Posted 1 week ago

Calls poured into Arlington County's police department this week. The reason was unexpected. The local Cheesecake Factory was giving away 40,000 slices of their signature cheesecake to celebrate their anniversary. The promotion clogged roads, a fistfight broke out, one person was hospitalized and another charged with disorderly conduct. All for a free piece of cheesecake.

It makes me wonder on this snowy Virginia morning, snuggling with my grand dog in front of a cozy fire - what do I show up for? What would be compelling enough to torpedo me out of this recliner and into the cold, enter a traffic jam and willfully break out in "fisticuffs" (yes, the AP article on the cheesecake used that word!) all in the pursuit of...what?

I love cheesecake; but don't you think that most of the people who entered the fray could honestly have paid for their slice? I wonder if the great cheesecake grab of December 2018 was more about winning than dining. It was an easy bet, the outcome was predictable - show up and you get a free piece of cheesecake.

What am I willing to show up for? What am I willing to spend?

In Brene Brown's new book "dare to lead" she writes, "The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it's about the courage to show up when you can't predict or control the outcome."

Apologizing in advance for presuming to add to anything she writes... I add this: it's also about showing up when absolutely nothing is offered you. No free cheesecake. No warm fuzzies. No personal benefit at all.

December will end in a blink of an eye; January and the promise of new beginnings is on the horizon. I would ask us to pause and consider taking the time this year to end December with compassion (as Scott suggested in a recent message). Show yourself some compassion. Believe that you are worth far more than fighting for a piece of free cheesecake.

Dare to believe that you can show up for others; you can sacrifice for something more than a carb-laden sweet treat; you can stand up under the pressure of inconvenience; you can do something nice for someone else even as it costs you something you are not quite sure you can afford to give. And in addition - instead of having the thought and feeling the truth of the sentiment - DO SOMETHING! Show up for someone else.

With all due respect, what have we become if the only thing we think worth fighting over is a piece of cheesecake?

May we end December with more compassion than we think we can muster, more courage than we knew we had. May we begin next year with greater intentionality than the Cheesecake Factory story gives us much reason to hope for on the part of humanity. Dare to believe that together, we can do hard things. Inconvenient things. Things that are not our preference.

Blessings on this snowy day...Teresa ... See MoreSee Less