Ooohs and Aaahs

iPhone 4 or 4S?

You know those moments in life when you experience an event so spectacular, you just can't find the words to describe it? When you witness a spectacle that causes a sort of amnesia and you forget all of your previous experiences? Your memory is wiped clean and you're ready to proclaim what you just witnessed as the best (fill in the blank) of all time?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow your roll.

Thanks Pinterest!

I think we live in a world where this happens more times than we'd like to admit. When the newest, shiniest toy is released, we just have to have it. (Apple is the maestro at capitalizing on this.) When a certain celebrity wears certain layers with certain colors, women rush out to Anthropologie to try to match it. (You can keep telling yourself that it's your own style because they're slightly different colors. I ain't mad at cha.)

When Blake Griffin dunks on Kendrick Perkins so ferociously, we're quick to announce we've seen one of the best dunks of all time. (Really, there have been better dunks on that same basket, but I digress.) These are all part of the ooohs and aaahs of life that come and go so quickly. I admit, I get caught up in them as well. I've learned to ease up on the hyperbole over the years. The more times I say "best ever", the less meaning those words hold.

I don't want to be all about the ooohs and aaahs. I need perspective in my life about what really matters. To me, people matter. Each and every life has value. I need to be constantly reminded of this because it is difficult to see the value in the things that don't invoke the ooohs and aaahs. On the flip side, your value is not contingent on how many ooohs and aaahs you generate. Let's start to care more about what really matters. Liberate in love. By loving people, you can free people and you can be truly free. With or without the ooohs and aaahs.