It’s not every day that you hear a call to service from someone.  Do I expect to a call for service on Inauguration Day, certainly.  Martin Luther King Day?  Yes.  The NBA All Star game??  Definitely not.

What strikes me as so fascinating about Barack Obama delivering a call to service is not that he did, or even how he did it.  I think it’s more important to recognize where and when.  I’ve watched a lot of sports in my day, and I’ve seen a variety of different references to service and athletes getting involved with children or students.  Tonight as I was watching the NBA All Star Game I was hit with two really intriguing stories, that I really cross over but I was surprised to hear.

The first story, and you have to really be a fan of basketball to know about this, was that Allen Iverson cut his hair.  Now to most people, this is about as important as it was when David Beckham paid thousands to get his hair cut.  But the reason why he said he got his hair cut.  He gave two reasons, the first was his family and the second was that now that Barack Obama is President it’s time for a chnage.  Honestly, when I first heard this I thought it was a bit silly and a bit over played.  There have been a few times that I’ve heard that and thought, OK let’s give it a rest.

But then the second story happened.  Barack Obama came onto my TV.  He wasn’t congratulating the NBA All Stars for being amazing, he wasn’t talking about winning a gold medal, but he was talking about service.  And I thought, maybe it is time for a change.  And not for the usual reasons, this time because Allen Iverson cut his hair.

Now, I know that sounds a bit crazy.  Not just a bit crazy a lot.  How can I go from being upset in my stomach for hearing “time for a change” to thinking it’s true!  I think we’re finally seeing a shift in a lot of culture in our society.  But finally this is a change that everyone that works with the CKP network already knows about.  It’s about service.  During the NBA All Star game the President of our country thought to remind us how important service really is.

It’s striking to me that Obama has the boldness to make this invitation to a group of sports fans.  Not that sports fans don’t care about service, but it certainly begs the question if he’s getting the most bang for his service buck.  It was great to hear about the Make A Wish Foundation partnership with the NBA and to see that each All Star was assigned to one Make A Wish child.  When we see the superstars of our liftetime committing to service or helping when they can.  Maybe it will leave some people wondering what can I do?

All of this got to me thinking about something I thought it would be interesting to hear from all of you.  Where are you talking about service?  And have the places where you do talk about it changed lately?

In my opinion we’re fully embracing a change.  Service and the production that service provides to our economy is truly meaningful right now.  Maybe we should just keep on talking about change, over and over and OVER again.  Let’s hope that someone is listening and that we hear more stories and see more service every day.

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