Red Tassel Mortar Board: The Week In Thanks

When I woke up this morning, probably at the tail end of some dream that didn't fully register into my memory, a song from my college days was looping in my head:

"Thy ideals, Pi Sigma Alpha, we are e-e-e-e-ver striving toward..."

It's the official theme song of the Red Tassel/Mortar Board honor society.

When I think about gifts to be thankful for in my life, I can count the fact that RTMB was an academically prestigious club to gain membership in. GPA requirements, leadership requirements... in order to be one of the 40 applicants accepted you needed to be voted in by a certain quota of the entire membership. I imagine it's like rushing a fraternity, if being a goody-two-shoes was cool.

So besides gratitude for having a brain wired for strong grades, a lot of touch points spin off here.

RTMB was also one of the groups where I was elected to office (Vice President) after the candidates were required to give a "campaign speech." Whether or not I actually deserved it, those moments helped lay the foundation of confidence.

I was introduced to the "teams challenge course" for the first time, out at the scenic East Bay Camp at the north end of town. We spent a Saturday doing a series of fun activities specifically designed to force us to work together as a team to solve physical challenges. To this day I remember hoisting each other up through an old tire hanging at chest level, figuring out how to manipulate paint cans using ropes but not hands, and other things that look like they have nothing to do with leadership as I type them.

Mortar Board was one of the final affirmations of my journey from coasting high school student to accomplished college student (and by extension, to successful business owner today). God flipped on a motivational switch in me just in time to fire up the circuitry of an achiever.

And yet these more superficial things are not the reasons that I smiled as the song rolled between my mind's ears this morning.

It was who was singing them.

Musically, the song had a measure or two in there that sounded uncannily like part of "Silent Night." This fact quickly became much more interesting than the rest of the tune to my friends and roommates B.J. Floyd, Chris Lundeen, and Ryan Short. The new rendition went like this:

"Thy ideals Pi Sigma Alpha we are e-e-e-e-ver striding toward... and STA-A-A-Y by my cra-a-a-DLE 'til MOR-ning is NIGH!!"

Whenever we sang this in the condo years later, we were sing-snorting by the end. Whenever it was played with all sincerity during club meetings, the revised verse submitted them into near-giggles (giggling now... excuse me... ok, good to go). Which is undoubtedly the reason why I can't begin to recall the song's actual lyrics, which were surely inspiring, virtuous, and unrelated to myrrh.

The healing and energizing power of humor - clever, physical, goofy or whatever style tickles your personality - is one of the great treasures of all my closest friends through the years.

May this week be filled with more glorious sunshine of an unusually temperate central Illinois August, with the inspiration to work hard to be your individual best, with surroundings that spring laughter from the deepest places inside you, and as always, with a fountain of peaceful thankful thoughts.