Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
The pride of Los Angeles, the greatest legacy in organized sports, the record-setting run of the UCLA Bruins was cut short today. Anticipation charged the air leading up to the match-up against Florida in the Bruin's record 17th Final Four appearance. The stage was set for vindication. Florida had sent the Bruins home second-best in the NCAA last year. Now the Bruins poised to send the Gators packing without even a chance at repeating their title. It was not to be.
"the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition…"
There is truly a thrill of victory and agony of defeat in sports. It's an emotion quite unlike anything I've experienced off the field (or court, track, pool, etc). The taste of victory is sweeter than any nectar. For a brief moment, you're a king among men. There is nothing you cannot do, no challenge you will not overcome, no foe too great. I have even experienced a victory so perfect that my own actions seemed not so much a conscious effort but for a brief moment it seemed as though God and the angels were with me and my teammates, guiding our every movement to perfection. A sense overcame me that on that day that no one on earth could defeat us. I have also felt the sting of defeat. It truly is agony, its symptoms akin to the stages of grieving. Questions fill the mind, uncertainty in yourself and your teammates. In some cases, the feeling is so strong it causes physical distress and pain. Few things I have experienced come near to the pain of knowing you gave everything you could muster into the effort of competing and knowing that on that day it simply was not enough.
There are few competitions on the planet that capture this better than the NCAA Basketball Tournament. As I watched the Bruins fight valiantly to the wire in a losing effort, I agonized with them. All my own experiences in various sports seemed to rush together at once and form in me such a great empathy for the UCLA players and coaches. They got the team they wanted, took their shot, and came up short. But they are a young team, and the experiences of losing in such a large arena will ultimately be good for them.
There is something worse in life than never learning how to win. It is never learning how to lose. In this life, we will never be victorious in everything that we do. We will experience loss, we will experience hard times, and it is how we handle ourselves in these moments, how we react in defeat, that truly demonstrates our character and maturity. Most people can be strong in victory, it requires very little character and personal strength when your environment affirms you. I've met very few people who were strong in defeat and loss. The real test in life is how we handle ourselves when we experience "the agony of defeat".
One interesting side-note as I close is that on Monday night Florida will play Ohio State for the NCAA Basketball National Championship. Just a few months ago, the Florida football team defeated the Ohio State football team in the Football National Championship. In that game, the Gators were the underdog to the Buckeyes. On Monday, the Buckeyes will be a decided underdog against the Gators. Will the underdog be victorious once again? No school has ever won the Basketball and Football championships in the same academic year. Florida has as good a shot as anyone I've ever seen. Will they make history? I don't know, but you can be sure I'll be watching to find out.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
Day 2: A message to all drivers
I truly wish y'all would slow down. Is it really necessary to drive so fast? Are you truly getting to your destination all that much sooner by going 10 miles an hour faster? Let's do the math. Let's say you've got to go fifteen miles on surface streets. Now, traffic signals and heavy traffic conditions can add a lot of time to travel, but these are constants. In other words, if you hit a red light, you have to stop, whether you're going 35 or 45 miles an hour. If you run into bad traffic that's moving 20 miles per hour, it really doesn't matter much if you were going 35 or 45 when you reach it. The only part of the equation you really have any control over is how fast you drive when you're not stuck in traffic or at a red light. So that's what I'm taking into account.
Back to our situation. You've got to drive fifteen miles on surface streets. Speed limits in metropolitan areas typically range from 25 to 45 mph, so for the purpose of my illustration we will assume the average speed limit for your trip is 35 mph. If you were to drive at the speed limit for your trip, 35 mph, it would take you 25.7 minutes of driving time to reach your destination. If you decide to speed and average 10 mph faster than the speed limit, 45 mph, your trip will take you 20 minutes of drive time. You're saving just under six minutes of drive time, but at what risk to your own safety and that of others? If you're taking the freeway, speeding becomes even more dangerous and saves you considerably less time. Say you had to go that 15 miles on the interstate in a 65 mph zone. If you travel at the posted speed limit, you will require 13.8 minutes of drive time. If you drive at 75 mph, 10 mph over the posted limit, you will require 12 minutes of drive time. You're saving less than two minutes! Seriously, now, have our lives come to such a place where two minutes is worth putting our own lives and others at potentially serious risk?
Another thing I'd like you to consider: come to a full stop at stop signs and red lights, even if you're turning right. I no longer own a car, I get around on my own two feet and using public transportation and on my bicycle if the distance is too great. Personally, I love it. I've noticed my quality of life has gone up considerably. I'm also far less irritable. Truthfully, I'm not losing all that much time by my choices either. But here's my problem. I've been hit by cars many times. Fortunately, God built me like a tank and so far I haven't been injured seriously, just some scrapes and bruises. But over the past five years, I've been hit by cars as a pedestrian five times and three times on my bike. Nearly every single one of those hits was a situation where I was crossing a street or parking lot entrance where a car was making a right turn and never looked right! The driver never came to a full stop and never saw me until they were hitting me. Several of them even proceeded to get out of their car and yell at me for getting in their way! I'm quite serious, they hit me in a crosswalk and got out to yell at me!
"You should've stopped at the crosswalk and waited for me, " I recall one angry guy in a truck exclaiming at me, "You could've gotten yourself killed!"
Apparently, in his mind, a pedestrian who steps out into a crosswalk and gets hit by a car who has a stop-sign and never stops or looks right has just attempted suicide. He was that unwilling to accept responsibility for his actions, and I've found that it's not an uncommon attitude for most people. I was very tempted to call the police at that point and have them explain to him one of the most basic of all driving laws: the pedestrian ALWAYS has the right of way. It doesn't matter if a pedestrian is crossing a busy street illegally, they have the right of way every time without exception. If you don't know that, please consult your traffic safety laws and cure your ignorance. The reason for this is simple, it takes very little to kill a person with a car. Fifteen miles per hour is quite often a fatal speed when you hit a pedestrian. I challenge you to go out to your car and try to drive that slow! Most people can't, it's not easy, especially if you have an automatic transmission.
All I'm asking is that those of you who drive regularly slow down and look around a little more at intersections. Realize that you're in a lethal weapon every single time you get behind the wheel and that even the best of drivers can get into accidents. Put the phone down, pay attention to the road, slow down, and, please, always look to the right at an intersection! The life you save could be mine.
Back to our situation. You've got to drive fifteen miles on surface streets. Speed limits in metropolitan areas typically range from 25 to 45 mph, so for the purpose of my illustration we will assume the average speed limit for your trip is 35 mph. If you were to drive at the speed limit for your trip, 35 mph, it would take you 25.7 minutes of driving time to reach your destination. If you decide to speed and average 10 mph faster than the speed limit, 45 mph, your trip will take you 20 minutes of drive time. You're saving just under six minutes of drive time, but at what risk to your own safety and that of others? If you're taking the freeway, speeding becomes even more dangerous and saves you considerably less time. Say you had to go that 15 miles on the interstate in a 65 mph zone. If you travel at the posted speed limit, you will require 13.8 minutes of drive time. If you drive at 75 mph, 10 mph over the posted limit, you will require 12 minutes of drive time. You're saving less than two minutes! Seriously, now, have our lives come to such a place where two minutes is worth putting our own lives and others at potentially serious risk?
Another thing I'd like you to consider: come to a full stop at stop signs and red lights, even if you're turning right. I no longer own a car, I get around on my own two feet and using public transportation and on my bicycle if the distance is too great. Personally, I love it. I've noticed my quality of life has gone up considerably. I'm also far less irritable. Truthfully, I'm not losing all that much time by my choices either. But here's my problem. I've been hit by cars many times. Fortunately, God built me like a tank and so far I haven't been injured seriously, just some scrapes and bruises. But over the past five years, I've been hit by cars as a pedestrian five times and three times on my bike. Nearly every single one of those hits was a situation where I was crossing a street or parking lot entrance where a car was making a right turn and never looked right! The driver never came to a full stop and never saw me until they were hitting me. Several of them even proceeded to get out of their car and yell at me for getting in their way! I'm quite serious, they hit me in a crosswalk and got out to yell at me!
"You should've stopped at the crosswalk and waited for me, " I recall one angry guy in a truck exclaiming at me, "You could've gotten yourself killed!"
Apparently, in his mind, a pedestrian who steps out into a crosswalk and gets hit by a car who has a stop-sign and never stops or looks right has just attempted suicide. He was that unwilling to accept responsibility for his actions, and I've found that it's not an uncommon attitude for most people. I was very tempted to call the police at that point and have them explain to him one of the most basic of all driving laws: the pedestrian ALWAYS has the right of way. It doesn't matter if a pedestrian is crossing a busy street illegally, they have the right of way every time without exception. If you don't know that, please consult your traffic safety laws and cure your ignorance. The reason for this is simple, it takes very little to kill a person with a car. Fifteen miles per hour is quite often a fatal speed when you hit a pedestrian. I challenge you to go out to your car and try to drive that slow! Most people can't, it's not easy, especially if you have an automatic transmission.
All I'm asking is that those of you who drive regularly slow down and look around a little more at intersections. Realize that you're in a lethal weapon every single time you get behind the wheel and that even the best of drivers can get into accidents. Put the phone down, pay attention to the road, slow down, and, please, always look to the right at an intersection! The life you save could be mine.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Day 1: On this day
On this day 30 years ago, March 29th, 1977, at approximately 2am, I was born. My mother had asked God what my name was to be, and only one answer was ever given: David, which means beloved. The name God gave me, through my mother, the name I claim over myself daily, the name I write on countless forms and documents, the name you all know me as, is my constant reminder of God's unending, unyielding, uncompromising, undeserved love for me.
I say I was born on March 29th, 1977, but perhaps a better phrase would be to say I arrived. Many years later, in my twenties, God would show me my real birth. And I would never be quite the same. I recall praying and meditating when I began to sense the power of God's Spirit approaching me. It was very much like being in the ocean when a series of very powerful waves begin rolling in. You can actually feel them coming before they reach you. It was much the same, only these were waves of raw spiritual power so strong they began to take on an actual sound which I cannot possibly describe. It was not a sound like you would hear with your ears, more like a resonance, as if the waves of power passing through me were actually vibrating my entire being. It was as if every molecule in my being were transmitting this sound to my consciousness, and that sound was completely unlike anything I had heard.
I became aware of angels in the room with me. I see angels a lot, although by "see" I do not mean as in a physical sense. We perceive this physical world by our eyes absorbing and interpreting light energy passing through space-time, the first four dimensions (length, width, depth, and time). The spiritual realms are completely outside this space-time of four dimensions so describing what I see in a physical sense is somewhat difficult. These angels were like whorls of energy in constant motion yet confined to a limited "space" such that they seemed to almost have a gravity of their own and light therefore twisted around them in strange ways almost such that they appeared to be columns of pure, radiant light. The physical world around them seemed to distort and bend, not unlike when you press your finger into an LCD screen. I barely had time to take note of these angels, though, when another wave of God's presence reached me and at that point I was fully caught up by him.
My physical surroundings simply seemed to vanish in an instant and I found myself standing naked before the living God. There have never been words invented nor language conceived that could possibly attempt to describe Yahweh, Jehovah, Who Was and Who Is and Who Is To Come. Light and power poured out from His presence in such colors and intensity that I am simply unable to give it words. His light tore through every part of my being with such intensity that I simply understood that I was undone. Not dead or destroyed, more like I never was. Yet simultaneously His power kept me together. And that power, His light, His very presence...there was sound. The light that was passing through me also had audible qualities unlike anything I could have dreamed was even possible. It was then that He reached out and touched my head and spoke. This is how I've chosen to describe His voice. It was as if every single thing in all the creation, every different creature, rock, molecule, everything that ever was and ever will be made every single noise or sound it could possibly ever make..all at once. Everything sounded at once in every possible way, every tone, that thing was capable of creating. Billions upon billions of voices and sounds, each distinct, each making every possible range of sound capable all at once. It was the voice of eternity. The word he spoke to me was completely unutterable for this very reason. But I understood as the force of it passed through me and blasted me into nothing that what he was speaking was my very name. And within his utterance of my name was the entirety of me. He was showing me my own creation as he literally spoke me into existence in eternity. Within that utterance was all of my existence, all I've ever been and ever will be contained in that single breath, that single spoken word that echoed out into eternity.
That spoken word uttered in eternity eventually found its way through creation to Earth, and sometime around what we think of as early summer 1976 that echo of God's very voice in eternity reached its way down into this physical universe on planet Earth somewhere in Oregon and I was conceived. Nine months and some change later, I was born on March 29, 1977. And that utterance continues to move through this space-time we perceive as our physical world until it moves on and I with it.
God has spoken all our names in eternity. His power invested in us, creating us, forming us, calling us. Will we listen? Will we have ears to hear? I am eternally thankful, for I have heard my own name spoken by God and I know who I am.
I am beloved.
I say I was born on March 29th, 1977, but perhaps a better phrase would be to say I arrived. Many years later, in my twenties, God would show me my real birth. And I would never be quite the same. I recall praying and meditating when I began to sense the power of God's Spirit approaching me. It was very much like being in the ocean when a series of very powerful waves begin rolling in. You can actually feel them coming before they reach you. It was much the same, only these were waves of raw spiritual power so strong they began to take on an actual sound which I cannot possibly describe. It was not a sound like you would hear with your ears, more like a resonance, as if the waves of power passing through me were actually vibrating my entire being. It was as if every molecule in my being were transmitting this sound to my consciousness, and that sound was completely unlike anything I had heard.
I became aware of angels in the room with me. I see angels a lot, although by "see" I do not mean as in a physical sense. We perceive this physical world by our eyes absorbing and interpreting light energy passing through space-time, the first four dimensions (length, width, depth, and time). The spiritual realms are completely outside this space-time of four dimensions so describing what I see in a physical sense is somewhat difficult. These angels were like whorls of energy in constant motion yet confined to a limited "space" such that they seemed to almost have a gravity of their own and light therefore twisted around them in strange ways almost such that they appeared to be columns of pure, radiant light. The physical world around them seemed to distort and bend, not unlike when you press your finger into an LCD screen. I barely had time to take note of these angels, though, when another wave of God's presence reached me and at that point I was fully caught up by him.
My physical surroundings simply seemed to vanish in an instant and I found myself standing naked before the living God. There have never been words invented nor language conceived that could possibly attempt to describe Yahweh, Jehovah, Who Was and Who Is and Who Is To Come. Light and power poured out from His presence in such colors and intensity that I am simply unable to give it words. His light tore through every part of my being with such intensity that I simply understood that I was undone. Not dead or destroyed, more like I never was. Yet simultaneously His power kept me together. And that power, His light, His very presence...there was sound. The light that was passing through me also had audible qualities unlike anything I could have dreamed was even possible. It was then that He reached out and touched my head and spoke. This is how I've chosen to describe His voice. It was as if every single thing in all the creation, every different creature, rock, molecule, everything that ever was and ever will be made every single noise or sound it could possibly ever make..all at once. Everything sounded at once in every possible way, every tone, that thing was capable of creating. Billions upon billions of voices and sounds, each distinct, each making every possible range of sound capable all at once. It was the voice of eternity. The word he spoke to me was completely unutterable for this very reason. But I understood as the force of it passed through me and blasted me into nothing that what he was speaking was my very name. And within his utterance of my name was the entirety of me. He was showing me my own creation as he literally spoke me into existence in eternity. Within that utterance was all of my existence, all I've ever been and ever will be contained in that single breath, that single spoken word that echoed out into eternity.
That spoken word uttered in eternity eventually found its way through creation to Earth, and sometime around what we think of as early summer 1976 that echo of God's very voice in eternity reached its way down into this physical universe on planet Earth somewhere in Oregon and I was conceived. Nine months and some change later, I was born on March 29, 1977. And that utterance continues to move through this space-time we perceive as our physical world until it moves on and I with it.
God has spoken all our names in eternity. His power invested in us, creating us, forming us, calling us. Will we listen? Will we have ears to hear? I am eternally thankful, for I have heard my own name spoken by God and I know who I am.
I am beloved.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
30 days to "be loved"
For those of y'all who don't know, it's my 30th birthday on Thursday. Since I'm apart from so many of y'all, my dear friends, I've decided to celebrate my birthday with y'all in a slightly unconventional way. One of my loves, my passion, is writing. Some of you actually read my blogs, and I thank you. A couple of you have been very kind in your comments. I've decided to toast my own 30th year with 30 days of blogs.
Yes, I'm going to write a new blog EVERY SINGLE DAY for 30 days starting this Thursday. Topics will be as varied and random as, well...me! Those who know me well know that can be VERY random. They might be introspective, they might be about culture, politics, spirituality. They could be poetry. Heck, I may even do a full formal essay if I feel like it. With the Final Four this weekend, you can almost be guaranteed I'll give you my take on the games and broadcasts.
Y'all who know me well will probably chuckle at topics you've heard time and time again. Others of you will get a glimpse into my world, my thoughts, and my heart.
So I invite you all to come check out my blog starting on Thursday, March 29th, my 30th birthday, for 30 days of...well, me, I guess! LOL.
BE LOVED, BELOVED,
DAVID
(get it?)
Yes, I'm going to write a new blog EVERY SINGLE DAY for 30 days starting this Thursday. Topics will be as varied and random as, well...me! Those who know me well know that can be VERY random. They might be introspective, they might be about culture, politics, spirituality. They could be poetry. Heck, I may even do a full formal essay if I feel like it. With the Final Four this weekend, you can almost be guaranteed I'll give you my take on the games and broadcasts.
Y'all who know me well will probably chuckle at topics you've heard time and time again. Others of you will get a glimpse into my world, my thoughts, and my heart.
So I invite you all to come check out my blog starting on Thursday, March 29th, my 30th birthday, for 30 days of...well, me, I guess! LOL.
BE LOVED, BELOVED,
DAVID
(get it?)
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