More Today than Yesterday

Inside my wedding band, I have the letters ILYMTTY engraved.  Those are the first letters of the words in the phrase "I love you more today than yesterday."  If that is true every day, then the next line of a song by Spiral Staircase in 1969 logically follows: "But not as much as tomorrow."

All that is a great aspiration for a life-long love relationship.  But I have been thinking recently, "What else do I want to challenge myself to do more today than yesterday?"  

I have recently challenged students to figure out how they interpret the phrase "business with humanity in mind" and do that more today than yesterday.

I have recently journaled that my purpose is to make more of a difference in the world today than yesterday.

If I take the attitude of "everything I do could still be done better," then I could focus on doing everything more today than yesterday.  Maybe more time.  Maybe more effective.  Maybe more efficient.  Maybe higher quality.  

In fact, more today than yesterday could form an attitude toward life in general.  I realize  that I've been trying to live that out for a while.  

Do I always succeed?  Of course not.  The key is this: in 1992 when I suggested the engraving in my wife's and my wedding bands, I don't think I was intentionally setting what could be an entire life approach in my wedding band.  

But for whatever I am sincerely committed to in life, it is a great approach to intentionally take.  

Having discovered that--the key is now to implement that approach to life more today than yesterday.  Then, to keep looking ahead and doing that day after day after day... 

Last Two Elements of My Second Personal Vision Board

Now to finish my discussion of my second person vision board.  Having discussed my friends' wedding day extensively and noting that one of the entries was actually entitled wedding music brings me to the last two elements of the personal vision board I am imagining.  The first is music itself.  It has been an important part of my life from the time I liked to imitate Buddy Holly as a kid (and had a few of my classmates since along as Kevin Frick and the Ladybugs rather than Buddy Holly and the Crickets) to playing bass in the church's worship band (which, being at a Catholic church, led a protestant minister to refer to St Pius X as a reformed Catholic church).  I figure since the vision board includes a mockingjay, I could have musical notes coming from the bird's beak.  One option would be just four notes--much like Rue used in the first book.  A nice tip of the hat to popular culture.

The second option would be a tie in with strengthening marriage and strengthening family more generally.  Inside my parent's wedding rings and inside mine and Sherry's are the letters "ILYMTTY".  For anyone old enough to recall the the Spiral Staircase song these letters are from the main part of refrain from an old song, "I Love You More Today than Yesterday".  And of course, logically, if you can say that every day the next line follows, "But not as much as tomorrow."  This is a wonderful aspiration for marriage.  It is also a wonderful aspiration for family.  And not that I don't already love my sons for all I'm worth but each day brings a new way of expressing and talking about the love I have for my family members.  The opportunities for growth and diversification of the ways we show our love are endless.

So the alternative option would be to have the notes of the words that go with ILYMTTY as the notes coming from the mockingjay.

Much like my first permanent personal vision board, i.e., my tattoo, this would be more like a mural than a single picture.  That is fine.  It is my way of connecting the dots in my life and thinking about things.  It is a series of symbols that characterize me.  As one of my colleagues who has now seen my tattoo commented about it, he said it was odd but me.

Not sure what I'll blog about next but life always seems to provide me with more than enough to ponder and comment on for all who are interested in sharing my world.