes: Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others. What better motivation do we need in our pursuit of excellence - at work, at school, at home, and in the world? How much more effort would we be willing to exert in our relationships, our jobs, and our daily lives, if we dared to dedicate our “doing” to the source of all excellence - the One who created us?