Fallen
and Can't Get Up
September 29, 2011
I'm in a funk. Last night on the final day of the Major League Baseball
season the Boston Red Sox got within one out of playing a special one
game playoff for the American League Wild Card. And they blew it. The
Baltimore Orioles rallied to win 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning.
It was the final nail in the coffin, ending an improbable last month
collapse. A month ago Boston seemed like a lock for the playoffs. Now
they are heading home for the Winter.
It's agony for the Red Sox Nation. I've been a fan since 1967 and had
my share of heartbreaks over the years. I think after the World Series
wins in 2004 and 2007 Red Sox fans began to think we would no
longer suffer again the cruel fate of falling out of first place and
freefalling right out of the pennant race. But Boston, a powerhouse most of
the season, lost 20 games in September. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays
made an incredible run and came back last night from a 7 to nothing
deficit against the New York Yankees to tie the game and then win 8-7 in 12 innings on an Evan
Longoria home run. Wow.
So what, you might be thinking. It's just a game. And in the final
analysis that is true. It's just a game...but one I'm passionate about.
Baseball is a metaphor for life - for me, anyway. And I know I'm not
alone in that. There are others who consider the game to be a great
tapestry/backdrop to the American historical landscape.
Still, today I was in a funk. When I got home from teaching middle school
Social Studies, however, I found my less-than-2-year old grandson visiting.
We played and went for a walk with the dog and he waved at the passing
cars and yelled excitedly when neighborhood hounds barked. He enjoyed
the moment and he got me out of my gloom.
Putting my feelings for my team aside I have to admit yesterday was
quite the historical day for baseball. There was incredible high drama.
Not just the way the Red Sox lost. Also, the way the Rays came back. And in
the National League St. Louis won and the Atlanta Braves lost (in extra
innings, no less) to send the Cardinals into the playoffs as a wild
card team and the Braves home for the season. Atlanta's situation was much
like Boston's. A month ago they had a healthy lead in the NL wild card
race, but also went into a tailspin.
So, on the last day of the season two teams rose from the ashes and two
teams fell from Mount Olympus. Pretty dramatic stuff.
Collapse
in Beantown or Triumphant Turnaround
September 26, 2011
It's late September and if you follow baseball you know the Major
League regular season is about to wrap up. There are teams who have
already clinched a post season spot - the Yankees, Phillies, Tigers,
Rangers, Brewers and Diamondbacks. But in both the National League and
American League the Wild Card teams have yet to be determined. The
races are about as tight as they can get.
If you follow this blog you
know that I am a big baseball fan and than
my team of choice is the Boston Red Sox. For most of this season
they've been flying high. At one point they had the second best record
off all teams. But a September collapse has put them in a precarious
position of losing what a month ago looked like a sure thing. The Tampa
Bay Rays are nipping at their heals, just a game back. This past
weekend the Red Sox played their archrivals, the New York Yankees. The
Yanks took two of out of three games. The only victory Boston escaped
with was last night's 14 inning affair when Jacoby Ellsbury (having a
sensational season) popped a three run homer to give Boston the victory
to stay a game ahead of the Rays. Wicked good!
Because I've been a lifelong Red Sox fan the events of the past month
have a somewhat familiarity about them. Boston has a history of getting
close and falling short. Even though they finally won a couple of World
Series in the past seven years (including 2004 when they broke a
drought of 86 years - team history timeline here) when
they start to lose we Sox fans can't help but fall into the "not again"
thinking.
I'm hoping for the best...and preparing for the worst. The crazy ups
and downs are not unlike life for some of us. Have you experienced the
thrills of success and the heartbreaks of sorrow and failure? If so,
you have a rich personal history to draw upon that could make a heck of
a story.
Pay
Attention to the Signs in Life
September 18, 2011
We get signs all the time. Literal ones that we see while driving or
entering a building or at work or school. And there are the signs that
come along to mark periods of change, growth and age.
This morning I ran another half marathon. Although I've kept up a
regular routine of running, it
was my first in two years.
Distance running is something I took up about six years ago when I was
almost 50 years old. Now it has become an important part of my life
story and I documented my first marathon experience in the article The Finish Line.
The Chips
&
Salsa Half Marathon was a nice flat course
through the North Valley of
Albuquerque and it was a perfect Autumn day to run. I would have had a
great result if I'd paid closer attention to the
signs.
The course also included a 10K race and those runners started 15
minutes after we did, so there were many of them on the course with us.
At one point a little over six miles into my race there was a split and
the 10K runners continued straight while the half-marathoners went left
for a longer loop before joining up for the last 2-3 mile leg.
Unfortunately, I misread the sign and went straight with the 10k
runners and didn't figure out my mistake for a mile. I had to backtrack
and ended up running nearly 15 miles instead of the 13.1!
I was upset and frustrated for a little while. Then I realized there
wasn't anything I could do about it. I could let it ruin the race for
me or I could persevere and make the best of it. Live and learn and the
lesson for me today was to pay closer attention to the signs.
What
People Save - More Post 9/11 Encounters
September 16, 2011
All this week you likely have encountered numerous stories about how
the events of 9/11/01 affected the lives of people. These stories are
of interest because how we respond to such major calamities often gives
us great insight into the nature of our characters.
A notebook from a flight attendant aboard Flight 93, a pager from a
woman who worked in the World Trade Center, a red "admit one"
raffle-style ticket that got someone on to a ferry after the towers
collapsed, dust from the towers saved in a jar - these pieces of
history are evidence of what happened. They are person and would be
meaningless to most people unless they have the backstory.
They are the touchstones to ten years ago. This
Charlotte Observer
story has examples. Here's another story - 9/11
memories: What we kept - that shares more about these
mementos.
9/11
- Ten Years Later
September 11, 2011
For those of us who recall where we were and what we were doing when we
heard the news the morning of September 11, 2001 today is a somber and
special day. We recall. We reflect. We mourn. We honor.
Lives were changed, many shattered on 9/11/01. But I try to live my
life in a way that works for healing. Somehow, even in the midst of the
worst tragedies, good can come. It is how people respond to what
happens to them that is the measure of their character.
On September 11, 2001 we saw some great acts of courage, kindness,
compassion and love. Let that be our legacy.
Personal historian Elisabeth Pozzi-Thanner was in New York then. She
interviewed many people in an effort to collect the accounts and
observations of that tragic day. In the days that followed as
part
of a collaborative effort by the Columbia Oral History Research Office,
she spoke with a diverse mix of New
Yorkers and some of what she recorded has been included by the New York Times as
well as in a new book, After
the Fall - New Yorkers Remember September 2001 and the Years That
Followed.
I listened to the moving collage of oral interviews - The Moment
Before, and After. It is powerful. You can link to it here.
Always
Remember - 9/11 Memorial to Open September 11, 2011
September 8, 2011
Ten years later. It's hard to believe that a decade has passed since
that fateful day when we awoke to a September morning that forever
changed our world.
9/11 is a day when
many lives were lost in horrific terrorist attacks
on U.S. soil - mainly the collapse of the World Trade Centers in New
York City when hijacked airliners were flown into the buildings. But
there was also the attack on the Pentagon and another hijacked plane
crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when the passengers learned of the
days events and fought back against the hijackers (Flight 93).
What I want to remember is how people - many of them ordinary citizens
- turned into heroes through acts of courage and kindness. It wasn't
one day; it was days, weeks, months and years of dedication. Providing
comfort. Clearing away wreckage. Dealing with the heartbreak;
processing the anger; trying to find acceptance and understanding.
A beautiful memorial is about to be dedicated at the former site of the
World Trade Centers. On 9-11-11 two reflection ponds built on the
footprint of the two iconic buildings that collapsed will open to the
public. They feature the names of the victims and the largest manmade
waterfalls in the country. It is a very tasteful and respectful
memorial titled Reflecting
Absence. You should most definitely view the video
-
here.
One
of Last Surviving Navajo Code Talkers Memoir Released
September 4, 2011
Only two Navajo Code Talkers are still alive. They are part of a group
of Navajo Natives who served during World War II and created
a special code based on their language that the Japanese never cracked.
One
of the men, Chester Nez, began telling his story to Judy Avila in
2007. The book started as a biography, but Avila decided it really
contained so much emotion and special memories for Nez that they
changed the focus to a memoir. The book is the first by one of the code
talkers and has just been published by Berkley Press.
Code Talker: The
First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII
is available
here. You
can view a short television interview
with Nez courtesy of KOAT.
Nearly
Burned Up on 9/11, New Memoir Tells Courageous Story
September 2, 2011
I'm sure you are aware we are on the verge of the ten year anniversary
of the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks on New York City and
Washington D.C. that involved four commercial airliners and cost
thousands of lives. 9/11 is forever etched on our memories; for the
current generations it is the equivalent of Pearl Harbor as a day that
will live in infamy.
I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news and what it was
like then and for the days that followed. I am sure you do as well. It
was horrible. But out of tragedy there are always heroic tales, acts of
love and kindness and a demonstration of the human spirit.
9/11 survivor Lauren Manning was a
managing director at a Wall
Street bond trading firm and worked on the 106th floor of the north
tower of the World Trade Center in NYC. That fateful morning she only
got as far as the lobby. She was running a half hour late due to a
phone call she'd taken. It was fortuitous. If she'd been on the 106th
floor when the plane struck the tower she probably would not be alive
today. As it is, she was engulfed in flame in the lobby and had burns
over 82% of her body. A long road of recovery has brought her to the
place she is at today. She is a beautiful and strong woman with a
family and a story to tell. Her new memoir is Unmeasured Strength
(published by Holt and available here).
I found out about it from this story on the USA Today website. I
encourage you to read it. In the days ahead let us
remember 9/11 and in
our hearts and actions pay tribute in whatever ways make sense to you.
One of my Social Studies classes is doing a special project and it is
powerful to teach these 7th graders about that day and what happened.
