25

My parents celebrated their 25th Anniversary technically on Monday, but will festively celebrate this weekend at a party that their four kids are throwing. These days, 25 years of anything is something to be celebrated – but when it is marriage, it is pretty special. So, without any sarcasm or attempts at humor – here is a toast to my parents for 25 years together. You have been a great example to me and you continue to be a great example to your grandchildren. Thank you – I love you both!

The Shakes

Petrea and Soah are starting a new school Monday. It is a full blown daycare where the teachers speak Spanish to them all day everyday. Sort of an immersion school, if you will… I am already wondering about the switch and what it will do to any progress we have made with things like naps, potty training, social skills, shapes, colors, counting, etc. Maybe I am overanalyzing it and worrying too much (what, me?), but I a thinking about it and what I can do, if anything, to head it off. I will miss the teachers and the parents we have met at the churches where we presently take them. Mullins is fantastic and if they could find a way to be full-time, there wouldn’t be a question as to where we would have our kids. Kimberly, the Director, does a fantastic job and the women who have taken care of my babies have done so as if they were their own. They have let PT be a kid and make friends and test her (and I am sure their) boundaries – I will miss them as I am sure Petrea will.

I wonder about PT’s withdrawal. I don’t thnk Soah is quite old enough to understand, although I am sure she will have some adjustments to make to a new place. I am already holding my breath and planning to have PT in Pull-Ups instead of big girl underwear for the next few weeks…

Speaking of shakes and withdrawal -

I don’t have them, yet. But when I get home tonight and can’t find the Olympics on the television, I will be a little upset. Of course, there is the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention starting – and there will be endless coverage of these in the next few weeks…Whoopeee! If you have any rusty needles that you need to put in my eye, please do so before I have to watch any of that. Somehow,  Ohio and Florida got there “votes” back in time for the DNC. I can hear Bill and Hillary in their basement now, “Hey America! We are in your house, killing your d00dz!”

Petrea is ready for her close-up…

PT is gonna be an actor, or at least very good at it. Autumn and I aren’t sure where she picked it up, but she has started this very dramatic, needy and quite effective goodbye ritual that I am sure many parents experience. She pokes her lip waaay out and gets this distressed look and sometimes even a tear, and cries, “Daddy! I don’t want you to leave me…”

How do I argue with that? How can I leave?

Thing is, I am not sure it is real. I think maybe she picked it up from someone at daycare and has brought the act home. If so, I have to confess that I don’t mind. I kinda like it – but it does make me feel bad for a bit when I leave.

On another note, I got more reinforcement that I am getting old this morning. A friend twittered about some then/now pictures of the Brat Pack and sent a link. Of course, I was going to check it out. Looking at them, they haven’t changed all that much but what really, REALLY bummed me out was to see their ages by their pictures… And, am I getting arthritis in my elbow? Really?

No Marvin Gaye 8-Tracks…

Somehow, and by the grace of God, I was exposed to Marvin Gaye at an early age. I don’t think my dad had that tape in the truck – I only remember Jim Croce and the Commodores. And when I say tape, I mean 8-track… But I know we had some Marvin Gaye vinyl at the house.

I am no Marvin historian, but by 1983, Marvin already had a pretty good drug problem and his life was all about turmoil. However, he was asked to sing the National Anthem of The United States of America at the 1983 NBA All-Star game. If you have watched much of the Olympics, you’ve probably seen the Nike commercial. I submit that the Nike commercial is borderline disrespectful to Marvin’s performance that day. Take the three minutes and listen, really listen to the whole performance/song. Turn it up or put on some headphones and really listen to him, standing there with a drum machine in the background and a mic. Listen how the crowd reacts and how moved they were by his performance. Just stunning, absolutely stunning… As you probably know, Marvin was killed a year later – shot twice by his father.

And, the reason for this post – is awe and surprise. You can’t get this track on iTunes! You can sift through mountains of American Idol crap, but you can’t get this song on iTunes… The album that it is on is a partial album. Granted, it’s a four cd set, but this track is not included. WTF?

One more Jimmy V Quote…

Last night, Nastia Liukin received a silver medal in the uneven bars. She actually tied for a gold medal, but because of computer scoring and the fact that gymnastics is judged (read, subjective), she had to settle for silver. Nothing wrong with silver. She is ahead of what, 50 million other little girls with gymnastic skills… However, the judges, the referees and a tie breaker process cost her Olympic glory.

It reminded me of a Jimmy V quote that talks about referees.. Enjoy!

“I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can’t trust em.”

Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up…

Jim Valvano is one of my all-time favorite men. He embodied so much about what is good in life – and it was, without a doubt, stolen from him by cancer. Something beyond his control forced his hand. However, he took what God and life gave him and left us with a great message.

“Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!“

Simple, sure. Powerful, absolutely. It is something I will certainly teach my kids – not only about sports, but about life. And this is why this story pains me. I can’t bear to see an Olympic athlete DNF because of an injury. Injuries aren’t always out of the athlete’s control, but nonetheless, it is the most painful reason (mentally and perhaps physically) not to finish a race. When the athlete is favored to win and has so much hope pushing/willing him or her to the finish line, it is even more unbearable.

Liu Xiang will heal and he will race again. He will win again. But, Monday on the world’s biggest stage, his body failed him. He was supposed to bring home a gold medal – and it pains me to know that he couldn’t cross the finish line.

I would like to know what his coach said to him, or, even better, what his father said. I know (hope) that day will come when I will have to talk to my girls about pain and injury and heart and courage. I am not a world class athlete and probably not even the best athlete in my house. I have been blessed with the ability and the drive to set athletic goals and reach most of them. However, I have had one DNF in a marathon and it haunts me every time I think about it – absolutely makes me sick. I wasn’t going to set any records or even place in my age group (but I wasn’t DFL, either!). But I couldn’t finish because my body said, “Not today.” I learned from that experience. Liu Xiang will learn from his. Maybe one day, both of these examples will show PT and Soah that one failure doesn’t have to define you – and never, never give up…

8 for 8! It’s cool and all, but…

Let me begin by saying I do NOT want to take anything away from Michael Phelps and his accomplishments. He is an amazing athlete and his record is something that should be held in high regard. To perform at that level over the course of so many events and somehow motivate not only yourself but your teammates to win, is fantastic. It deserves acknowledgment and a tip of the hat for his hard work and dedication and should certainly be on the list of greatest athletic achievements of all time. However…

Swimming is a discipline where an athlete has many chances to medal – many more than the average Olympic athlete. (Average Olympic athlete… Yeah, right. Nothing average about any one of them!) Take Haile Gebrsleassie, one of the most famed distance runners in history. He started his career by winning the 5,000 and 10,000 at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul.  Say he competed and won gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 starting at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Even if he started then, medaled at every Olympics from then until now , he would only have 10 medals. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but think about it – that means he needs to be medal worthy for 16 years! The closest an athlete has come to that? Carl Lewis, winning gold medals in 4 straight Olympics. Carl was named Athlete of the Century and Olympian of the Century. Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, only had the chance at three gold medals, maybe four. Women’s Volleyball – Misty May-Treanor and Kerri “Six Feet of Sunshine” Walsh have to win six games in one Olympic session to win one medal. They don’t really have an opportunity to win more than one medal at the summer Olympics. I am not comparing them athletically to Michael Phelps, but the point I am trying to make is that in their respective sports, May-Treanor and Walsh – assuming they win gold in 2008 – would still have to compete in 12 more Olympic games for the chance to medal 14 times. Just in case you aren’t good at math, that means they will have to compete and win for the next 48 more years.

I love the Olympics – all of it. I don’t much care to debate if something is an Olympic sport or not – to me, they are amazing and the athletes that play and represent their countries are the best in the world. It is great Phelps took advantage of every opportunity given him and came out victorious. I am proud to say he is American. The team even coined a new word, “Phelpsian” meaning something incredible. It has taken the place of Beamonesque in Olympic terms and will probably stick. And that’s fine with me, records are made to be broken – and he did it in Phelpsian/Beamonesque fashion! In case you don’t know the story, I will tell it quickly… And it isn’t about Willie Beamon in “Any Given Sunday.”

In Mexico City at the 1968 Games, Beamon jumped so far in the long jump competition that he was out of range of the optical sight system used in determining the ‘official’ length of jumps. No athlete had ever jumped over 28 feet and Beamon (!!MASSIVE UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT!!) figured he might have cracked that barrier. When officials brought out the measuring tape to determine how far Beamon went, they discovered that he broke the standing world record by more than two feet, to 29 feet 2 1/2 inches. Beamonesque was coined…

UPDATE: I read a piece this afternoon in The Memphis Flyer that echoed this exact same sentiment, and added some really great points about sportsmanship, “young” Chinese gymnasts and how cool water polo is! Frank Murtaugh has better word economy than I do – sorry about making you read all that when he got the same point across in way fewer words. Or less words, I still don’t know…

Pwned by a two year old…

I thought I might get sage advice… I was wrong. haha!

http://uurrff.blogspot.com/2008/08/gk-advisor.html

I still don’t know if I can give you the correct grammatical usage of less and fewer. I don’t know if I have the guts to ask anybody for a while after the lashing GK gave me. I will be delivering her mojito after work this afternoon. What else can I do?

If you can’t say anything nice…

Day in and day out, I am bombarded with political nonsense about Obama and McCain and Bush and Pelosi and blah, blah, blah… It is over and over and over… As an American, I understand that our leaders are important. But I will say this, short and sweet. If all you ever say is negative against one person, people will tune you out. I do. It also makes the other things you have to say less important because you can’t be positive about ANYTHING. The negativity that has engulfed you about the Presidential campaign seeps into EVERYTHING you say and do and it makes people not want to listen to you or be around you. I don’t care if you say, “I can’t find anything good to say about soandso.” That is not a valid response and it makes your words worse. If people would make politics about the positive things instead of the negative things – more people would vote. People are tired of hearing others being torn down. Find something positive about your candidate and spread that – stop telling me how bad soandso is. I am tired of it.

Kids and Religion

As you know, I worry. Yeah, that’s just what I do. More than I should. I worry about my kids. I worry about my wife. I worry about my mom & dad. I worry about Autumn’s mom & dad. I worry about my and Autumn’s siblings and their families. I worry that one day people will not be able to find any of John Coltrane’s work. I worry that my grandkids won’t have bananas to eat. I worry that women think it is condescending that I hold the door for them. I worry about my country…

You get the picture.

But, one thing I struggle with more than any of these is how to teach my children about God and Jesus. I worry that I won’t make the right decisions to make sure they are strong in their faith and belief about God and Jesus but, at the same time, don’t want to push them to believe something, just because I believe.

We don’t go to church every Sunday. For me and my personal faith, that seems to work. It seems to work with my wife’s beliefs and faith. But, I am increasingly observant that Petrea is, and soon Soah will be, learning about God and Jesus and getting to an age where, I think, they need regular direction about their faith and their religion.

To get it out there, I strongly believe. I have been blessed with more than I could ever want and God gives me those things again each and every day – I don’t deserve them at all. I believe, but I have a lot of questions. Most of them are just details that don’t really affect my core beliefs but my tendency to worry, well, muddies the water.

I grew up in a traditional church setting with traditional services and hymns. I like the pomp and circumstance of ceremony in church. All of it. I like the pipe organ. I like the pulpit. I HAVE to have communion from a loaf of bread, not a box of crackers. But, we were out of town not long ago and went with some friends to a contemporary service – and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed seeing people excited about the message. I enjoyed the music. I couldn’t bring myself to jump and wave and holler during the service, but I certainly didn’t judge others for expressing their joy in whatever way they wanted – I actually enjoyed seeing that. I didn’t necessarily agree with the message that was shared, but that isn’t the point. I was excited and I enjoyed the informality and passion that took place during the worship service.

So, my point in writing this lies in that experience juxtaposed with my comfort level in my religious practices.That comfort level has been taken for a ride…

I worry (and can bet) that I don’t have all the tools that my kids need to teach them about Christ. Do I sacrifice my comfort to make sure that they have a sound and accepting and comfortable place to learn about God? Stay tuned… I am sure this one takes more than a blog post to figure out!