Happy Valentine’s Day. A middle of the winter reminder to us to heat up some passion. That’s what today’s podcast is about. Passion. I sometimes think about the guy who wrote about the bombs bursting in air…Francis Scott Key was his name. I looked it up. He was a lawyer. It was September 13, 1814. Francis was in the process of negotiating for the release of a prisoner being held captive on a British ship in Baltimore harbor. The British had just torched the Capitol… Washington D.C. was in ruins. The president was in hiding. Nobody could sleep because all night the huge naval guns hammered at Fort McHenry. If the fort went, Francis knew his home in Baltimore would go too. But when the dawn broke, and the first rays of sunlight slashed through the night, and the gun smoke slowly cleared…there it was. At first he didn’t believe it. It was torn and bloody. Torn…because it was hit by cannon fire. Bloody because it was replaced in the night by a couple of times by guys who were wounded and bleeding.…Incredibly, there it was. The Stars and Stripes. Torn and bloody…and glorious…still waving over the land of the free and the home of the brave. So what do you do at a moment like that? If you’re Francis Scott Key do you say, “Well it’s too bad I don’t know anything about music, after all I’m a lawyer.” That would be the logical thing to do. Or do you follow the passion burning in your gut…grab some paper and start writing the words that are hammering away in your head. Skill and passion. That’s what sports is all about too. That’s why I like singing Francis Scott Key’s song. The only song he ever wrote. The Star Spangled Banner. Next time you go to a ball game…sing it with passion.
