I Love My Ducks

Want proof that anything is possible in our crazy, mixed-up, media-saturated world? Three kids from Oregon got together in November and created a comic rap video, "I Smell Roses, I Love My Ducks," pasted it on youtube, and a month later it has over a half million hits. They call themselves Supwitchugirl. Coach Chip Kelly loved it and blared it over the loudspeakers at the indoor practice facility. Dan Patrick had them on his radio show. Nike signed them to a licensing agreement, and now they've made over a hundred thousand dollars selling tee shirts. They've spawned a host of lame imitators and ignited a small controversy, all before the age of 22. The creative landscape is changing, my friends. Anyone with an idea and some original energy can reach the world.

If that isn't enough to get you excited, the Ducks are going to the Rose Bowl for the second time in 50 years. They're playing The Ohio State University in The Granddaddy of Them All on New Years Day. God it feels good to say that. The Ducks are in the Rose Bowl. I watched the Comcast rebroadcast and the internet highlights three times each just to make sure. That's why we love sports. Miracles happen every day, moments of courage or tenacity or resilience that remind us that anything is possible.

In many areas of our lives many of us come to this Christmas Day in need of some kind of miracle, some breath of new hope. I've always thought that the most tender and poignant part of the Christmas story is that when the angel came to say "Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" he came to a lowly group of shepherds abiding in the fields, guys in need of a shower and a shave, lonely and cold and largely unloved in the world.

Wherever you are this Christmas, hold on to the promise and the joy. A football game doesn't matter all that much, not by itself, but I choose to think of it as a symbol of the power of believing and bonding together. I smell Roses. I Love My Ducks.