Dr. Z - Paul Zimmerman
Dr. Z was a columnist for Sports Illustrated who covered the NFL. Crisp, direct writing with a sharpness of wit characterized his articles on football. He seemed, from the only way I ever have ever gotten to know him, his writing, like he would have been a blunt man. He also seemed to be fairly bright and maybe just a bit impatient with those who were not as bright. I also remember him being painfully honest about those aspects of the NFL that some fans could be naive or willfully blind about.
He had a stroke 37 months ago. Since that day he has not been able to speak or write.
That is horrifying to me. His wife loves him and cares for him. His friends come to visit him. He seems to know what they are saying. But he is a spectator in his own life. Horrifying.
Poker Again
Last night I went from a conservative table at which I had the chip lead to a second table that was just stupid aggressive. I sat for about 12 hands at the new table. You will notice that I did not say that I played 12 hands. Someone went all in on 9 of the twelve hands. And all in on a pair of 2's and such.
I sat on my hands and folded bad cards and folded borderline cards. Finally got an Ace with a 3 off suit and I was already the big blind so I was ready to check to see the flop. Sure enough, one of the yahoos went all in. I decided an Ace was good enough to call just to see if the guy had anything at all. He had a pair of fives and I never caught help and out I went.
I did leave with a lesson on how to play the next time I have a chip lead at a table though. Generate impatience in people who don't have the chips to be impatient so they will challenge you to a fight that they can't really win. There is a life lesson in there somewhere too.
Just Eat Food
For a quick read go check out Michael Pollan's Food Rules. It is his second book which serves as a quick reference to the first, In Defense of Food. Both works detail his research into the modern Western Diet. In an effort to make food more readily available, to make it more easily transportable, and more profitably marketed, we have rendered food into "food-like-substances". Pollan not only recommends that we avoid these food-like-substances but offers up rules to smoke out the real food found in grocery stores.
One of the easiest is to read the ingredients on the package. If there are words there that you can't pronounce, it is probably not really food. I took this to heart the day before yesterday and went to try to find sandwich meat. I could not find a single package that just said ham or turkey. There were things like corn starch and other words that I am not sure I can spell listed on the packaging.
You may be wondering what the big deal is. I did. Pollan does an excellent job of laying out how we humans have existed on various diets depending on what was available. He also points out that no matter if those diets featured high fat (Inuits) or high fish (Japanese) or high wine (French), we humans had thousands of years to adapt to the environment in which that food was found. As a result, we tended to not have the health issues associated with the Western Diet that gives us concentrations of sugars and fats that no other diet does.
I thought that we humans were just vulnerable to diabetes and heart disease and cancer and dental issues. But funny thing, studies of cultures that don't feature our industrialized Western Diet don't have the incidents of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and tooth decay that we have. Apparently the illnesses that are just now beginning to cripple our economy here in the U.S. could all be avoided if we ate differently.
I have written before of how logic tends to trap me and alter my behavior better than emotional pleas and such. I read Dave Ramsey's book on personal finance and changed the way I interacted with money. After reading Pollan's books, I can't help but see the logic of his thinking. I go through the grocery store with my wife and we do our best to just buy food. We stay around the edges of the store where you find the vegetables and the eggs and the dairy and the meat. We have wine and we have cheese and we cook a whole lot more.
Don't take my word for it. Take a minute to read Food Rules by Michael Pollan. It is a much shorter book of the two that details the rules that he applies to his eating habits. That book alone will probably give you the tools you need if you are not a fan of reading. If you are a fan of reading, then go back and read In Defense of Food. The logic of it will probably impact you as it did me. Truth tends to have that effect.
Loving Your Enemies
Christ commands that we love our enemies as we love ourselves. I have been thinking about that a great deal lately. I tend to hold a grudge or two. I have let most of them go over time but have at least one that still makes me raise my voice a bit when I talk about it. Not easy to forgive someone who has never asked for it and who probably doesn't think they need to be forgiven. Working on resolving it though.
But let's look at the order from Jesus. Think about how we love ourselves. We cut ourselves every break and give ourselves every benefit of the doubt. No matter what our actions actually render, we routinely judge ourselves on what we intended to do. We know, KNOW, no matter the evidence to the contrary that we are basically "good people" and that attitude allows us to get out of bed each morning and not be weighed down by guilt.
Now think about applying that level of trust (or self deception) to the one person you have been thinking of since you started reading this little section of stray thoughts. Yeah, me too. I pray about it.
Roller Derby
If you ever get the chance to go to a roller derby, do it. It is fast paced, easy to understand, and full of characters who are just plain nuts. All the skaters, including the referees , have outlandish stage names like "Eve of Destruction" or "Heidi Goseek". The announcers plug the sponsors during the game. And sense quite a few of the sponsors are beer companies, and the announcers sample most of the products they endorse during the game, even the announcing gets interesting.
For all the silly showmanship, these ladies are athletes. Their was one out there that had a cut back move that NFL running backs wish they could do with cleats and she does it on skates for crying out loud. I had a blast. I think most of you reading this would too.
No comments:
Post a Comment