I am clearly getting too big for my britches. Thanks to the Ohio University nursing students and other Race for the Cure volunteers, my face is plastered all over town. Going to Walmart? I’m there. How about your favorite coffee shop? Yep. Heading to the barber? I’m sitting in the window. I’m even in a men’s bathroom on campus. Don’t ask me how I know that.
In case you haven’t seen it, here it is, the official Race Poster. 
Yours truly gets to be the honorary chair of the first ever Athens Race for the Cure, so you have to deal with seeing my picture all over town.
The Komen Columbus people have been setting up speaking engagements and media interviews for me. Just this morning I got to talk about the race on The Party Line, Southeastern Ohio’s oldest (and premiere) radio talk show.
I dropped off my car at the mechanic and then headed into the studio. When I was finished, I took the loaner truck to my next appointment, stopping at the bank and the grocery store along the way.
Well, who would have thought that some posters and a radio interview could have turned me into an instant celebrity? No one actually said anything to me, but as I was driving around town, people kept smiling and waving at me. I’d approach another car coming from the other direction and there’d be a hand held out the window in a friendly greeting. I felt so loved… and then all of a sudden I realized, they’re not waving at me, they’re waving at the truck. Oh, maybe I should have told you, this is what my ride looked like today: 
It was Paul, the Muffler Man’s Chevy Tahoe. People were all excited to see me, because they thought they were seeing Paul.
I knew from the first time I met him, that Paul was one of the good guys. He is kind and genuine and hard-working and really an overall great guy. But as I drove around town, I realized that Paul has been so nice for so long to so many people, that his reputation precedes him. People see his truck and get excited thinking, “Hey! It’s Paul!”
I want to be like that. I want to live a life so full of integrity and kindness that people automatically associate my name with goodness, but it takes time. Reputations, well, good ones at least, are not grown overnight. You can’t buy it off Amazon or force it on people. You have to work hard, consistently, to earn that reputation. For me, that means choosing to be kind everyday, regardless of my moody emotions that threaten to rat me out. Some days I fail, but some days I don’t. And if Paul can do it, so can I. And so can you.
It was kind of fun thinking that people were totally loving me as I drove around town, but I gotta tell you, being loved feels good, but getting to love on others feels a whole lot better!
