Father

I can’t believe that the man-in-process that I dropped off today is the same person that I held for the first time in the middle of the night in a thunderstorm almost 13 years ago. It’s been so fast. But so fun.

Watching him be engulfed by the crowd and the building, there are so many things I want to ask of You.

The basics first, I guess. Keep him safe. Calm his nervous heart and help him find his rhythm. Help him find his classes and the cafeteria. Give him great teachers who recognize how special you made him. Give him at least one familiar face in each of his classes. Let him feel known.

And protect him. From the inevitable hurtful words of former friends who choose another way. From the lies of cool and the “right” way to be. From internalizing the identities that others will seek to assign him. From the million potential scars lurking behind every decision.

Give him joy. Keep him a little bit silly. Help him hold on to his sense of wonder about the world you made and the way it works. Let his heart stay young as long as it can. Teach him to celebrate the small victories. I know every moment won’t (can’t) be fun, but give him more than his share.

Go with him where I can’t. Whisper in his heart when he can’t hear my voice. Help him refuse to settle for lesser things. In his loneliest moment, remind him of your faithfulness. Guide his steps and draw him closer to you. As he becomes a man, help him become a man of God. Let his be the life that impacts those around him. In the halls, the classroom, the locker room, the gym – help him carry you. Teach him to be an extender of your grace to every life he encounters. May Brink be a different place because he was there, and you in him.

And help me. To hang on tightly, but loosely. To love him well and teach him to love well. To pray for him, his teachers, his coaches, his friends. To cheer him on and hold him back. To guide and shut up. To laugh and cry and dance and mourn. To make time to shoot baskets or talk or ask questions or help with homework. To see and embrace both the child and the man. To trust you with this precious gift you have given me.

I know you are in there with him. Take care of my son. He is yours and I trust you.

Amen.

From Rick Reilly – ESPN the Magazine

Click for original
Life of Reilly
There are some games when cheering for the other side feels better than winning.
by Rick Reilly

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team’s fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.

“I never in my life thought I’d hear people cheering for us to hit their kids,” recalls Gainesville’s QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. “I wouldn’t expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!”

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he’d just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That’s because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

This all started when Faith’s head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send:” Hogan wrote. “You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.”

Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan’s office and asked, “Coach, why are we doing this?”

And Hogan said, “Imagine if you didn’t have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”

Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!

“I thought maybe they were confused,” said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). “They started yelling ‘DEE-fense!’ when their team had the ball. I said, ‘What? Why they cheerin’ for us?’”

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. “We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games,” says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. “You can see it in their eyes. They’re lookin’ at us like we’re criminals. But these people, they were yellin’ for us! By our names!”

Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game’s last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that’s when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. “We had no idea what the kid was going to say,” remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: “Lord, I don’t know how this happened, so I don’t know how to say thank You, but I never would’ve known there was so many people in the world that cared about us.”

And it was a good thing everybody’s heads were bowed because they might’ve seen Hogan wiping away tears.

As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, “You’ll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You’ll never, ever know.”

And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they’d never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it’s nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.

Hope.

Now that I have officially solidified my position as black sheep in both of my families (my mom told me yesterday she didn’t want to “talk politics” with me), I thought I’d take a minute to explain myself to the three people who wander by.

1. No spending increases without corresponding spending cuts. Can he do it? I don’t know, but at least he is willing to give it a shot.

2. An expansive energy policy that rewards the development of alternative energy and never used or encouraged the phrase “drill baby drill”.

3. Incentives for domestic job creation.

4. His desire to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible.

5. He actually wants to engage in diplomacy with Iran instead of waiting until they push too far and then engaging in military conflict.

6. Three terrifying words – President Sarah Palin.

There’s more, but the above was more than enough. I spent more time and energy thinking and praying abotu this election than I ever have before and I felt good walking away from the polls yesterday that although my vote in Oklahoma probably won’t affect the election, my choice was the right one for me and my family and my view of the world.

Disagree if you must – but argue with your vote.

Exhibit A

I love the guys who stand around the outside like they are in it, but are as far away from players on the other team as they can get.

• Best record in the majors.
• Best home record in the majors.
• Highest batting average and OBP in the majors.
• Leading the majors in runs scored.
• Top five in ERA.
• Two viable Rookie of the Year candidates. (Soto and Fukudome)
• Three players leading their positions in the All-Star Balloting.

Believe it friends. This is the year.

I posted a while back about suffering from “ecoanxiety” – the fear that I’m not doing enough to reduce my family’s ecological footprint. While we still aren’t ready to move to the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, we’re taking our baby steps to do what we can where we are. So what are we doing?

• Almost every bulb in the house now is a compact fluorescent. Not perfect, but better.
• I have become an absolute Nazi about turning off lights. The kids are learning.
• We bought the reusable shopping bags. And it isn’t too bad. I’m also trying to remember to decline the bag if I only have a couple of items that I can carry out in my hands.
• Still struggling with leaving things plugged in, but the phone and ipod chargers get unplugged as soon as they are done.
• Thermostats stay at 72 in the summer. Usually around 66 in the winter.
• Whenever possible we take the smaller, more fuel-efficient car.
• We’re recycling everything we can think of.

It isn’t a ton in light of what we could be doing and my anxiety is only slightly lessened by what we’ve done, but it’s a start – right?

I’m not a Tom Coburn fan. I disagree with much of his agenda and I don’t think he has done much to help the image of Oklahoma on the national scene (except perhaps with the crossword crowd).

Yesterday he did a town hall meeting in Tulsa where (among other things) he called the FAA “chicken” – not terribly grown-up, but I’ll let that slide.

According to the Oklahoman, during the meeting he made the following statement during an exchange about immigration.

Our nation is in a mess,” Coburn replied, “but it doesn’t have anything to do with immigration. It has to do with career politicians who are afraid to defend people and who refused to stand up for the principles that made this country great. Immigration is a symptom, but it is not the disease. The disease is cowardice in the U.S. Senate.

On this, Dr. Coburn, I completely agree.

So could you please tell me who you were defending when you held up the Hunger Free Communities Act? Or when you voted against Biden Amdt. No. 4245? Or now as you are holding up the reauthorization of PEPFAR?

Just curious.

Man, I could fill a book with these.

Part of the volunteer work I do with WN is to help them connect with congregations. In looking around at web sites for churches in OKC, I came across this statement. I will refrain from naming the congregation because, quite honestly, they probably aren;t the only one in town that feels this way. They’re just the only ones with enough (insert euphemism here) to say it out loud.

We ARE what YOU once were.
We believe what you once believed.
We worship as you once worshipped.
If YOU were RIGHT then,
WE are RIGHT now.
If WE are WRONG now,
YOU were WRONG then!!!

Wow. Nothing says Jesus loves you more.

We took the kids to see Prince Caspian this afternoon. It’s one of the five films on my must-see list for the year and it didn’t disappoint. It didn’t hurt that we went to the new Warren Theater in Moore and saw it in the best digital video and audio available. The only bummer was the blackout that occurred about two-thirds of the way through the film and the twenty minute wait for things to get going again. Although two good things came out of that 1) we got to see one of the best parts of the film twice and 2) we got free passes for another movie for the inconvenience. Thanks to the Warren folks for doing the right thing.

On to thoughts about the film.

Good stuff

The action sequences were frequent and incredible. One of the best one-on-one sword fights since Gladiator. The film does a good job of being violent but avoiding being bloody or too much for most kids.

Performances – the “children” again were great. Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep was brilliant.

The look – every background and set were perfect. The creature effects and weapons / armor were as well.

Not so much good stuff

I didn’t like the actor who played Caspian. He just never sold me.

I felt like it was a little long. Of course this may be due to the 20 minute wait and 10 minute rehash, but even with those it felt like the peak happened long before the end of the film.

All in all – I loved the film. I have heard several people and critics (not to say that critics aren’t people, but. . . ) say that the first film (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) was better, but I don’t think you can compare the two films. They are two different kinds of narratives and have to be told in different ways. I applaud the director for making that choice and not caving to the temptation to try and make the same film over. I’m bummed about some of the changes they had to make, but that’s the cost of adapting to the screen.

Looks like I’m two for two. Indy is next! And we get to go for free!

As I have been thinking about this blog and what I would like for it to be and what it currently is, clarity struck and I realized that part of why I wasn’t posting much was that this had become too much “stuff I find on the internet” and not enough of just me. Which was boring even to me, so I haven’t messed with it much.

So

For better or worse, I am readjusting in an attempt to create something that reflects me and my world and the thing I care about and who I am. Plus stuff I bump into as I wander the internets. So hopefully all of the folks that stop by because they are looking for Geof Manthorne or the name of the OKC NBA franchise will have something else to check out as they pass through.

We’ll see. Or at least I will.