About Me

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I’m from New York but my driver’s license lists that my address is Ohio. My passport has a number of stamps in it. I’m the youngest of six, yet oldest son. I have a number after my initials, but not my name. I like music. I like coffee, beer and bourbon. I am a follower of Jesus. I watch bonus features on DVD’s. For four months each year my wife and I are the same age. “I pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians.” I am an ordained pastor, but don't currently have a church. I’ve eaten raw horse meat. I’m fifteen inches taller than my wife, but I look up to her. I still prefer buying CDs to downloading music. I’m a night owl, who doesn’t mind getting up early. I like to play games. I moved to another country nine days after my wedding. I sometimes quote random lyrics. I believe in miracles. I prefer desktops to laptops. I like listening to audio books. I watch Buffalo Bills and Sabres games. I have five sons. I'm living life mid sentence.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Jotting Down Mental Notes

From time to time I write letters, that never make their way to paper. These letters are written in the confines of my mind. Sometimes these letters are notes of thanks, while others delve into areas of questioning, anger and frustration. Recently I've had a few such letters running through my mind. Often times the hard part is determining if these mental letters are better off erased, or written down.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

I Wouldn't Trade A Day

Early this morning I found myself driving through Columbus. After dropping some people off at the airport I took a little trip down memory lane. About three years ago I went on my first date with my wife in Columbus over year and a half that followed Columbus was one of the central places where our dates actually took place. This morning, before the sun came up, as I slowly drove down memory lane I felt a few different emotions. One was a sense of nostalgia, while another emotion is harder to classify. While I remember, with some fondness, the good times my wife and I had in the old days, the second emotion would probably be best described as a feeling that I wouldn’t trade a single day of the current relationship I have with my wife for one of the best days of our courtship. Even though some days are now filed with a sick baby, or piles of dirty laundry, or other ups and downs, each and every day I spend with my wife is building onto the relationship that started three years ago. Without those early days, including the fun times and the hardships of being more than seven thousand miles apart most of the time, we would not be where we are today. And if it weren’t for the day-ins and day-outs we go through now we wouldn’t reach the depth of relationship that we hope to reach as the months and years pass. Yesterday I heard an older gentleman talking about how his deceased wife and he had spent more than 22,000 days together in marriage (over 62 years). As I was listening to the man’s fond memories of his late wife I couldn’t help but wish that when my wife and I part ways through death the one of us which outlives the other will have the same fondness this old gentleman had for his wife. He exemplified two-becoming-one, through his recounts of his life together with his wife. So even as I spent a little time looking back, at the good times I’ve had with my wife, I can’t help but look forward to the depths our relationship will grow as the months and years pass.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Lessons Can Be Learned, Even in Defeat

Sports have been a part of my life as long as I can remember. As a young boy I would play baseball, football and street hockey with the kids in my neighborhood. On the occasions my team would lose there were two ways in which we lost. Sometimes the games were close and at other times we would be defeated in a lopsided fashion. Both forms of defeat included lessons for me to learn. In the lopsided defeats I had the opportunity to learn the importance of finishing what I had started. Even in a game when my team was being made an example of, there was no honor in throwing in the towel. On the occasions we lost close games the lesson may have been give it your all until the final out was made, or the final buzzer had sounded. There are enough documented cases of phenomenal comebacks through the annals of sports history to show that even when the odds seem insurmountable teams and athletes have beaten the odds and have come out on top.

Today I read a news story about a high school basketball team that felt bad about a victory of theirs and so have forfeited the game. The school outscored their opponents 100-0, and didn't really let up scoring until they had reached the 100 point threshold. The other team, which hasn't won a game in their four year history, now has a victory--of sorts.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I don't agree with the winning school in this case. If the losing team couldn't handle such a lopsided defeat then maybe they shouldn't have sent a team out onto the court. And the team that won the game did show some compassion. From what I read they didn't even attempt a shot for the final five minutes or so of the game, after they'd reached their 100 points --which I believe was a school record.

There are times in life to show compassion, and there are times to give it your all. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't believe what the one team did by going out there and playing there game was a wrong move. If we encourage athletes to only play to the level of their opponents then are we really encouraging them to growth?

Monday, January 05, 2009

One Page or Two

Sometimes turning a page in life is easier for some than others. And even at times, certain pages turn easier for individuals than other pages in their lives. Some pages seem to be turning at rates that are hard to keep up with, while some pages seem to be sticky, and hard to move beyond. Can our life story have multiple pages being written at once? If it can then I am sure that while at least one page from this past year has not allowed me to move on, other pages have turned as the story of my life progresses. If multiple pages cannot be written at any given time then I must be simply living life mid sentence.