Do you remember where you were when Willie Stargel and the Pittsburgh Pirates road the Sister Sledge Anthem "We Are Family" to baseball’s World Series title over my Baltimore Orioles?   Willie took his "family," and this song, all the way to number one on the Disco and Baseball charts in 1979.

Okay, okay, I’m an expert in Workplace Culture Change and Generational Conflicts, therefore I should know that the Millennial and Gen-X-Y folks out there have no clue what I’m talking about. But the Boomer’s and Traditionalists in the reading audience remember it well. Even if they’re not Baseball fans!

Music and singing out loud is extremely therapeutic!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2005/10/17/hmusic17.xml

A Funkadelic song like "We Are Family" is an AWESOME opportunity to sing out loud and with others. Singing releases endorphins into the bloodstream. No wonder you feel so good after Church! No offense; it is not the sermon; it’s the singing! If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands!

People sing when they are happy but the beauty of it is much like the old adage: action brings motivation, not the reverse; thus, when you sing you are happy!

The combination of music, family, and sports is definitely on code for our family values.   The beautiful thing about a marriage of a "team" and a song is that the combination can indeed help change that team into a family and give a sort of audible time stamp to shared memories. The video game industry has figured this out with their part Competition part Sound Track philosophy of Gaming.

It’s ironic but these Games are where the rubber meets the road for this younger generation and those of us who are raising them. When in-doors kids play video games rather than musical instruments; when it comes to outdoor sports they don’t play sandlot anymore, they play regional tournaments!

Neighborhood kids are not included; parents are needed only for financing and chauffeuring capabilities; and with their Ipods all playing different personal songs during long bus/car rides "We Are Family": NOT!

Organized sports are perhaps the best example of what George Carlin in his HBO Special "It’s Bad for Ya!" calls "Child Worship." Carlin wants us to go back to an era where kids are allowed to screw up; be curious; play with a stick; lose and feel the sting; and yes, experience an occasional beating doled out by his or her parents! (Note: Carlin is now a 70 year old Traditionalist).

As an interested, involved and competitive parent you just can’t win. So, occasionally I try to enter the world of my children and challenge them to a video game. And, well, YOU JUST CAN’T WIN!
Enter the Nintendo Wii. The Wii is this Generation’s Cabbage Patch Kid; the "must have" yet unavailable gift of Christmas 2007. The Wii is a great Ambassador of this Generational Conflict because it is an intuitive game. You don’t have to know "cheat codes" or secret button combinations to play and win with a Wii. The other great thing about the Wii is that frankly; the Wii sucks!

Like my friend Jeff Caldwell (www.standupguy.com) says of voice recognition systems, the Wii is just simply, "Not finished!" (Listen to Jeff on Letterman  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnsw3HG8oSk describe using a voice recognition operator and requesting American Express but getting the American West Airlines number instead: very funny stuff!)   Technology sometimes gets ahead of practicality.

The Wii technology is amazing but, "Not finished!"  It is often too sensitive and in other cases too sluggish. The unanticipated but positive outcome is a leveling of the playing field. I can actually compete (and occasionally win) against my kids on the Wii.

So, returning to George Carlin’s commentary; should you beat your children?

To this I say, "Yes! Every chance I get!"

And then I loudly sing: "Wii Are the Champions!"