What Happened to Respect?

Watching the NBA finals was pure entertainment for me.  The Lakers had already been unceremoniously dismissed from the playoffs, so my interest in the final series was somewhat limited.  The two teams battled back and forth over the course of six games, but mistakes at the most critical points, and cost San Antonio the game, forcing a seventh and final game.  I found myself rooting for the "lesser of two evils" in my mind; San Antonio.  Back and forth these two teams battled, until just a few seconds remained in the game and Miami was headed to their second NBA Championship in a row.

Something interesting took place as time ran out and the game came to its conclusion.  Instead of a wild celebration breaking out by the winning team, the Miami Heat, led by Lebron James and Dwayne Wade headed towards the members of the San Antonio Spurs and began to embrace their defeated opponents!  The respect between the players and coaches of these two teams was evident by the embraces and the complimentary remarks made at the post game interviews and press conferences.  All of the pushing, shoving and trash talking gave way to an impressive display of respect and admiration between two opponents. 

Immediately I wondered and then Tweeted: "Imagine if people with different views on religion and politics, treated each other like these two teams just treated each other. Respect!"  Our society has become so combative and disrespectful.  For the most part, gone are the days of "agreeing to disagree."  Now we disagree and resort to name calling, threats and personal attacks.  While it is disheartening to see this take place in politics and in discussions on social issues, it is especially discouraging to see church organizations or denominations behaving in the same fashion.  Someone disagrees on a theological issue, and the other side is damning everyone who disagrees to hell.  We need to reverse this dangerous course of action, and it all starts with me.  We are all probably guilty of stepping out of line from time to time, but we can’t expect the political or religious communities to change if we are not willing to change ourselves.

Ultimately, we must learn to look past the disagreements, ignorance and in some cases hatred, and recognize that there is an individual who was created by God on the other side of the debate.  Some will call it "pie in the sky", but imagine if conservatives and liberals could debate the issues in a civil manner, find common ground, agree to disagree on the areas they differ on, but then go out and have lunch together when it’s all over.  Imagine if church groups would stop segregating themselves over petty issues and unite on the things they have in common.  How powerful could the force behind the unity be?  Imagine if the homosexual and the heterosexual would stop the name calling, and engage in discussions that could help each side to understand each other a little bit better.

Let's be honest, in most cases, nobody's mind is going to change about any of the above mentioned issues, nor am I suggesting that either side  has to give up on their convictions or beliefs. I am simply saying, let’s stop all the name calling and the rhetoric and be polite enough to listen to each other, unite on what we agree upon, then take a step back, take a deep breath and just show a little respect for those who disagree with. 

I Didn't Get Pictures, But The Memory Is In My Head!

My Father's Day weekend got off to a great start yesterday!  Ethan and I were invited to go deep sea fishing with the Police Activities League, and while it was a new experience for both of us, we nervously accepted and boarded a bus for Monterey. The weather was incredible as we arrived and walked down the wharf towards our boat.  Stories of sea sickness floated through my head, so I very reluctantly resisted the urge to stop for clam chowder.  I reasoned that I did not want to spend $6 for a bowl of chowder, only to leave it somewhere in the Monterey Bay!

We boarded and got settled near the rear of the boat.  Neither of us had a clue what to do, but the helpful crew and my observant nature helped us to get along just fine.  As we left shore and headed into the bay, we quickly heard the comments that "the water is rough today".  Indeed, the waves were large and created the perfect conditions for a roller coaster like ride; something Ethan and I both enjoy.  It didn't take very long for the back end of the boat to become crowded with people tossing their breakfast, and maybe the previous day’s dinner overboard!  I kept asking Ethan if he was OK, and each time he responded confidently that he was fine!  After about a 30 minute trip, we reached our first fishing area and were told we could cast our lines.

The adventure was underway, and it didn't take more than two minutes for Ethan to get a bite on his line!  As he reeled in his line, we realized that in a matter of a couple of minutes, he had caught his first TWO fish!  As I helped him out, my line started jerking like a child tugging your shirt when they are hungry!  I had caught two as well!  Ultimately, we caught our limit of 10 fish while dodging everyone running to the rail to make their contributions to the ecosystem.  The day concluded with neither of us getting sick.  I got my bowl of clam chowder as we headed to the bus with about fifteen pounds of fish that had been filleted for us on the boat. Ethan loved every minute of it and I learned how to stick my finger in the mouth of a fish to remove the hook-something that had always grossed me out!

As we arrived back in town, I Tweeted about the trip, and a "virtual friend" from Tennessee,  (follow @1DanLawson for some great, positive Tweets) who happens to be the father of Ms. Tennessee 2012, Tweeted back, "Gotta post the Pics!"  Mr. Lawson inspired this post, as right then I realized that we were having so much fun together, and so caught up in the moment, not to mention the boat was rocking very hard, that I had failed to take any pictures of Ethan catching fish!

Then a thought hit me, (of course you are probably thinking!) how many times have we missed out on a great moment because we are busy taking pictures?  Think about it, our kid makes a great play on the field, but we didn't really see it because we were staring at the display on our phones. Maybe they walk across the stage to receive an award or a diploma, but we catch the moment through the filter of a camera.  That awesome musical performance was missed as we struggled to focus our camera or unlock our cell phones! 

I didn't get a single picture of him catching fish, but every single memory of the day is seared into my mind!  Pictures can be destroyed or lost, but should I ever have the misfortune of losing my sight, nothing can take away the "photo" that is ingrained into my memory!  Too often we focus so much on capturing the event on our camera and we miss out on the actual event that is now gone forever!  So I say to you, take a photo if you can, but please don't miss "the moment" big or small.  Fortunately, someone on the trip was assigned to take photos, so I know we posed for one, and if we are lucky, maybe we not only have the great memory of that day in our hearts and minds, but there may be pictures to prove that we really did catch some fish!

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there, and as always, thanks for reading!

Ps.  @1DanLawson that is a GREAT picture/Fathers Day card Chandler sent you!  Nice picture of that fish!  Ha Ha!

It's June, In Fresno! Of Course It's Hot!!

It is 2:51 pm as I type this post.  The mercury has already hit 104 degrees; well on the way to the expected 110 degrees that has been forecast for today. It is very hot, but this is a typical Fresno summer.  The social media scene has heated up significantly with posts about how hot it is, or how unbearable the heat is.  Of course this made me think...

This is Fresno, home of hot summers.  While it may not be the best place to live, it is certainly not the worse.  Problem is, when it's hot, we complain that it is too hot.  When winter rolls around, we complain that it is too cold.  I am happy to announce my solution!  Move somewhere else!  You see we love to complain about stuff, but very few people have the courage to do anything about it.

This post is really not about Fresno, but about our tendency to complain about stuff, but our unwillingness to do anything about it.  Chuck Swindoll put it this way, "“We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

So often we lament the things that are wrong in life, but in reality, it is what it is, and how we react to the circumstance often determines whether we are miserable in 110 degree weather, or just extremely uncomfortable in the same conditions.  Far too often we complain about political decisions, but we make excuses that "it doesn't matter" and fail to vote in the elections.  We complain that there is nothing to do in our city, but then we stay home and watch television instead of supporting a touring show, local business or restaurant.  We complain about how hot and boring Fresno is, but most of us don't have the courage to actually sell our possessions, uproot our lives and move to that utopia that is awaiting us somewhere else!

So bottom line is this, we have a couple of choices.  We can sit around pointing out everything that is wrong, or we can rise off our posteriors and do something to fix what is "wrong".  It IS hot today, but pointing it out on Twitter or Facebook didn't lower the temperature one single degree!  Go to the coast, stay indoors and watch a movie, or go to the mall or a water park.  Do something, but stop complaining!  It is 3:20 pm and it is now 106 degrees with 20% humidity, so it feels like 107 degrees, but why are you shocked?  After all, it is June; we are in Fresno, so of course it’s hot! Thank God we have a pool, so it is time to go swimming!

Thanks for reading!  As always, you are more than welcome to share this blog with anyone you wish.  If you want email notification when a new story is posted, simply input your email address on the right side of this page and follow the instructions!

Think every day doesn't matter?  Read this: http://jonathanpantages.blogspot.com/2013/04/make-every-day-count.html