Once A Runner

Once A Runner by John L. Parker.

For several years, I'd heard of Once a Runner and it's cult following in the running subculture. Being a runner for many years myself, I was excited when I learned that the novel would be released again.

The novel follows a protagonist named Quentin Cassidy during his running career in the 1970s at the fictional Southeastern University in Kernsville, Florida. (Based loosely on the University of Florida in Gainesville) Cassidy is one of the top milers in the nation with race times around 4:00 flat. In addition to his running adventures, we also follow his humorous escapades as a college student and ring leader of various mischief.

As a result of Cassidy's leadership role in an athlete uprising against unreasonable administration rules, he is banned from the track team and decides to drop out of school to pursue training exclusively while living in a cabin in the woods. During this training he further refines his mental and physical abilities to finely honed race condition. This training culminates in a race against the fastest miler in the world.

The book captures with extreme accuracy the many aspects of life as a competitive distance runner. It goes through the components of training including long runs, speed work, training logs, eating, sleeping, stretching, and race preparations among others. It additionally touches on the social nuances that runners experience in the football centric American sports culture. I found the pre-race rituals and description of nervousness as well as feelings and thoughts during the actual race to be right on target.

The book alternates between rambunctious tomfoolery college scenes and the more reflective passages of both group and individual training. The flow parallels running quite well. At times a runner will interact with the hustle and bustle of the non-running world and at times he or she will enter the separate world of running and introspective thinking.

The plot is exciting throughout with varying components of humor, drama, and heart pounding racing. Once A Runner will entertain and strike a nerve especially with the competitive runner. It's a great read for the casual runner or the person simply interested in a good sports story.

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Snow in Spring?

No silly. That's not snow they're dandelions. Each spring the park close to where I live has a massive amount of dandelions which create a great yellow base for a week or so followed by snowy white as they go to the seed phase.

Prayer: Conversing With God

Sometimes prayer is perceived as needing to be a high and lofty exercise of religion with flowery language that one must be "trained" in or spend years going to seminary to learn. Rosalind Rinker helps to dispel this perception and shows how easy it can be to have a very real and active prayer life.

The subtitle "Conversing With God" describes the main focus and type of prayer that Ms. Rinker refers to. Prayer is simply a conversation with God and not some formal theological exercise. Just as one would speak with a friend or family member, they can also speak with God. Just as a person might talk about the day with a friend, let Him know what's going on, thank and praise Him for the incredible things He's done and for who He is, and seek His wisdom for their life.

She also helps show how to incorporate prayer throughout the day and not just at designated times. In some Bible studies, people spend more time talking about prayer requests than actually praying. Rinker helps show how to structure prayer time so that it naturally flows like a conversation with the Holy Spirit prompting people to pray as they are led and as things come to mind. By making it more of a conversation, you both talk with the people in the group and with Jesus who is there with you.

She also addresses the risk of praying to impress other people or gain their approval by manufacturing emotion, fervency, or eloquent speech. This completely misses the point of prayer which is communicating with God. If one wishes to be eloquent and have people praise him or her for their great public speaking abilities, they should seek out alternate venues rather than "showing off" during times of prayer.

The book incorporates scripture passages as well as real life examples to illustrate conversational prayer. It also has a short devotional section at the back of the book which can be used to learn this style of prayer and engaging with God one on one.

The book is written in an easy to understand format and can be read very quickly. I recommend reading a chapter at a time to allow time to meditate on the chapter topic. If you would like good tips on improving your prayer life and how to communicate with God in a down to earth manner, this book offers very practical and easy steps to implement.

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Be My Everything

Today was the first time we played "Everything" by Tim Hughes at church. This week as I've been playing and meditating on it, it's been a great reminder of what is hopefully my ultimate desire, the one above all else. I love the chorus and bridge especially when singing with all you are from the heart and soul to Jesus. Awesome!

"Be my everything, Be my everything, Be my everything, Be my everything
Christ in me, Christ in me the hope of glory be my everything"

Good Ideas vs. Priorities

There are many things that we think are good ideas. For example, hanging with friends, running/working out, reading, spending time with God, cleaning the home, practicing an instrument, getting out in nature, getting enough sleep, eating healthily, cooking/baking, writing a note to someone, taking a class, starting a small business; all of these are good ideas. However, there may be a host of good ideas but if we don't make them a priority and take steps to make them happen, they remain just a good idea.

For me, I've made running and lifting weights a priority (the former because I truly enjoy it. The latter because a skinny white boy can use all the help he can get :) and do so fairly consistently. Studying is usually a priority and the accountability of a class structure helps enforce that though it sometimes falls down the list. Getting enough sleep is both a good idea and mostly a priority though sometimes other things bleed over into sleep time. I've tried to make a more concerted effort to follow a routine in the evening to help with this.

On the opposite end of the spectrum I think cleaning and organizing things at home is a great idea but it's just not a priority for me. It really doesn't bother me that much. I generally do keep things clean but from a neatness standpoint, not so much. As long as the cave is mostly warm (or cool depending on season) and dry we here at The Wisdom of Dre are generally pretty happy.

So, I think the take away is that we should be honest with ourselves in making priorities and not confusing priorities with good ideas. Acknowledge some things as good ideas but also recognize you're living in reality and don't get down on yourself for not always living perfectly. At the same time, some of those good ideas should be priorities and we need to structure things so that they actually happen rather than sitting in the closet of good ideas gathering dust. Take them out, dust them off, and put them in action.

Town Hall for Hope Stats

Last night, Dave Ramsey hosted the Town Hall for Hope. It was a great event in which he provided context around what happened to the economy, historical perspective, quotes, scripture, and straight talk. The media can tend to hype things and get everyone down and out thinking the world is coming to an end.

Here are some statistics that Dave shared during the Town Hall for Hope. When people starting talking about how terrible things are, they are good to keep in mind. These are re-posted from http://www.townhallforhope.com/index.cfm?event=displayPostStats".

Gold
* From 1833 to 2001, the compound annual growth rate was 1.54%.
* From 2001 to now, we’ve seen a compound annual growth rate of 15.57%.
* But even with the surge, the lifetime annual growth of gold is only 2.14%.

Foreclosures:

* 50% of United States foreclosures in 2008 came from 35 counties in 12 states.
* 20% of the United States’ population lives in these 35 counties.
* Eight counties in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada were the source of 25% of foreclosures.
* Existing home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.7 million units in February, 2009, and only 860,000 homes were repossessed all of 2008.

The Stock Market:

* Investors have made money 100% of the 15-year periods in the stock market’s history.
* Since 1974, the value of the S&P 500 has grown 1,250%, from 63 to 850.

The Great Depression and Recent Recessions:

* 1938–40: Unemployment grew to over 17%, the Stock Market dropped 89%, and bread lines were real; executives didn’t fly Gulfstreams to Washington, D.C. looking for bailouts.
* 1974: The Stock Market dropped 50%, gas lines snaked around the block, and inflation became stagflation, i.e. inflation in a stagnant economy.
* 1982: Inflation was over 10%, unemployment was over 10%, and the interest rate reached 17% on home mortgages.
* 2009: Unemployment is at 8.5%, there is no inflation, and the home mortgage rate is 4 3/8%. The Stock Market dropped 57%, but it has recently risen from a low of 6400 to over 8000.

Recovery from the Great Depression:

* Those who did nothing recovered in 4 years, 4 months.
* Those who sold out at the bottom realized a 78% loss.

Stock Market Performance Following Recessions:

* 1945–2007: The average bear market lasted 12.7 months with an average decline of 30.3%.

Seven

Did you know that 7 is the only number between 1 and 10 that has two syllables?

Alternative Minimum Tax

Being close to tax day, I thought a little discussion on a tax topic would be in order. The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) could be more aptly named as Another Malicious Tax. This nefarious piece of nastiness can jump up and bite unsuspecting taxpayers.

Basically, it was designed to make sure high income families were paying their fair share of taxes. Some people ended up paying relatively low tax amounts due to deductions and tax credits they used. So, the government didn't like that and instigated the AMT in 1969. The problem is that inflation measures were not incorporated so over time more and more people have been impacted by it including the middle class. It was never intended to affect the middle class but rather was an additional tax on high income families. Congress has incrementally increased the level at which a taxpayer is affected by it but has not yet put an inflation provision attached to it.

One example I'm familiar with is a family who had to pay the AMT when they were making an average annual wage and had 8 children. Each of the deductions they received for the children was much needed and getting hit by the AMT was not good for the financial picture.

Hopefully, Congress will either repeal the AMT altogether or attach an inflation provision so that it doesn't negatively impact the middle class as it was never intended to do.

We won't get into the discussion of whether it is fair to place an additional tax burden on high income families but at a minimum, provisions should be put in place to address inflation.

If you'd like to let your congress person know your thoughts on "Another Malicious Tax," go to senate.gov or house.gov and email them.

One Reason Southwest Airlines is Awesome

I regularly fly Southwest Airlines when it is an option. They usually have either the lowest fare or a very competitive one. In my experience they have better on time departure and arrival than other airlines. Some people prefer assigned seating but that really doesn't bother me. Their whole organization makes things fun and this can definitely be seen with their flight attendants. Check out this creative safety announcement. If only they had flights from Kansas City to Atlanta, I'd be sure to put them at the top of the list.

Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Rap

Twitter

You may have heard of the latest new communication tool on the web called Twitter. It's a micro blogging website similar to using Facebook updates. You can follow well known people or friends and it provides a feed of their updates. You only have 160 characters to make an update so have to be concise. It also allows you to update via text messages.

I finally decided to sign up and see what the low down is. Some people send updates constantly, some once a day or week, some infrequently. A few well known people that I'm following are Mark Richt, Lance Armstrong, and Mark Batterson. It's interesting to hear what's going on with them. You pick up on news a bit more frequently and get it straight from the horse's mouth.

If you'd like to follow me on twitter, you can select the link at the right, go to http://twitter.com/wisdomofdre, or simply read the most current updates in the widget on the sidebar to the right.

Jimmy Carter

Today, I had the opportunity to see Jimmy Carter speak at the Baptist Border Crossing conference. While I don't always agree with all of his politics, it was pretty cool to see a past president in person. One very positive thing that he did was to help ease the policy toward Bibles so that people were allowed to distribute them in China. Estimates are that around 10,000 people in China become a Christian on a daily basis.

Chick-fil-a

And there was much rejoicing and celebration among the citizens of Liberty, Missouri. It has been confirmed that a Chick-fil-a is being built in Liberty, Missouri off of Highway 152. This is something I've actually emailed them about on multiple occasions so when I saw they'd picked out a site to start construction, happiness occurred.

It's difficult to tell from this picture but there is actually a sign indicating Chick-fil-a on a trailer where the construction site is located.

While we're discussing Chick-fil-a goodness. I thought I'd post this very funny song by Tim Hawkins about Chick-fil-a.

You Will Be Filled

From an emotional and spiritual perspective, we each have buckets that do not remain empty of their own accord. We can choose to fill them with the things of this world: alcohol, relationships (good & bad), eating or not eating, lust, anger, money, clothing, television, internet, music, material possessions, gossip, excessive focus on a career, one's physical image, status, pride, envy and jealousy, see Galations 5: 19-21 for more. Or we can choose to be filled with the things of God "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control" (Galations 5:22-23) This is a daily process and even an hourly and moment by moment choosing to be filled with God and to make Him the center of our desires. It is so easy to fall away and be distracted by the earthly things all around clamoring for our attention.

These emotional and spiritual buckets consistently replenish us and determine our perspective and outlook on life. If we seek the buckets with good, clean, pure water, the associated sponge of our lives will be soaked with the life giving, spirit filled nature of God and will seep out everywhere we go and onto everyone we come in contact with. At the same time, if we fill our sponges from buckets not of God, His joy and righteousness will not fill our lives and we end up operating in our own power. (Not a good spot to be in) The sponge drips and dries out over time and must be refilled.

You will be filled, so choose to be filled with God and His abundant life.

Quiere Usted Aprender Espanol?

Hola amigos. If you've ever wanted to learn Spanish, a good option for picking it up one word at a time is by subscribing to Dictionary.com's Spanish word of the day. It is completely free and they send a daily email with a new Spanish word along with a definition and a couple examples of how it is used. You won't become fluent using just this method but it's a great way to learn a few words here and there and takes very little time on a daily basis. Check out this link for the gratis learning opportunity.

Dictionary.com also has an English word of the day and tends to be more on the scale of SAT or ACT types of words. They are usually the type you might see in higher literature, The New York Times, or Time magazine.

Cooley Lake

This morning me and some guys from church went hiking at Cooley Lake, Missouri. Ryan works for the state conservation department so gave some good insight on tree names and ecology.

Quote of the Day

"When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully, upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us." -Alexander Graham Bell

The Fred Factor

The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn

In The Fred Factor, Mark Sanborn describes a postal carrier whose name is Fred. When Sanborn moved to the Denver area and purchased a home, his mail man took the time to introduce himself, welcome Mark to the neighborhood, and get to know a bit about him. Because of Sanborn's extensive travel schedule, he was out of town a fair amount. Fred said he'd be sure to hold mail if it would begin overflowing the mailbox so that it wasn't apparent to potential thieves that he wasn't home. Once when Sanborn got back from a trip, he found his welcome mat not in its customary spot in front of the door but over to the side of the porch covering a package along with a note from Fred. Fred placed it there to help conceal it from the public eye to provide further security to the home. In addition to this, Fred always took an interest in what was going on with Sanborn's life as well as many other customers along the route. He embodied what Sanborn described as an exceptional postal carrier.

Fred took what was a seemingly routine and potentially monotonous job and took great care to provide outstanding service to his "customers" who came to consider him more of a friend than a post man. He had no great resources at his disposal other than pieces of mail and the relationship he formed with the people on his route. Fred became an outstanding representative for the US postal service.

Sanborn goes on to describe other examples of "Freds" that he's encountered and their approach to customer service. You have probably encountered Freds in your life as well. I can think of several flight attendants in traveling who provided this type of excellent flight experience whether through a cheerful disposition, the inclusion of humor in the generic flight instructions, or going out of their way to make sure you were completely comfortable.

Another book which describes this concept with different terminology is Lunchmeat and Life Lessons by Mary Lucas. She terms this the "comeback sauce." In other words, when working with customers, give them that extra touch that keeps them coming back due to the exceptional service they receive.

While I think Sanborn's encouragement for people to go above and beyond in their career is good, it is not natural for people to do this out of their own nature. Many people are selfish and yes some may go out of their way to help others and provide a lending hand but by and large many are primarily interested in looking out for number 1. I think when coupled with faith in Christ, there is a deeper rooted motivation and desire to do things like this. If left to our own devices, though, this may be done on a more limited basis.

It would have been nice if we could have followed Fred throughout the book in each of the principles explained. We first saw Fred at the beginning and then Fred the actual man was not really in the picture until the last chapter.

Both the Fred Factor and the comeback sauce principle are excellent to keep in mind when working with clients. Thinking of ways to provide added value to clients will keep them coming back again and again.

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The Red Letters

There is love in the red letters
There is truth in the red letters
There is hope for the hopeless
Peace and forgiveness
There is life in the red letters
In the red letters

I really like the DC Talk song "Red Letters." (You can hear a bit in the player on the right) A few weeks back I spent some time reading exclusively the red letters from the Bible. For clarification's sake, many copies of the Bible display all passages where Jesus is speaking in red letters. It can make the flow slightly less smooth but is very neat to get in the mentality of the words of Christ.

One passage that I like comes from John 15:4-11 NASB "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

When we abide in Christ by reading and memorizing His words, it helps us to begin thinking more like Him and ultimately living a joy filled life. There is all kinds of good stuff in the red letters. Spend some time there next time you're in the Word.

SWAT Team

If you ever decide to go postal and go up against the SWAT team, don't. You will lose.

Tuesday night, I got to play cops and robbers with the Kansas City SWAT team. They do training exercises and I got to participate by role playing the bad guy. I got a pistol with simulation bullets that had paint in them rather than lead. (this helps in maintaining the general health of the participants) The SWAT team had varying weapons including pistols and assault rifles, along with a defensive shield. We were all wearing bullet proof vests along with helmets to further assist in protective gear.

The scenario simulated was that someone had gone on a rampage and was holed up and negotiations had been unsuccessful. I hid in an apartment on a floor of an abandoned apartment complex. The SWAT team then cleared the adjacent apartment to simulate what they would do in a real scenario to prevent errant bullets from striking innocent people.

They then entered the one I was in and cleared the first part of the apartment before finding me. I was hidden in a closet and we had a verbal altercation but I ended up giving up that time. The 2nd scenario, I hid in a different apartment and was behind a kitchen counter. When they found me and said show me your hands, I did but came up firing with the SIM gun. They proceeded to pepper me with rounds of their own. My gun ended up jamming and I resorted to wrestling/grappling with them. Of course 6 well trained SWAT officers put me down in short order.

We then role played a couple hostage scenarios where I held one of them and used him as a body shield. I didn't think there would be any way they could hit just me and not the hostage but they popped me a couple times on the side of the head.

The whole adrenaline, accelerated heart rate, antsiness of waiting for them to find you, and tense muscles gave a good perspective on how a real scenario might go down. It was very cool all around. They are very good at what they do.

Photo by Granada America

When March Went Mad

When March Went Mad by Seth Davis

Seth Davis has written an in depth account of the breakout 1979 NCAA championship basketball game centered around the 2 superstars: Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The book follows the very different but parallel stories of Bird and Johnson throughout their childhood into high school their high profile recruitment, college careers, the climactic championship game, and then a small portion of their NBA careers.

Johnson was the gregarious extrovert, Bird the quiet and at times reclusive introvert but both were outstanding on the basketball court. Johnson grew up in Lansing, Michigan the same city as Michigan State while bird grew up in French Lick, Indiana. Bird's sometimes rough around the edges persona resulted in the moniker "The Hick From French Lick." Johnson earned his nick name "Magic" from a newspaper reporter during high school.

While Michigan State was a relatively major basketball program, Indiana State, where Bird played, did not compete with the same caliber programs and was comparatively little known as a basketball power. Each of these athletes led their teams to success throughout their college sports careers. Academically, Bird actually completed his degree in education prior to going to the NBA while Johnson left school after his sophomore season to join the pros.

The book is not limited to Bird and Johnson but also delves into the players' college coaches Jud Heathcoate for Johnson and Bob King then Bill Hodges for Bird. Discussion of the coaches' styles is explored with Heathcoate being extremely intense and at times inflammatory and Hodges with a focused but quieter and at times shy style.

Interestingly, Bird was recruited by Bobby Knight at Indiana University first but after enrolling there became overwhelmed by the college atmosphere and dropped out before eventually enrolling in Indiana State.

Prior to reading the book, I did not realize that Johnson played point guard during college. He is 6 foot 8 so was a very tall point guard.

There is also discussion in the book of how NBC helped promote and make the NCAA tournament a big time sporting event. Prior to that time, there was some interest in collegiate basketball but nothing on the scale of what it is today. ESPN was just an idea at that point and broke into its infancy the following year. CBS was also a player that Davis discussed in the television market.

Davis, performed a great deal of research and interviews in writing the book and the resulting detail is excellent. It is both a biographical account of the 2 main characters as well as the season leading up to the landmark game and the supporting cast of coaches, teammates, and media. The thesis is how this championship game helped launch college basketball into the big time and though more time could be devoted to this discussion Davis is convincing in presenting it, at a minimum, as a component in the resulting success and popularity of the sport.

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