I am convinced no one wants to go unnoticed. We don’t want to be anonymous, unknown, unappreciated. We desire desperately to be recognized; to be seen. I don’t trust or believe anyone who says something different. I am not saying we all want to be famous. In fact, I think fame is a counterfeit for the real deal, but to be seen and celebrated by others for my accomplishment I believe to be a hunger of every heart.
We see this hunger lived out in children. Our family friend Dan was recently over and my kids were climbing, swinging, and jumping, and then calling out, “Dan, look at me!” “Why do they do that?” he asked. After thinking about it, I think the better question might be, “Why don’t we?”
As adults, we all so often pretend to have a phobia for being noticed or celebrated. We name such behavior humility, and yet most adults will do just about anything to hear an encouraging word from a boss, to be noticed by a friend, or spoken of proudly by an aged parent. We live for this recognition. So what’s the problem? I believe it is two-fold. First of all, most adults aren’t regularly accomplishing things which are worthy of recognition. Most adults tend to play it safe, limit risk, and do the same thing day in and day out. Much of this is faithful and worthy of some recognition, but little of it screams, “This is what I was made for!” The second reason is adults tend to define success competitively, through comparison, rather than by competitively, through overcoming. In such a system, if I am not better than Bill, than I don’t deserve to celebrate, but Bill also dares not celebrate because he is too polite to risk insulting poor pathetic me.
Children on the other hand are constantly facing new adventures, riskier challenges, and are doing so measuring their success by their own progress.
I celebrate climbing onto the swing by myself because I couldn’t yesterday, not because I can and Suzie can’t. Nor am I limited from celebrating just because my big brother did it first. Either way, I reach the platform, and cry out, "Look at me!” Why? Because I have overcome. I have accomplished something worth celebrating. As adults, we are starved for this kind of accomplishment and the freedom to celebrate it.
Running is unique this way. Countless people drive around with bumper stickers which say 26.2. These are the adult equivalent of screaming, “Look at me!” and I think they’re great. The funny thing about them is they tell us little about the comparisons within the accomplishment. One guy with such a sticker is shooting for the Olympics and runs six-minute miles the entire distance. The other guy took a year off his lifespan by finishing the race in twenty-hours. Both of them have accomplished something worthy of celebration, and the two accomplishments need not be compared.
Adults need more marathons in their lives. We need more challenges, more risks, and then we need to remember how to celebrate them. We need to look our friends in the eye, warn them what we’re going to do might be weird, and we need to yell, “Look at me!” I did it. I overcame. I am amazing, because I am growing, I am developing, and I am succeeding as only I can. That’s why children call attention to themselves. They are living lives worth attending to, and they are listening to the voice inside them which knows it was born to be noticed. Adults need to remember that voice, for themselves, their kids, and their fellow adult. “Oh what a world it could be!” “Look at me!”
Leave a Reply