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  <a href="/speaking-writing/blog/6659908/another-new-year-s-eve">Another New Year’s Eve</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p> </p><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/22318/f99abef5b6b70e68acbd30132b56b763439cd8ff/original/pexels-jill-wellington-3334355.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><p>Many years ago, while still in my 20s, I entered into a business venture with a friend.  We had what we thought was a great idea, we were young and aggressive, and we were confident of our success. With great excitement we dove in.  <span style="color:#000000;">A few weeks later I stood with my new partner at a New Year’s Eve party.  Shaking hands, we boldly declared that the New Year would most certainly be <i>our</i> year.   </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#000000;">To make a long story short, it was not our year.  In fact, “our year” turned out to be pretty much the same as the previous year.   We discovered the hard way that we were big on dreams but short of the expertise that would be necessary to make our business venture a success.  In spite of our bold New Year’s Resolution, our venture failed.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">The passing of a few more years and the gaining of much needed wisdom has taught me a very simple lesson; <i>dreams are never accomplished simply by changing the calendar or turning the clock.</i></span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">Countless millions of people will charge into January 2019 with renewed resolve, hoping to turn their dreams into reality.  Some of these boldly stated resolutions will be big, such as business ventures or professional challenges.  Others will be less dramatic but no less noble, such as losing weight or living on a budget.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">Even armed with these new dreams and resolutions, and motivated by a new date on the calendar, an overwhelming percentage of these dreamers will fail in the pursuit.  2019 will produce no special magic that will make dreams come true and resolutions reality. </span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">Have you made one or several New Year’s Resolutions?  Have you taken any steps to assure their success?</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">            Those who wish to live life with grace, purpose and passion are resolution makers. They regularly make resolutions and set goals. They plan and prepare to succeed. They don’t confine the process to just New Year’s Eve but it is a part of their regular, 12 month a year, every day existence.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">            Like them, your resolutions can succeed.  It will take more than wishful thinking and changing the calendar, however.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">            Here are a few general tips to help you follow through on your resolutions for 2019.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">            First, make your resolutions clear and specific. To say you are going to “lose some weight”, for example, just isn’t good enough.  How much weight?  Set a reasonable, achievable goal, but don’t make it too easy.  You need to be stretched.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">            Next, put your resolution in writing.  Make several copies.  Keep it posted where you can see it and where it will do the most good. Be reminded of your resolution daily.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">            Third, draw up a plan.  Like your stated resolution write out your step by step program for success.  Decide how you are going to achieve your goal and set some measurable benchmarks for various points along the journey.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">            Fourth, enlist a friend or two.  Accountability is crucial to accomplishing any goal we seek. Answering tough questions from a trusted friend about your progress often means the difference between success and failure.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">Last, but not least, start and don’t stop.  Get moving today with the determination that nothing will stop you on your journey.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">2019 doesn’t have to be just another year, just a repeat of 2018. Set some resolutions and follow these general steps to accomplish them and 2019 might very well be everything you desire it to be. </span></p></div>
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2018-12-31T06:58:44-06:00" title="December 31, 2018 06:58">12/31/2018</span></p>

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  <a href="/speaking-writing/blog/6659909/missing-things">Missing Things</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><span style="color:#000000;"><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/22318/91b7b21d6fc117171d6788b83afda22edc010c5d/original/pexels-pixabay-262488.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />When the father of lyric writer Larry Hart (of Rodgers and Hart fame) was dying he called his boys alongside and told them, “Don’t grieve for me…I haven’t missed a thing.” </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I love that quote. It reminds me that life is simply what we make of it. It is up to us to “grab all the gusto we can”, as the old beer commercial said.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Is it, however, really possible? Is it really possible to go through a life of 6, 7, 8 or more decades and not miss some wonderful experiences or opportunities? I highly doubt it. Still, to be able to exit this stage and feel like you’ve grabbed as much of life as possible is a noble pursuit.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">At age 68 I’m fully aware that I missed some things. Sometimes I missed them because I was blind to them. I simply wasn’t looking in the right direction as they passed me by. I only saw them in the rear view mirror.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Sometimes I missed them because they were too grand or too risky. I grew fearful and hesitant. I held so tightly to what I had—and sometimes that wasn’t much by comparison—that I couldn’t loosen my grip to grab hold of an even greater thing.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Most of all, I was simply busy trying to live life. I was just getting by but that took all my time and energy. At least that was my excuse. As the saying goes, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”  My wife and I raised 5 sons and pastored two churches. We invested time in our friends and our communities. I have no regrets for those choices. They were good and noble and right.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">In the end you grab as much you can but do so knowing you can’t grab it all. Should you try you will probably find you never grab anything fully. You may also find that the most important things slip through your hands while you are busy chasing dreams and rainbows.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I have no serious regrets about my life. I won’t spend my time gazing in the rear view mirror at the what could have been. Instead, I can look at what was, what is, and what is still to be with a sense of gratitude and excitement.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Besides, If I keep my eyes open, if I overcome a bit of fear, and become a little more determined to seek and live my dreams, who knows?  There just might be—no, there will be—some great dreams and opportunities in the days and years ahead. </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">And, yes, I do believe the best is yet to come.</span></p>
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2018-11-19T20:48:22-06:00" title="November 19, 2018 20:48">11/19/2018</span></p>

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<h2 class="heading-secondary heading-blog alt-font">
  <a href="/speaking-writing/blog/6659910/where-heroes-walked">Where Heroes Walked</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><span style="color:#000000;"><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/22318/fc90488f22ec9960b03cb301d873cb2fb500394d/original/img-2656-copy.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />A few years ago I decided to do one of those things that you do when you get a few decades under your belt; I wrote my “Bucket List”.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term a bucket list is simply a list of things you would like to do before you “kick the bucket”.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I had to give some careful thought to some of the items I would place on the list. From the beginning, however, I knew what the number one item on my list would be.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I wanted to travel to Normandy, France and the D-Day beaches.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">In May of 2017 I fulfilled that dream.  Thanks to the persistent urgings of all my family, my son Joel and I made the trip to France and for a few short days I tried to absorb as much of the amazing history of those few miles of the Normandy coastline as I could.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">On the flight home and the weeks to follow I tried to process what I saw and learned.  I asked myself how, if at all, that trip had changed me.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">The overwhelming thought that dominated my mind as I spent my time in Normandy was this;  </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em>I had walked where heroes walked.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em> </em>I walked across a steel girded bridge that once spanned a narrow canal at a place called Benouville. Today it is known as Pegasus Bridge. There, at 12:16 a.m. on June 6, the first of three wooden Horsa Gliders quietly descended from the sky and deposited a handful of men from the British 6<sup>th</sup>airborne division, making them likely the first allied soldiers to touch French soil on D-day.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Their job was daunting and vital. They were to storm this bridge and a companion bridge 400 yards to the east in an effort to secure the left flank of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Nazi occupied Europe. They were to take the bridge as quickly as possible and intact and they did just that.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">The original bridge, the bridge that stood there on June 6<sup>th</sup>, 1944, has been moved and now sits a few hundred yards away on the grounds of a museum. The bullet holes left by the brief but furious battle are still very visable. I stood on that bridge. I stood on what would have been the west end where a young man, Lt. Den Brotheridge –a likable 24 year old with a pregnant wife at home–led his men in a charge across the bridge and was felled by a machine gun bullet, likely becoming the first allied soldier to die at the hands of the enemy.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em>I walked where heroes walked</em>.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I stood on a little strip of sand that is now a favorite place of picnickers and swimmers but on June 6<sup>th</sup>, 1944 was a place of death and agony. Today it is known as Omaha Beach. I looked up and down that 5 mile stretch of sand and stone, from the grassy knolls at the East end toward the bluffs of Pointe Du Hoc on the west. I tried to imagine the horrible scenes that were common on that June morning as the water literally turned red from the blood poured out by the dead and dying.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em>I walked where heroes walked</em>.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><strong> </strong>I stood on another beach just a few miles to the west of Omaha, where a 56 year old general came ashore with his men because he insisted—over the objections of his superiors—that they should see him leading the way. The son of one President and the cousin of another, and plagued with arthritis that forced him to use a cane, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. would not hide behind privilege or age. He led the way onto Utah beach.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em>I walked where heroes walked.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I stood on those cliffs known as Point du Hoc amidst the ruins of German gun emplacements and the deep craters caused by Allied bombing and tried to imagine how the young American rangers could possibly have scaled the nearly vertical rocks under relentless enemy fire to capture their objective. But they did.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em>I walked where heroes walked.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I stood in the town square at Saint Mere Eglise and gazed up at the peak of the Cathedral there where a parachute and the replica of a parachutist hangs, just as it did on June 6<sup>th</sup>when John Steele hung there at watched his fellow paratroopers slaughtered as they landed in the square or hung in the surrounding trees.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em>I walked where heroes walked.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I walked through a field in the French countryside adjacent to a home known as Brecourt Manor, immortalized in the book and film series Band of Brothers and where Dick Winters and Easy Company of the 101<sup>st</sup>Airborne division used a textbook strategy to take out four German artillery pieces that were terrorizing Utah beach 3 ½ miles away.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I listened as the current owner of Brecourt Manor told us the “real” story of the fight, as he had heard it around their kitchen table from his father, grand-father, and Dick Winters.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em> </em><em>I Walked where heroes walked.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I walked the cemeteries. I walked the American Cemetery on the bluffs above Omaha Beach that through sheer courage and determination were liberated by the Allies before the end of the day and have since become the final resting place of thousands of those same men.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I was stirred to chills and tears as the sound of taps rolled across the 10,000 crosses and Stars of David.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I walked the German Cemetery which stands in stark contrast to the American Cemetery. There is somehow a darkness that hangs over it. Far, far fewer visitors come there as if they want to forget these men.  Still, I stood there thinking, “Their mothers wept for them as well.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><em>I walked where heroes walked.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">And I wept. I wept as I sat alone in a small viewing area watching a video of mothers holding dead children caught in the crossfire, of French women kneeling over the bodies of slain American service men and weeping as if that boy was their own.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I wept at the sheer insanity of war yet all the time realizing its absolute necessity.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Indeed, <em>I walked where heroes walked.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">When it comes right down to it, however, I could not avoid walking where heroes walked, for every inch of Normandy was a battleground on June 6<sup>th</sup>and the weeks that followed.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">So as I flew home, as I processed the previous days’ sights, sounds and insights, an important thought re-occurred. I walked where heroes walked on that sacred ground in France, to be sure, but in another way, in an even more important way, <em>I always have</em>.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I grew up in small farm town in northern Illinois called Walnut. I spent my first 55 years there. The 1950s held my childhood and the 60’s my adolescence.  My life was consumed with baseball and music and girls. I never stopped to consider that I was walking in the company of heroes.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">When World War II had come, the boys of Walnut went to war. They did their duty and when it was over, most of them came home.  They went from the cornfields to the battlefields and back to the cornfields. They served without hesitation, without fanfare, and without complaining. They did their duty and when that duty was finished they went back home, right back to the life they had left.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">As I grew up in the 50s and 60s I did so with little awareness of those times or of the courage and sacrifice of those boys, then pushing middle age.  Little was said about the war.  Oh, now and then I might catch a smattering of conversation between my dad and one of the many veterans that were part of his daily life as they stepped back in time to share their war remembrances. By and large, however, the horrors and adventures of those years were left unshared, much like Dad’s war souvenirs, tucked away in old, dusty army trunks, only to be brought out on very rare and special occasions.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I experienced these men daily in the town I loved although I didn’t necessarily think of them as heroes. I only knew them as Roy, Arden, Bobby, Wally, Buck, and Volley, to name a few.  I knew them as businessmen, carpenters, lawyers, grocers and farmers. I knew them as Boy Scout troop masters, Little League coaches, community and church leaders. I knew them as husbands, the dads of my friends, my neighbors, my friends, and the man who lived just down the hall.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Indeed, I have spent a lifetime walking where heroes walked.  These men—these ordinary heroes—shaped my life and my world by their sacrifice and service during the war and well beyond.  For that I am grateful beyond words.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Today we honor our heroes, past and present, whatever and wherever they stood on the wall for freedom. We honor them and remember their heroism out of gratitude for sure, but out of necessity as well.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Should we forget—should we <em>ever </em>forget—God help us as a nation.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><strong> </strong>As I continued processing all these things I remembered something else of great importance, a simple challenge my father left me with as he was dying. </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">“Whatever you do,” He said,” Tell my grandchildren and great-grandchildren that I was a soldier.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I will do more than that, Dad. I will use whatever gifts, talents, and energy I have to tell the world what you—and the millions of others like you, have done for the nation I love and the world that depends upon us. I will do my part—and hopefully more—to keep that memory alive.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">President Franklin D. Roosevelt once wrote, “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">On this Memorial Day—as we remember, let us pledge ourselves to <em>continue </em>to remember, not just one day a year but every day of every year, not just because we are grateful but because it is so necessary.  </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Our freedom—the Freedom of our nation and the world we lead—depends upon our steadfast remembering as we walk where heroes walked.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;"><strong> </strong></span></p></div>
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2018-11-10T04:43:03-06:00" title="November 10, 2018 04:43">11/10/2018</span></p>

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  <a href="/speaking-writing/blog/6659911/a-lesson-from-the-searchlight">A Lesson from the Searchlight</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><span style="color:#000000;"><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/22318/8a98cebe169c3b4c49388d2d733afc741d19967a/original/pexels-cottonbro-4722576.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />For several television seasons actor / director / writer George Takei was known to Star Trek fans as around the world as Hikaru Sulu, the helmsman of the USS Enterprise. Today Takei is using his world-wide fame to tell the story of his childhood and the lessons it offers all of us about democracy and freedom.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">The Japanese – American Takei was born in 1937 in Los Angeles to Japanese born parents. In 1942, fed by the anti-Japanese hysteria resulting from the outbreak of war with Japan, the five-year-old Takei and his parents were summarily moved to what the American government designated as “relocation camps”. Takei is quick to point out—much to the discomfort of most Americans—that these were nothing less than “concentration camps”: They concentrated Japanese-Americans in specific locations, confined them with barbed-wire fences, and discouraged their escape with sentry towers and machine gun toting guards.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">In a recent interview on the Travis Smiley Show Takei made an off-the-cuff statement that caught my attention.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">In discussing the concentration camp aspect of his world as a five year old, Takei mentioned that walking across the compound at night to visit the latrine meant being followed by the glare of a searchlight.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">“I didn’t think anything about it,” said Takei, “I just thought it was cool that they lit my way so I could go pee.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">There is something wonderful and innocent about that statement. There is also a lesson that we could learn to make the process of growing older more fulfilling, less stressful, and more fun.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Takei’s family had been forcibly uprooted from the life they had built. They were taken from their homes, their neighborhoods, their families, and their jobs. They were treated as criminals simply because of their Japanese heritage. They had every right to be angry at a nation that purported to be the shining beacon of freedom in the world yet locked them behind wire fences. They had every right to question the morality of a nation that would watch their every act–even an act as simple and normal as going to the latrine—with suspicion.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">A five year old, however, did not understand any of that. Five year olds are blessed with a sense of wonder and innocence and naiveté. The spotlight wasn’t watching him, it was simply lighting his way.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I wonder how many of us would benefit from embracing a little bit more of a child-like innocence and wonder. How many of us would experience a bit more joy in our life if we didn’t take the “big picture” quite so seriously, at least not all the time.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Let’s take a lesson from a five year old in a Japanese-American concentration camp. Let’s stop looking at the worst of things and look for the blessings. Let’s stop looking at the dark clouds and seek the silver lining.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Most certainly, we would all enjoy life and have much more fun if, like Takei, we saw searchlight not as watching us, but as lighting our way.</span></p>
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  <a href="/speaking-writing/blog/6659912/the-cause-was-not-reported">The Cause Was Not Reported</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><span style="color:#000000;"><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/22318/b4b19b76f569091b7e6150b82cd8723b12881499/original/pexels-pixabay-356079.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />An article from the February 26, 2014 edition of the Washington Post left me scratching my head.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">“Alice Herz-Sommer, a concert pianist who was widely believed to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust and who became known around the world for her belief in the redemptive power of music, died Feb. 23 at a hospital in London. She was 110.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">So far so good, right? The best part of this obituary was yet to come, however.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">The cause of death, the obit stated in its conclusion, “was not reported”. “Was not reported”? Really? How about the fact that she was <em>110 years of age!</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">We fear it. We fight it. We worry about it. Yet, the simple fact is this: One of the most freeing—and life giving—truths man can accept is the reality of his own inevitable death. The sooner we accept the inevitability of death, the sooner we can get on with the business of life.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Sure, accidents will happen. Illnesses will attack us. Bad things will interrupt our journey. Most of the time we simply can’t do much about it. So why worry?</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">As I think back on the many vibrant, dynamic people I have had the joy of knowing in my life they were all people consumed with living, not obsessed with dying. I have learned from them that to cower behind fear of accident or illness or calamity or death is to lose the joy of living. That is not a bargain I wish to make.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Jesus himself reminds us of the wastefulness and futility of such a bargain.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">“Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27) The implied answer is, “Of course not.” In fact, just the opposite is the reality. Worry destroys us. It eats away at our joy and our smile and our ability to walk out the front door into a world God gave us to enjoy.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">Live fearlessly. Enjoy life. That is what I intend to do. I am on a journey to live life and to squeeze as much joy and good work out of it as I can.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">I am going to die. Something– be it cancer or a drunk driver—may rob me of my life, it is true. Then again, who knows? I might just make it to110 and die, not of old age, but of wearing myself out in joyful living.</span></p></div>
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<h2 class="heading-secondary heading-blog alt-font">
  <a href="/speaking-writing/blog/6659913/when-right-is-right">When Right is Right</a>&nbsp;
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  <div class="message"><p><span style="color:#000000;"><img src="//images.zoogletools.com/u/22318/ea74d7b0d1dd28750bf00a16a4d85a77ad6768ee/original/pexels-sora-shimazaki-5668882.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />When my grandson was nine years old he spent the summer playing on a couple youth baseball teams. He loved the game and he loved being around the other kids. Winning and losing wasn’t a life or death thing to him. One night in the middle of the season he proved it.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            His team was ahead on the scoreboard entering the final inning and Tyler was playing second base. With one out and a runner on first base, the batter hit a ground ball directly at Tyler who fielded it cleanly, tagged the runner as he passed by, and threw on to first base to complete the double play. Game over, right?</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            Not so fast. As the crowd and his teammates cheered Tyler’s play and the win, Tyler ran over to the pitcher (who was the opposing team’s coach) and told him, “I missed the tag”.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            I can only imagine the shock of that coach at Tyler’s words and the urgency with which he spoke them. That coach then told the other umpires and coaches what Tyler had said. Decision reversed. The game wasn’t over.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            The teams went back on the field and the game resumed. The next player struck out anyway so it didn’t matter in terms of the final score.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            But it did matter, especially to Tyler.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            When asked why he admitted the missed tag Tyler simply replied, “I just wouldn’t be able to live with that regret the rest of my life.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            From the “mouth of babes”, right? Would a big league player, with the game on the line, being paid millions to make that tag, be willing to admit he missed it and give the other team an opportunity to win the game? I would like to think so, but my gut and the nightly news tell me otherwise.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            Would it happen at the college level or even the High School level?</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            I’ve watched a lot of junior sporting events. I’ve seen the best and the worst that sport brings out in people. I’ve seen parents and coaches push the “winning is everything” attitude on kids from T-ball on up. I’ve seen what it has done to the attitudes and the integrity of the kids. I’ve seen the ruination it has brought to sports. I truly regret whatever part I played in fostering it.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            In all those years, and in all those games, I don’t recall a player or coach ever disputing, or insist on reversing, a bad call made in their favor. If you can get away with it you do. Period. It’s about winning.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            I don’t know if Tyler would have thought differently about his decision if he had considered the possibility that his team could lose the game, but I would like to think it wouldn’t have mattered.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            In the moment of decision he went with integrity. He embraced sportsmanship. He went with what was right. He acted in a quick and decisive way to right a wrong.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000000;">            If only more of us “grown ups” would follow his example.</span></p>
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    <p class="post-info"><span data-time="2018-07-17T16:06:03-05:00" title="July 17, 2018 16:06">07/17/2018</span></p>

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