Quote of the Week

"Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man." - Francis Cardinal Spellman

Let the Games Begin

Monday evening brings with it the beginning of softball season. It is a time I particularly enjoy. Competitive sports have long since become a part of my history, as age and inactivity have taken their toll on my body. Now, coed recreational softball is as close as I can get.

My inability to compete at a high level in soccer or rugby make playing either of those sports tedious at best these days. The rolling of the soccer ball especially is merely a reminder that my best days have long since past me by. But softball is different.

In softball, the game itself is enough. I enjoy the thrill of swinging the bat, and the anticipation of playing defense. My horrendous performance aside, the softball diamond still puts a smile on my face where the soccer pitch has now failed me.

Take me out to the ballgame!

Quote of the Week

"The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain." - Richard Nixon

Losing Streak

Sometimes in life it feels like you can't win. Like a baseball player slumping, all you can do is grit your teeth, drag yourself to the ballpark every day, and keep swinging.

Sooner or later you'll replace your strikeouts with basehits.

Then maybe you can replace your basehits with homers.

Then again, some ballplayers should recognize when it's time to hang up their spikes...

Moments

I've once, then often searched for peace
and found it lay not on the ground,
but high amidst an azure sky
lit brightly by the light of dreams
borne forth from children's eyes...

Quote of the Week

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." - E. E. Cummings

Riddles in the Dark

Some of life's riddles are perhaps unanswerable. Others, however, require a certain amount of bravado.

It's a bravado I am apparently lacking, as three friends of mine so kindly reminded me this evening. Fear of failure, and loss, and rejection all rob me of any bravery I may have had. All in all, I suppose I am simply not as adventurous a person as I would like to think I am.

Or maybe I just need to be pushed in the right direction...

See ya soon!

I'm leaving the country tomorrow and won't return until next week Tuesday. Hope everyone does well in my absence.

Mi Buenos Aires querido...

Quote of the Week

"I am not bound to please thee with my answers." - William Shakespeare

Almost Upon Us

The sounds and smells and sights are like distant recollections. They are old friends I haven't seen in too long. Soon, I will no longer need to reach back into my memory to gain some comfort from them. Soon, we will be together again.

This year the winter has been longer and colder than years past. The energy seemed sapped from the frigid air as though it was stolen and carried away in the night. In most cases, we never even got to say, "goodbye."

Ah, but winter's long bitter grasp is faltering... The ravaging cold darkness is giving way...

Very soon we will hear the first hints of their return. There will be a solid, thundering crack, and all who hear it will say, "That sounds like my old friend..." A hint of freshly prepared frank will begin to wisp into the air, and all who smell it will look around themselves to find the source. And then they will see it.

There it will be, just as it was when we left it, nestled amid the cold concrete and steel. The warm, red brick jewel box of summer with it's renewed emerald gem basking in the sunlight!

In just seven days, baseball will be with us once again. And all will be right with the world.

Quote of the Week

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

Just a Little Higher...

On the ground everything is gray. The tarmac, the terminal building, the sky, the horizon. A cold drizzle falls. Such is the state of this Chicago afternoon. Number six in line for departure, all checklists complete, waiting for our turn to blast off into the murk. Just another day.

"Eagle flight 436, runway three two left, tango ten, clear for takeoff, turn right heading zero four zero."

Before takeoff checklist complete, thrust set. The gray world outside accelerates past the cockpit as drops of water race each other towards the top of my windshield.

"Vee one. Rotate"

The sound of the tires on the pavement ceases, and almost as quickly, the once prominent gray surrounds us with its impenetrable shroud.

We accelerate. We climb. We are blind. Only the light of a computer screen hints at our progress. Our focus is directed solely upon that screen as though every other thing in the world has ceased to exist. With the blind faith of zealots we follow as the screen leads us deeper into the gray nothing. We accelerate. We climb.

There is little warning. Only a brief silvering of the once impenetrable gray alerts us just before we burst forth.

Light! Glorious, drenching, warm sunlight! The enveloping gray is powerless! Below us is a pearled white landscape, and above us is the clearest blue sky imaginable, stretching out as though it has no end in the universe. Just like that, the gray is forgotten...

If ever you are in search of joy, you need only accelerate, and climb.

It is always a beautiful day above the clouds.

No Rest

They say there is no rest for the weary.

When I am no longer weary, and therefore able to get some rest, I will devote more time to this blog.

Quote of the Week

"The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Healthy At Last!

The bug that's been going around got to me last week. To put it as mildly as possible, I was homebound and miserable for 5 straight days.

We as human beings think we're so smart and so powerful. It must be to God's great amusement that the tiniest of creatures wield such enormous sway over us...

The joke is most likely on us I imagine. But no matter, I feel human once again, and I'm off to work tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Quote of the Week

"Between the wish and the thing life lies waiting." - Unknown

Quote of the Week

"To follow, without halt, one aim: there's the secret to success." - Anna Pavlova

Does it get any Better?

The last couple of months at work have been at times highly challenging. Weather and maintainance problems have conspired to make the job unpredictable, and things have not been smooth. It is interesting however, that I find myself thrilled to be where I am despite these recent difficulties.

The entire experience of this career is remarkable. Take these two contrasting examples for instance:

The peace and tranquility of gliding through a moonlit night is nearly unimaginable. The snow-covered ground slips by underneath you as the multitude of stars keeps silent watch above. Only a few quiet lights in the cockpit serve to remind you of your duties, keeping you from loosing yourself entirely in the beauty surrounding you.

The exhileration of bursting out of the clouds mere seconds from touching down on a runway your instruments promised was there is intoxicating. The roar of the wind screaming past your landing gear fills the cockpit as you refocus your eyes to the outside world. Suddenly, almost magically, the grey nothingness has given way to grey runway, complete with bright flashing lights of all kinds. It is almost as though you can feel and hear nothing. All that exists is the adrenaline in your veins, the aircraft, and the pavement just a few feet away.

I am so truely blessed.

What Gives?

Tonight I received the strangest proposition I've ever received in my life.

The dynamic between men and women is perhaps the strangest part of this human existance. It is at all times intoxicating, confusing, and completely non-sensicle. I suspect that no one has ever truely figured it out. Some people are just better at getting used to it than others.

Unfortunately, learning how to get used to it is about as easy as taking a boot to the stones. Very often it feels the same way too...

Quote of the Week

"I am wealthy in my friends." - William Shakespeare