Having Fun . . .

. . . is not the most important thing about playing baseball. We don't want to lose. We want to win. But the most important thing is to learn the basic rules, strategy, and fundamentals of the game of baseball. This is how I approach coaching kids. The fundamentals provide my players with the tools to make defensive plays, pitch, hit, and run the bases, feel a little sense of accomplishment. Knowing the rules and the strategy help my players truly understand defeat and to grasp what it takes to win. Tasting the bitterness of defeat is the pits, but coming back to the exhilaration of winning . . . now we're talking fun.

Torture

Bag of bones twisted, broken, rattled. A pang, a prick, a squeeze. Knives, guns, electricity, hooks, sticks, pliers, deprivation, bugs, boxed, chemicals, fire, water, boards, a whip, crown of thorns, a cross. Awfully imagining what others do to others; how it must feel! But what about the gray matter crushed by enmity? Hatred convoluting the brain, churning chemicals; Hatred ripping out the heart, hard boiled spirit; Hatred inflicting the eyes, cooked tears; Hatred wrenching the fingers, twisted twigs; Hatred gnashing the teeth, grinding bones; Hatred menacing the skin, seams splitting.

Only the Dark Night

After the Dazzle of Day

After the dazzle of day is gone,

Only the dark night shows

         to my eyes the stars;

         After the clangor of organ majestic,

                   or chorus, or perfect band,

Silent, athwart my soul, moves

       the symphony true.

                                                     --Walt Whitman

My thoughts after reading: Darkness, Silence, Search my Soul, Beautiful.  Where does "After the Dazzle of Day" take you?

"The Biggest Yes"

I thought my co-worker David Clegg was setting me up to watch another person embarrass themselves in front of the world. Given Susan Boyle's homeliness and quirkiness, I was admittedly very cynical and uncomfortable for her and maybe even against her. As she sang, I wondered, "Who is Elaine Paige? Is this performance a gag? Is she lip synching?" So instead of a gyrating rendition of "she bangs, she bangs," I was treated with a most inspiring performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. Instantly, I was transformed. She was no longer homely, but beautiful. She touched my heart. She blew a kiss to me!

Lone Wolf

Why "lonewolfcry"?  Now that I'm posting it, I'm embarrassed to say that it is a self-imposed nickname I came up with at work.  What sort of person gives himself a nickname?  Why not l-o-a-n wolf instead?  I do work for a company that makes loans.  Since when was a wolf alone?  Don't they travel in packs?  This proves that the very name "lone wolf" is ambiguous and conflicted, so it's probably, maybe, perhaps fairly safe to say that I'm ambiguous and conflicted; after all, I did give myself the nickname without thinking it through.  Are you sure you want to read my blog?!  How do you think my family feels? : )  I just threw in the "cry" part because it had a better ring than "yowl," "howl," or "yip."