Who's in charge here?
In the seven weeks since the Rose Bowl the Oregon Duck football team has had nothing but trouble. Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for someone is doing a Poor job of keeping this group focused.
There are only three things a football player should be doing in the off season: 1) going to class, 2) working on strength, conditioning and improving their skills and 3) enjoy being a college student. But number three does not include stealing things, punching people, hitting women or getting arrested.
It seems like every week there is a new incident and more trouble, and by now it's getting embarrassing for the university. The Ducks are rapidly developing an image problem that has blown up all over the national sports news, and the real concern is there may be an underlying problem of discipline and character. Reports out of Eugene these days sound like the excesses and outlandish criminality that plagued schools like Florida or Miami or the Huskies of the late 90's.
Coach Chip Kelly has been strangely quiet. One lame statement is the only public action he's taken, while LaMichael James is wearing an ankle bracelet and Jeremiah Masoli is up before a grand jury. Someone may get kicked out of school over this, and probably should.
The goal is to do things the right way, focus on the prize, and stay out of trouble. Oregon's football players have lost their way this winter. Here's hoping they get back on track soon.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
3 comments:
Dad--
You could always convert to a Beaver!!!!
Me
I could always poke my eye out with a sharp hot needle and barf on my shoes/
Dad---
Ok now that was funny!! Actually laughed out loud. Looking forward to breakfast. Grammy lives by Minter Bridge Road in Hillsboro is there anywhere between where you are and there that we could go to breakfast? I don't know the area at all of course. Hoping for around 9 or 10 at the latest. E-bear will have to wake up early and the boys might be hung over from cigars and brandy with Grandpa (except Ethan of course) but other than that it should be fun. Let me know.
Me
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