Get up Again and Smile

My fourteen year old son plays football. We all face challenges. Mine was in how to talk with my son after the game and prepare him for a rematch.  Tell me how to be better next time.




The other team didn’t just play aggressive. Four specific boys on the other team played dirty every opportunity they could. One player on the opposing team did not following illegal things: punched boys on our team in the face after the play is dead, punch our boys in the throat not only when the play was dead but their team was lining up, grab their genitals, spike boys in the back with his helmet, take the back of the helmet of a downed boy and shove it forward over his neck to choke him with the face guard, then follow through with kneeing the boy on the ground.

I’m a Mom. My son loves his sports. When I saw the cheater boy from the opposing team punch my son in the face with his right and grab the face mask with his left I almost went on the field. I held back. I could see our team shrink back. The opposition won in their efforts.

I would like to tell you that all is fair and it ended happily, but this not the moral of my story.

I’m the silly water girl. Another parent video taped one of the opposing coaches take his colored jersey off and come over on our sideline to call out our plays on his cell phone to the other side.

Remember I said they are fourteen years old.

After the game, I help break down the tent and collect whatever trash (these are jobs I love because girls are not normally allowed down so close). I see the cheater boy, whose number I will not spell out. The boy who played dirty all the game, with only a few admonishments from referees. I say nothing to him.

I did congratulate another boy on the opposite team who I said “ you were marvelous tonight, you run like the wind.”

He smiled, “thanks.”

Then I heard one of the coaches on the other team tell the dirty player to take his jersey off and put it in his bag, “so no one will take a picture of your face.”

I almost cried, not because the boy tried to harm my son. What are we teaching our youth?

In the car after all is done, on the way for pizza, my son quietly shares that he was scared by the actions of the other team. I took a breath and didn’t give my buck up speech. I told him I understood. BUT

“I never want you to back down in the first face of bad.” These were kids remember. We have a team all on the line with pads on too.

“You need to execute the play you are ordered like a warrior. You need to tell the guys to the right and left of you that you will all march to this perfectly, but you are going to hit the cheater fair and square harder than you dream you can. If he waivers or gets spins away, they are to hit him fair as well and ground him.”

“And what will that do Mom?”

“Nothing.”

“And how does that advice help.”

“You will have a plan. You will not be afraid with your team behind you. You will know afterwards win or lose cheaters suck. But the best part is cheaters eventually get the wind knocked out of them fair and square and end up ugly in the eyes of God.”

“Mom do you think God watches football?”

“He’s like us, He sees.”

“And how does that advice help Mom.”

“You will not be afraid. I love you son.”

“K”

So my moral of the story is not glamorous. Sometimes the market beats the heck out of you. Sometimes you run across bad guys. It is that you get up tomorrow with some bruises but go back to your old marketing plan and never give up. Pat the guys you work with for something well done and everything is hard, so buck up.

Change Starts With Dusting Off Your Boots

Combat boots come down from the rafters


Cracked leather needs a little mink oil.

An intricate map is drawn.

Soul put in motion a mission.

The dusty stuff spread on the lawn.

Donate cruel photos without permission

Raise your salute , or a flag , or slap me on the back for life changes

Play some spiritual music while I dance.

http://www.sojournmusic.com/albums/these-things-i-remember/

The Heart

The Moor of Venice's version of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis.
 FMEA applied to the human heart.

What is your proposal to fix the trust?

Home Sweet Home

The MBA reports seem at the opposite end of the trenches. Time magazine runs a cover story that implies homeownership is dead. The stock market limps despite minor hopeful perks upward of retail sales. Come on Americans get up an hour earlier and put a smile on your face.




I have little or no faith in ratings. Do you think Moody’s or Dunn and Bradstreet know the soul of local area? Pockets of markets in good locations have recovered. Owning a home in a great location more desired and cherished than ever. More all cash transactions are turning at the steps of the Orange County Superior Court, as well in San Francisco, and most coastal California communities. Even Riverside is seeing sales activity and multiple offers.

The stragglers are condominiums, that is sometimes a lifestyle not like homeownership –more community living and apartment in the core nature. Condos are doing worse in South Florida, Nevada, and other cities where jobless numbers are underreported. Condos may never come back in places where work is scarce and it take two jobs to survive. The City of Detroit allowed many square blocks to burn to the ground without the resources to stop the fire. OR was it a less organized method of containing services to blocks that can survive as in the triage Harlem planned by red lining blocks and moving inhabitants to center green streets? That kind of courageous planning saved Harlem and allowed many beautiful brownstones to retain community and be safe and wonderful places for families to live.



Homeownership is not something of the past. Perhaps we plan and redefine what it means to be a neighbor. We look at the concept that owning a big house in a location as a young couple may not make great sense because you might need to be mobile and move for a better job. Homeownership that is conservative and makes sense will be a part of the American recovery. Many a time I am counterintuitive, and this can serve you well. In the upcoming Thanksgiving and holiday season things slow down because everyone hunkers down. It’s time to go scout out the home you want and buy it.



So get up a little earlier, say hello to your neighbors and keep your attitude to the grindstone. We are digging out of this together.