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"...With All

My Mind"


Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'"
-Matthew 22:37 (NIV)

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So Long Sochi

2/26/2014

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I cannot let the Olympics go without a few parting thoughts…after all, it will be 4 more years until we see the winter games again, this time in Pyeongchang, South Korea. While I’m on the topic, who is picking these locations? Pyeongchang has a population less than 50,000 and is just a short missile ride from North Korea. How about someplace safe, like Colorado? Or what about Switzerland? That’s a relatively stable country, and I hear there are some decent mountains nearby. I think some people even take ski vacations in Switzerland. But I digress.

Here’s what I will remember from the 2014 Sochi games:

U.S. Failure: I don’t mean to be harsh. I realize that most of the athletes are amateurs. I understand that they are doing their best, that sports are unpredictable, and that the Olympic spirit is more about competing than winning. And I don’t mean this to be a criticism of the particular athletes. I’m not accusing them of choking or not giving their best. But the fact is, people like Shaun White, Shani Davis, Nate Holland, Lindsey Jacobellis, J.R. Celski, Gracie Gold, and others failed to win the medals we hoped and in many cases expected them to win. Maybe that’s on us. Maybe we expect too much. Again, I’m not ragging on these athletes. Every one of them was gracious in defeat. But they were defeats we weren’t expecting.

Skiing Conditions: I blame this on the IOC. When you hold winter Olympics in climates that aren’t, well, wintery, you have to expect crummy conditions. At almost every alpine event, the announcers and racers commented about the conditions being slushy and hard to navigate. Skiing when it is 50 degrees may be a neat little experience for vacationers at Lake Tahoe, but it is hardly ideal for the world’s best athletes. Sochi was selected to host the 2014 games before warm weather created problems in Vancouver, but maybe we ought to stop having winter games in coastal climates. Just a thought.

Old Names and New Faces: It’s always fun to hear a name and think, “Oh yeah, I remember him from 4 years ago.” In most cases, and especially when they are from other countries, we never hear of these athletes but for at the Olympics. So there’s just something about hearing names like Evgeni Plushenko or Aksel Lund Svindal or David Murdoch again. And of course, there are the Americans like Bode Miller and Julie Chu and Kelly Clark who seem to defy time. You just wonder, who will be back in four more years? Then there are the new faces, like the young Russian figure skater whose name I won’t even try to spell, or America’s Mikaela Shiffrin and Sage Kotsenburg. They’re the names we’ll be remembering in 2018, 2022, etcetera as the future becomes the present becomes the past.

Curling: It captured my heart again, not so much because of the performance of the American teams (pretty lousy) but because of the studio sessions with Fred Roggin and 2006 bronze medalist Pete Fenson. Bring them back in 2018, NBC!

Exuberance: Whether it was iPod (Iouri Podladtchikov) from Switzerland who beat out Shaun White in the halfpipe or Noelle Pikus-Pace climbing into the stands after winning a skeleton silver or Julia Mancuso and her mother going nuts after her bronze medal in the super combined, the Olympics—as always—delivered their share of iconic moments.

Hockey Disappointments: T.J. Oshie’s shootout winner against Russia had the entire country celebrating and hearkening back to Lake Placid in 1980. But for all their promise, Team USA stumbled down the stretch, being shut out in their final two games and not medaling. And the women had perhaps the most heartbreaking loss (and I think my defining moment of the Sochi games) when they played a marvelous game against Team Canada with the gold medal on the line. They scrapped and fought together as a team, coming within minutes of a championship. Alas, they couldn’t quite close the sale, giving up two late goals to tie the game and losing in overtime. I don’t categorize it as a choke or a failure, just a disappointment. Perhaps that is a microcosm of the United States’ overall performance in these games. They had their moments. They so often made us proud. But in the end, they collectively came up just a little bit short of the goal.
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Does the End Justify the Means

2/18/2014

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Does the end justify the means? Put another way, is it acceptable to sacrifice a lesser good for the greater good? Is there ever a right time to do a “wrong” thing? Does it all depend on the circumstance and the situation? Look at the following scenarios:


A football coach, instead of punting, goes for it on 4th down and long from deep in his own territory. Against all odds, his team picks up a first down. Was it a good call? Or was it a bad decision but a good result? Does the end (picking up a first down) justify the means (calling a longshot play that was likely to fail)?


Or consider George Clooney’s character’s dilemma in The Peacemaker. A known terrorists was on the loose in New York City with a bomb strapped to his back. A sniper had a line on the terrorist, but at the last moment, a man carrying a young girl on his shoulders entered his scope. When he announced this to Clooney, George replied, “Acknowledged. Take the shot.” Does the end (stopping a terrorist from killing thousands) justify the means (shooting a young, innocent child)?


These examples are on the very far ends of the spectrum. So what about something a little more in the middle. What about torture, say at Guantanamo Bay? Is it acceptable to torture known criminals to obtain information that could save thousands of lives? What about lying to a spouse or a close friend to keep from hurting their feelings or starting a fight? What about stealing from the rich to feed the poor (á la Robin Hood or on so many episodes of The A-Team)? There are thousands of examples, from Hollywood blockbusters to trivial games to experiences in every-day life. Should each one be considered on its own merits, or is there a guiding principle that can be applied?


I find that I often subscribe to the theory of “the greater good.” That is, the end justify the means. But lately, I’ve been thinking about that differently. I’ve begun to change my mind, thinking that if we truly have faith in God’s power (believing that He can move mountains, literal and figurative) and in God’s goodness (that if He doesn’t move the mountain, He is just in not doing so) then we ought to do what is right in the immediate situation, and let God take care of the greater good. But I’m not sure this can always be applied either.


After all, I’m not opposed to cops or federal agents going undercover. Don’t they sometimes cross legal lines while in character? I don’t condone murder, but I cheered when Navy SEALs took out Osama bin Laden and Somalian pirates. And in Joshua 2, wasn’t Rahab praised for shielding the Hebrew spies from the king of Jericho—efforts that involved lying and deceiving?


I do not mean to promote a mindset of moral ambiguity or relativity. I do believe in moral absolutes. But sometimes it is the application of those absolutes that gets tricky. I admit I do not have a hard and fast answer, and I'd appreciate your thoughts and feedback. Leave me a comment, hit me on Twitter, or message me on Facebook. Let me know what you think and why you think it. We have until May, when season 9 of 24 airs on FOX, to figure this out. After all, I need to know if I can still cheer when Bauer sticks his gun into the side of a terrorist's knee and screams, "Who are you working for!"

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...but to take part

2/7/2014

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Tonight marks the Opening Ceremonies of the XXII Olympic Winter Games (never mind the competitions started yesterday). As a sports junkie, I love the Olympics and especially the winter Olympics. (What else could make me watch men who don’t speak English slide polished rocks across the ice or hurl themselves down a frozen tube face-first?) But it’s not just the competition. It’s about the memories of Olympics past. It’s about the moments of Olympics future. And it’s about the passage of time.

My first Olympic memories are from 1988, and they consist of playing hockey in my living room with a plastic golf club and ball while watching the real games. I remember Dan Jansen falling in his quest for gold (for some reason wearing orange and gray). And oddly enough, I remember driving two plastic stock cars around the living room floor in “Olympic”-inspired races.

Four years later, I was caught up in hockey fever as Team USA rode a hot goalie to within a breadth of a medal. I had graduated from plastic golf gear to hover hockey on the basement floor. I was Clark Donatelli scoring against the Russians and the great Ray LeBlanc making another dramatic save. I wasn’t alone in living out my own Olympics. My sister joined me in “figure skating” on the rug in the basement. We had saucer-sliding competitions off of our picnic table. Simple and silly, they are cherished childhood memories.

(At this point I think I should take credit for the wonderful idea of offsetting the winter and summer Olympic games. As a child, somewhere between 1988 and 1992, I thought to myself, four years is an awfully long time to wait for the next Olympics. They should have them every two years, rotating between winter and summer. And what do you know, they adopted such a philosophy in 1994. You’re welcome.)

In 2002, I was in college and my viewing of the Olympics was limited. I did get to watch Team USA and Team Sweden (a second favorite since my grandmother was Swedish…and because their yellow on blue unis are sweet) from the student union, and a friend (Thanks Nate G) let me watch the US men win their first bobsledding medal in almost fifty years after I was tossed from the girls’ common area on a ridiculous technicality.

Four years later, I was married and in love. With curling, that is. I had never witnessed a curling match until 2006, but I found myself captivated by this strange sport. I came home from work every day and flipped on the cable to watch Team USA pursue a bronze medal. By the time Pete Fenson drew to the button for a win, I actually had a rudimentary understanding of what exactly was going on (and drawing to the button is a real thing). And in 2006, I watched the Closing Ceremonies with a certain melancholy, conflicted by my desire to one day pull of a double cork McTwist on the halfpipe and having no snowboard and no reasonable prospects of every owning one. It just wasn’t practical.

By 2010, practicality had been thrown aside and I was carving powder. But the Vancouver games will forever be remembered for two other events. The first is Team USA’s silver medal in hockey, a medal that was largely earned with a pool play victory over the Canadians. I watched the game with my sister and brother-in-law while downing the tastiest burgers ever. A memory that will never fade. But 2010 is also the year my grandma went home to be with the Lord. She died just days before the games began, and her funeral was held during the first week of competition. I remember those days with sadness, but also with a smile, because I shared some great times with my immediate and extended family. For no other reason than its timing, it’s an event forever linked in my mind to the Olympics.

Now four more years have gone by. My wife and I moved into a new house, and then into a nicer house. I have two new nephews. I’ve gone through highs and lows I could never have anticipated. And I’m still trying to figure out curling. I have no idea where (or even if) I’ll be four years from now when the nations convene once again for the XXIII Olympic Winter Games. For that reason, I’ll watch the Closing Ceremonies in a few weeks with a touch of nostalgia. And for that reason, I’ll ravenously consume the coverage from Sochi for the next two weeks. 
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    I'm a thinker. For better or worse, my mind is always running. As a writer, I also love the method of communication. I think there's an artistry to it. This blog is my way of giving my constant thinking a place to express itself artistically.

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