Pep Squad

Throughout my high school years, that bastion of mature and welcoming hearts, I was not friends with one cheerleader. Nope. Not one. Furthermore, I still do not understand why they were ever and continue to be invited to the annual high school athletic banquet. Seriously. More still, during the high school football games I used to wish the coach would call a sweep play whenever the team was near where the cheerleaders roamed….preened….cheered (?).

With the gift of distance (a whole lot of it) from my days at dear old Freeport High School, I have come to both realize and appreciate the need for the cheerleaders in our lives --- those who encourage us, cheer us on and remind us of the little old ant and the rubber tree plant (shout out to Shirley Feeney).

I am reminded of this from, of all things, the wrapper on a HALLS cough drop. Printed on the wrapper are things like “Get back in the game” or “It’s yours for the taking” and “Fire Up these engines!”

These “a pep talk in every drop” lozenges got me thinking as to why? Perhaps, it’s because one takes them when feeling a bit under the proverbial weather or one uses them when preparing to do a lot of talking, teaching, preaching. If so, what a nice pick-me-up!

Along with the occasional cough drop, who are the cheerleaders on our sideline?

Are you a picker-upper?

Sincere words of encouragement from someone who is strongly in one’s corner work and have amazing staying power. Case in point, to this day in the Bible I received on the day of my ordination there is little note card. It was placed in the bag lunch she packed for me on the day of my ordination interview. The card said, “there is nothing you and God cannot accomplish together.” The card was from my mother. Gift in so many ways and still.

A few days after I wrote this post, I saw a segment about high school basketball in Texas. The Juvenile Correctional Facility in Gainesville, Texas fields a boys basketball team. As you might imagine, there is not an abundance of fans at their games --- being in lock down prevents that.

However, for good behavior the team is able to travel outside of the correctional facility to play a few games against other schools --- these schools are predominantly private schools in Texas. A couple of players from Vanguard College Preparatory School had the brilliant idea to ask half of their typical fan base to cheer for the boys from the correctional facility in Gainesville.

The students and parents went all out: signs, cheerleaders, and shouts and whoops whenever a Gainesville player scored or made a good play.

This fan base was a total surprise to the players from Gainesville who are used to playing with zero support. The players said the fans and cheering section was something they would remember the rest of their lives.

As one of the Vanguard players said, “It’s a very real impact that encouragement and support can mean for someone. We all need to have someone who believes in us.”

Encourage someone today. Better yet, encourage someone who would least expect it, yet needs it the most.

sj;

Ashes to Fire

Happy Lent!

Welcome to the season of introspection and finding out what it means to be “you” and how that fuses with what it means to be a follower of the Christ. I always look forward to the beginning of Lent and welcome the occasion to slow down, ponder, pause, pay attention and be more intentional about reflection. The kick is that the groundwork established during this season harvests a life change.

As is true for most journeys, it is wise to take a good read along to accompany you on the journey. For me, this Lenten season, I’ve chosen two: SEIZING THE NONVIOLENT MOMENTS: Reflections on the Spirituality of Nonviolence by Nancy Small and THE ART of PAUSING by Judith Valente, Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO and Michael Bever.

Always looking for a good read, what texts and tomes are accompanying you this season? (NOTE: I think of scripture as a given).

I want to slow down and live from my center not my to-do list.

Believing that we are made in the image of the Creator and therefore we are each creative, I want to write more and find the discipline so to do. Favorite poet, Mary Oliver (if you have not yet read her writings I strongly encourage you to pick up a book of her poetry --- yes, she’d be a wonderful journey mate) writes, “Discipline is very important. We are creative all day long and we need to have an appointment to get that out on the page.” This is one appointment I will seek to keep, not so much for anyone else, yet, first of all for myself.

In that light, the book THE ART of PAUSING is arranged by a series of haikus written and shared by the three authors. I like a haiku with its structure of three lines with the first line being 5 syllables, the second line 7 syllables and the last line 5 syllables all based around a topic, a moment, an encounter.

I am going to daily write a haiku. On what? Who knows --- whatever speaks, strikes or celebrates on the given day.

I may find the courage to share a few.

I’m extending an invitation to folks to join me in this exercise. If courage rises and you want to share your haiku ---- I vow on my Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap that I will honor that sharing and respond in kind.

Let the journey begin anew…..

sj;

A few rants and a reflection

The news that another novel by Harper Lee will be published and released in mid-July made me say, “well, what have I been waiting for??”

Speaking of the new novel by Ms. Lee, I am at once excited to read the new book and at the same time troubled as to whether or not this is something Harper would want. After over a half century of holding fast to her position that she would never write another novel and then within months of her older sister passing on the second novel is passed through….hmmmm.

Today, 7 February, is a big day for writers as it’s the birthday of Charles Dickens, Sinclair Lewis and Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’d bet my lost Super Bowl wages (run the ball, Pete!) that each of us has at one time or another read something by these authors.

Dickens is revered as one of the greatest authors in the English language and was also reported to use his finances and fame to convince the wealthy in England to give of their money to help the poor. That, little Dickens!

I may be a bit grumpy, yet, I am incredulous at how self-centered and self-obsessed our society has become. Hover parents refuse to get their kids vaccinated without thought nor care for the numerous children on the block, in the school or at the park. A woman talking on her cell phone speeds through a crosswalk without even a tap of the brake or a notice of the elderly couple crossing in the middle of the street. A bus full of people cuss out the bus driver who stops on a cold, snowy morning to pick-up a person waiting at a bus stop who also happens to use a wheelchair.

I’m a big supporter of the concept of the shared common good. Or, to put it another way, we are, whether we choose to realize it or not, in this together. I worry about the lack of compassion and empathy for persons whom we do not know because they do not traffic our neighborhoods, schools, faith communities, gathering places. Not only is their no concern, there is instead blame and disdain. (See Nicholas Kristoff’s recent columns in the New York Times).

Friends, the “I got mine (or inherited mine) good luck getting yours” philosophy of economics and community building is destroying both. Martin Luther King stated, Life’s most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others?”

Answer well. Live better.

sj;