Month: September 2014

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just a game?

football_fieldEach year we examine the strengths of the Lions and Tigers and tough-tackling Bears. Ok, not the Tigers — they’re still busy playing baseball. Yet as much of the nation is again consumed by the games on the gridiron, the Intramuralist enjoys taking a brief snapshot at the stories behind the stories… the questions and relevant aspects that challenge the notion that football is just a game. Allow me to humbly address some one-on-one…

Dear all owners and players… We have missed you! Question: how will you handle the concussion issue? How can we find a balance in enjoying the game but recognizing that it is dangerous and thus, some will be hurt?

Dear Michael Sam… congratulations on making the Cowboys’ practice squad! The 10 member scout team consists primarily of rookies who were cut in camp and are borderline NFL-caliber players. You have admirably said you don’t want your sexual preference to bring undue attention; you want to be evaluated on your football skills alone.  Are all the cameras — and your postponed reality show — consistent with your aim?  Seems like many are contributing to this, knowingly or not.

Dear Johnny Manziel… You are an exciting player to watch! Before any future accomplishments, maybe learn a few lessons first. Try to embrace humility; remember humility is a good thing. Learn from those who’ve gone before you — from Brady to Manning I & II to also recent rookies such as Newton and Luck. They seem to have more quickly recognized that flamboyancy often falls far short of integrity. Do your job. Best of luck in doing it well.

Dear those currently suspended… Josh Gordon, Jim Irsay, etal. We will miss you while gone some games this year. You have contributed positively to your team, but it hasn’t all been positive. Be sure to maximize the time off, taking full responsibility for what you have done — and not spending so much energy on blaming the league — someone other than self.

Dear Ray Rice… We don’t know exactly what happened between you and your fiance. We know you were married after the incident in which you struck her and dragged her off that elevator. There is no place for domestic violence. I think you know that. I think most people know that. While I hate it when people use domestic violence vernacular for rhetorical persuasion (see Wasserman Schultz, D., chairman of the Democratic Party, who last week compared a sitting governor to a man who beats his wife — geesh), I realize this is a painful and personal issue. Learn from your mistakes. Grow.

Dear Peyton Manning… were you really fined $8,268 during the pre-season? … for taunting?? Is that not the first taunting penalty we’ve ever seen from mild-mannered you? (P.S. Any chance we could amusingly see another?)

Dear NFL fine-makers… really?? You fined Saints TE $30,000 for dunking footballs over the goalposts because of excessive celebration? Please. Surely you’ve got more important things to monitor (please see Ray Rice, Josh Gordon, etc. above).

And so we again begin this season with much to watch. Will the Seahawks repeat? Hardly anyone repeats. Will we witness the end of the careers of QB’s Brady and Manning? Twilight often seems to come so early. Who will get hurt? I pray no one’s life is endangered.

From the Dolphins to Dallas to the Packers and Pittsburgh… from the Bengals and Bucs to the Giants and Jets… let the games begin… and of course, the aspects that challenge the notion that this is just a game.

Respectfully…

AR

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oh mighty isis

Isis fighters, pictured on a militant website verified by AP.So once again, this week the world witnessed the gruesome beheading of an American journalist via terrorists’ heinous hands. Let me humbly share a limited listing of what we know for certain about the deteriorating situation… and what we do not know.  First… what we know…

ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — the terrorist group responsible for the deaths of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff — was formed out of an al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, with its origin traced back to the Second Gulf War in 2003. It was originally known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and then ISIS or ISIL. ISIL refers to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — the Levant equating to the Eastern Mediterranean border region, which consists of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and part of southern Turkey.

The group has declared themselves a “caliphate,” an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader known as a caliph – or a “successor” – to Muhammad. They thus claim religious authority over all Muslims in the world. Their stated goal is to bring other Muslim-inhabited regions under their political control.

ISIS has also declared that the caliphate is established “for the purpose of compelling the people to do what the Sharia (Allah’s law) requires of them.” That means that anyone who does not believe in ISIS’s interpretation of Islam must either convert or die.

They currently hold territory in both Syria and Iraq. With Syria divided by civil war since the spring of 2011, ISIS has capitalized by seizing significant territory — possibly up to half of Syria — and half of Iraq, too, as stated yesterday by Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel.

The group is violent — some say barbaric. As stated in August by United Nations representatives, “We are gravely concerned by continued reports of acts of violence, including sexual violence against women and teenage girls and boys belonging to Iraqi minorities. Atrocious accounts of abduction and detention of Yazidi, Christian, as well as Turkomen and Shabak women, girls and boys, and reports of savage rapes, are reaching us in an alarming manner.”

There is increasing significant concern that ISIS will attempt to attack America. A spokesman said last month that “we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House.” Many believe ISIS is more dangerous than al-Qaeda.

Also, in an email to the parents of executed journalist Foley, ISIS said it was acting “as a DIRECT result of your [America’s] transgressions towards us!” They added: “WE WILL NOT STOP UNTILL WE QUENCH OUR THIRST FOR YOUR BLOOD.”

Now… what we don’t know…

We don’t know how the pulling of American troops from Iraq specifically impacted ISIS’s rise to power.

We don’t know if Pres. Obama is intentionally cautious or strategically confused in his response (…partisans will disagree, of course, embracing the art of averring judgment calls with certainty).

We also don’t know when ISIS will gruesomely strike again.

So allow me 3 more things that I believe we should know:

(1) Evil is alive and well on planet Earth.

(2) Negotiating with evil never solves the problem.

And (3) prayer would be wise… prayers for wisdom for the world’s leaders… for protection of those in ISIS’s path… and for the rooting out of such obvious, gut-wrenching evil.

Respectfully…

AR

[Intramuralist Note: sources utilized for the above facts include CBS News, The Christian Post, CNN, NBC News, and Wikipedia.]

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what’s bigger

1610794_10204629505367041_8243156950910377348_nThis past weekend I had the privilege to gather with several members of my family. There were 27 of us.

It was full of feasting and joy and precious both one-on-one and large group time. We laughed and cried and were both silly and serious. There were ample antics and fun and adult conversation. There was insightful conversation with those teens and ‘tweens and twenty-somethings, each who seems growing up far too fast. It was a wonderful weekend.

I haven’t always thought every weekend was so wonderful. I will admit to taking some days for granted. I will admit to sometimes taking life for granted. I will admit to often having fallen prey to focusing on the minute as opposed to what’s bigger. I will admit to sometimes allowing the proverbial “elephant in the room” to gain a life of its own. Sometimes I have focused on the less important.

I think as a culture we do that frequently; we focus on the less important. We seem to justify the focus, giving it life, supplementing its energy, allowing emotion and passion and anger and empathy to fuel what once was small, thus seemingly snowballing issues and irritants in size to then appear — yes, appear — as something they are not… something other than the less important.

Look around the world…

Look in Ferguson, Missouri.

Look on the streets of Jerusalem.

Look in Washington, D.C. (… ok… try not to look too hard…).

Look on Facebook.

Maybe even look around your living room.

Look at all the places we justify irritation and offense — where we justify the withholding of love, truth, and respect. Look at all the places where we’re so zeroed in on the plank in another’s eye… often so ignorant of our own.

This past year my sister was surprisingly, shockingly diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer (… sorry… if that’s a proper noun, I refuse to capitalize it; it doesn’t deserve it). It came as news out of nowhere. She is 34.

For years we have all gathered over Labor Day weekend. And while we’re always thankful to be together, let me just say that this year, we were thankful a little more.

When you’re focused on the big picture, it’s a whole lot easier to let bygones be bygones… to let the little things remain little things… to not let petty, earthly irritants seduce any more attention than they deserve… and to not feed nor fuel that which is so obviously less important.

It’s easier to thank God for the sunset and appreciate the rain.  It’s easier to care for the crying babe and withhold all judgment.  It’s easier to be generous in our love, mercy, and grace.

While I would wish my sister’s circumstances on no one, I am thankful for how because of her situation — and because of her amazing, humbling, faithful, positive attitude — we are learning how to love our family. I am thankful for the focus on what’s most important.

This past weekend I had the privilege to gather with several members of my family. There were 27 of us. It was a wonderful weekend.

Respectfully…

AR