Seems like just last year at this time I was writing about the Pittsburgh Penguins.  And tonight I write of them again, this time  to say, "CONGRATULATIONS! to the Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins!" 

I watched Game 7 tonight with my mom.  Neither of us are huge sports fans, but we absolutely watch the Super Bowl (this year's winning team was the Pittsburgh Steelers, incidentally) and the Stanley Cup finals.  We each knew that the teams have to get the puck into the goal being guarded by the opposing team.  And I was a step ahead of my mom, because I knew there were three quarters in the game, not four.  (I learned the hard way, sitting at a hockey game at Princeton University waiting- a very long time--for the fourth quarter to begin.) 

But it didn't matter that we didn't understand everything.  Just like it doesn't matter if you get laughs or praise when you use humor in your daily life.  What matters is creating that environment.  Sure, neither one of us realized that Satan played for the Penguins.  We were still thrilled that Malkin won a trophy for the most clean-shaven.  My mom wondered, "Why don't they hit the puck--why can't they see it?"  I told her, "That is a fly on the TV screen."  

We didn't know the rules, the bells, the times out.  But we were enjoying being in that environment.  That environment that the Penguins' players created tonight.  By the end of the game, they were ALL smiling, laughing, hugging each other.  That's the kind of environment you create when you use your sense of humor in your daily life.  You feel better, everyone around you feels better (unless they are from Detroit tonight), and you and they become inspired to do and be better than you were yesterday.  Or last year.  

"Get Your SHINE Together!" and get out on the ice tomorrow!