4th of July Pics

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We had a great time on July 4th at my sister’s neighborhood celebration and later at Fort Bragg for fireworks.  The only disappointment was that Fort Bragg has turned into more of a party than a young children friendly event, and the fireworks didn’t start until 10 p.m.!

I will post more pictures soon to the photo gallery, but .mac is transitioning to mobleme right now and all of it is down.

Disney Picture

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I went to Cisco Networkers for the 1st time in a few years, and since it was in Orlando, Kelly and the kids came.  We were able to go to Disney and Seaworld, but we may have scarred Reece for life at Disney…  We took him into the Haunted House a few minutes after he woke up (“scarred Daddy”), and then onto the Barnstormer Roller Coaster (“too fast”).  I never thought I’d hear him say that!

Wild at Heart. John Eldredge.

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Regular readers will know that I have mentioned this book a lot over the past couple of months, as it has lead me to read other books and watch some movies.  We did this as a men’s study at church, and wrapped up a while back, but I haven’t had a chance to write much on it yet.  I really could write a lot about this book, and I had a ton of dog-eared pages to put in quotes, but I don’t think I will.   Instead, I will make an interesting observation, and then list who I think should read this book.

Observation:

It was very interesting, but many of the men in our group did not like this book at all at the beginning, but loved it by the end.  For me, I loved it from the beginning  — in fact I had trouble not reading it all in a day or two.  I did not want to do that as I wanted to read a chapter at a time to match up with our study schedule.   I was instanly drawn into the outdoor adventure that Eldridge says all men desire.  And any one that knows me knows I love the outdoors:  hiking, back packing, mountain biking, camping, orienteering, and adventure racing.  But it wasn’t just that.  There were phrases like “the high country of the soul” that spoke to me — because “the high country of the mind” is used throughout Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, one of my all time favorites.  And there was the famous Teddy Roosevelt quote on critics and the arena that seemed to come at me from many different sources all at the same time.  And some of my favorite quotes from others like Thoreau…

Anyway, I would be interested in hearing from others who have read this to see if they were instantly hooked or if it took a while, and why you think that was so for you.

Who should read it:

  • All Christian men (from mid teens all the way up!)
  • Any man that has “spiritual longings” (or questions) whether Christian or not
  • Any wife of a man that reads it (or better yet, after the husband has read it, read it together as a couple)

Kelly and I just started reading it together, and I look forward to continuing that!

One final point… Take the time to get the accompanying “Field Manual” and work through the questions in there.  You will get much more out of it if you do that.

Star Wars. 1977.

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I still remember driving to NY City from West Point with my Dad, to watch this when it first came out in 1977.  I was not quite seven at the time….  Riley has been asking about it recently, as one of her friends loves it.  I figured she is almost 6, so almost the same age as me, and that she was probably ready for it.  It is really the 1st movie she has seen with any amount of death in it, though I’d have to say that death in this movie compared to new movies is much tamer.  There was one scene when an arm is cut off by a light saber that maybe was a little much!  Reece watched some of it as a well, but I think he is at a young enough age (2.5), that it doesn’t really register the same way with an (almost) 6 year old.

There are some decent life lessons in it that Riley and I talked about, though not really in depth.  But as things come up over the next few weeks, I’ll try to tie them and reference the movie.  Such lessons include good vs. evil (spiritual warfare, for a Christian perspective), patience, loyalty, and make believe (this is just a movie!).

Looking at the movie now, from my perspective, after 30+ years, it is pretty amazing how well they did with the special effects — the flying space ships, all the characters/creatures, explosions.  And the sound was fantastic.  Guess that is why it won best visual effects and best sound effects.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Mark Twain.

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Following along on my Twain kick, I just finished A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.  I had actually bought this and read the 1st 20-30% of it before I got and read both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  I then had some other things to read, and finally came back to this one.

It started out with great satire and was pretty funny and good over all, but it ended very dark, and kind of mysteriously.  The introduction of this edition explains why this is likely the case — that Twain had lots of success with Sawyer and Finn, but lost most of his what little fortune he got from those successes, and that this book started in a good time in his life, and finished in a much more cynical state of mind.  I’m sure there are much deeper explanations out there on the Interwebs than that, so go find them if you are interested.  🙂  Or I’m sure any edition you pickup will have more info as well.

A few quotes, as always:

  • when red headed people are above a certain social grade, their hair is auburn
  • many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising
  • but the minute [the thing] came into my personal experience, a thing which had been merely improper before suddenly became hellish [the thing in this case is slavery, but the point stands for many other things as well]
  • it is the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders, and not the weight…  for armor is heavy, yet it is a proud burden, and a man standeth straight in it….  [i.e. it depends on what you are “carrying” in how you handle it… something good, you carry well… something bad, you don’t carry well]

Well, I wouldn’t “highly” recommend this unless you are on a Twain kick like I am.  And unless I run across a book of his short stories soon, I will be off my kick.  🙂

Earl Woods Quote…

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I hope you got to see Tiger play in the US Open, and then hear afterwords how his knee was much worse than any of us thought at the time… It wasn’t just “a little sore” from surgery a few weeks prior — he was playing with a fractured tibia and a torn ACL.  Rocco vs. Tiger was great to watch, but what we saw in Tiger was perhaps the most mentally tough person in all of sports history.

Before Tiger, I probably would have said Lance Armstrong was the most mentally tough.  Lance was also amazingly tough in other ways — who comes back from cancer that bad to be the best athlete in the world at their given sport?   Lance always impressed me as he was up for almost every big ride.  I only saw him lose it once in 7 years of watching — and yes, I watched almost every TDF ride…  But even more than that, the little things always impressed me with him.  He was a master strategist in all the races, especially the big ones.  But most of, he was always concentrating — never letting anything get by him.  The number of times there was a crash all around him and he came out unscathed was amazing — and that only comes from paying attention.

But, back to Tiger… I have never seen anyone so mentally tough — able to will up the most incredible shots when most needed.  And then to see him fight through pain to play good enough to win.  I know a little about knee pain — when my knee got so bad that I fell to the ground trying to start a lawn mower, or later that day when I lifted my leg to see what was hurting, and again fell down in excruciating pain.  No one other than Tiger knows how bad his pain was.  But what was most amazing to me, was that he never knew when it was going to hit.  He’d line up for a shot, and not know if sometime during the shot, or on the follow through, the knee was going to hurt.  Yet he did it time after time after time.

And all that leads into the quote I wanted to record here… The commercial played during the tournament, where Wood’s dad Earl is talking, and finishes with the following quote, is amazing, for a couple of reasons…

1)  The quote is so true… Tiger has to be the most mentally tough athelete I have ever seen.  and

2)  and the 1st part of the quote — “you don’t really instill anything in a child… you encourage the development of it..”   I could write a whole post on this, and maybe will someday.  🙂

“‘I promise you that you will never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’