Enthusiasm Socks

Several have asked about “Enthusiasm Socks.” The following is a copy of my notes for a presentation I made at my school at the beginning of this school year. It is the true story of the enthusiasm socks and the challenge of wearing them. (And you are getting the school version because it was easier than rewriting the whole thing...pretend you're a teacher.)

My dad was a pretty amazing man. Growing up I thought he hung the moon. As an adult, I discovered that he wasn’t perfect after all, but rather than diminishing my appreciation of him, it caused me to respect him all the more. I’d like to share with you one of my “dad stories” that has become a particularly powerful legacy in my family.

Dad was a math teacher and a basketball coach for years. He loved his players and was concerned with their attitude and performance both on and off the court. Of course he preached “Attitude is everything!” at home too. I remember comments like, “If you’ve got a job to do, do it right the first time,” and during his battle with Leukemia his motto was “PMA – Positive Mental Attitude.”

One year, in an effort to promote the right attitude with his basketball players, he started wearing these bright, obnoxious red socks on game days. He called them his “enthusiasm socks”. It didn’t matter what else he might be wearing or whether or not they matched. On game days, he wore his red enthusiasm socks.

The idea caught on, and soon his players were dressing up and wearing bright red enthusiasm socks on game days too. It was a small way to get pumped up for the big games and a reminder to approach the game with enthusiasm, hard work, and a great attitude. And it worked.

It was such a small thing to do, but it obviously made an impression on his players. One group of his girl’s varsity players even presented him with a teddy bear complete with enthusiasm socks at the end of the school year.

When my dad lost his battle with cancer, I was fifteen. My mom wanted my three brothers and I to have something of Dad’s that had special meaning to each of us, and the two things I really, really wanted were his teddy bear and enthusiasm socks.
But that is not the end of the enthusiasm sock story.

One of the first things I had to work out in my mind after Dad died was who would walk me down the aisle when I got married. The week after he died that was really on my mind. I might have only been fifteen, but it was important for me to get that worked out. Actually, I had always wanted my dad to do two important things, baptize me and marry me. He did baptize me, but he wasn’t going to be able to marry me or even walk me down the aisle. So, I had to have a plan.

Because I had two older brothers whom I idolized, it was a pretty difficult decision. But sometime during that week I decided that the solution was to have them both walk with me, one on either side. I even decided that when the preacher asked who would be giving the bride away, my oldest brother should say, “her mother and we do.”

On the day of my wedding, as planned, many years earlier, my two older brothers waited with me in the back of the church. While the bridesmaids were walking in, my brothers pulled me to the side for a little last second chat. They began to tell me how proud of me they were and how happy they were for Newton and me. They new it was an extremely special day for me and they were very enthusiastic to be a part of it. In fact, they said, they were so enthusiastic about it that they couldn’t keep it inside and just had to show it in some way. At that point, they each lifted their tuxedo pants leg and revealed their bright, obnoxious red enthusiasm socks. It was pretty precious.

Last year, on Wednesday, April 18, I got an email from my second oldest brother, Richard. Some of you may not recognize the significance of that date, but it was a pretty big day for me. It was the biggest day of testing on our campus. We were giving the 6th grade reading test, 5th grade reading retest, and all of SDAA reading. It also happened to be the day that we had a minor, but very frustrating, incident. Needless to say, it was not a particularly good day, nor one that I was terribly enthusiastic about.

This is what my brother had written:

I have been working a lot of hours over the last couple of weeks. I worked last night until midnight, didn’t get to sleep until after 1am, and then was called this morning for a production support issue @ 6:30.

I got up, and got ready.

As I was considering what socks to where, I pulled a particular sock out of my drawer. It had been separated from its match, so I began a search for its mate.

I got to thinking, I don’t remember how many times I have worn this pair of socks…maybe only a handful. I began to think about the inspiration for the socks, and thought, in spite of everything going on at work, I was going to wear them, and have a great day!

If you don’t know by now, I will tell you. I chose a red pair of socks today.

Have a great, enthusiastic day!

Love you all,
Richard

The weight of his words hit me like a ton of bricks, for several reasons. One, I was absolutely blown away by the timing of his letter. He doesn’t write very often, and for it to come on that day of all days, just when I really needed it the most, was a pretty awesome work of God in my opinion.

But even more than that, I think it was the first time I fully understood the lesson of the enthusiasm socks. It wasn’t just about wearing some goofy socks to get ready for a big game or day. It was about making a choice. Every time Dad put those ridiculous socks on, he was choosing to approach his day with enthusiasm and with joy. Richard got it.

We face a lot of challenges this year. We’ve lost important positions, we have lots of new people, all of our kids will take TAKS, and that doesn’t even cover all of the things that may be going on in your life outside of here. Over the course of this next year, we are going to have a lot of difficult days. In Max Lucado’s book titled Every Day Deserves A Chance, he talks about those days.

He says, “There are days when traffic snarls, airports close, friends forget, and spouses complain. Days full of deadlines, long lines, receding hairlines, luggage-losing airlines, nauseating pickup lines, wrinkle lines, unemployment lines, and those ever-elusive bottom lines. And let’s not forget divorce days, final exam days, surgery days, tax days, and days when the cemetery dirt is still fresh.” But “this is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

This day. Not just wedding days, super-sale Saturdays, vacation days, or first days of hunting season. But, back to school days, observation days, staff development days, he’s coming back from DAEP days, and even TAKS days.

Every day, we have the opportunity to decide on our attitude. Your administrative team has decided that we are going to commit to approaching all of our days with enthusiasm. And on those particularly daunting days, we are going to wear our enthusiasm socks as a symbol of our attitude choice. We may not all wear our enthusiasm socks on the same days because each day is different to each person. But on days when we need a little extra help getting motivated and being joyful we are going to wear our enthusiasm socks. And I personally have taken Dad’s socks out of the drawer in order to continue his legacy of enthusiasm.


So that’s what I said. Then I gave them all some obnoxiously red socks. And I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see them wearing them at school. I think the world would be a much better place if we all wore enthusiasm like socks. I’m going to give it a shot.