For the love of the game

For the love of the game.  It literally means to "play for nothing".   I'm reminded of this expression as I

watched  my 9 year-old-son play in his 4th tackle football game of this season.  His team is not very good.  

What I mean to say is that they are not very good by the standards of wins and losses.  They are currently 

0 - 4.  Four losses by a combined score of around 160 - 0.  I'm not exaggerating the score either.  Yesterday 

the sixty or so parents that were at the game screamed and cheered when we achieved our first, first down of 

the season.  

My son plays center or interior lineman on the offense and defense for his team.  They are not very glorious 

positions.  Caleb wanted to be a running back but he's the tallest kid on the team and weighs 2 lbs over the 

limit for a kid to carry the ball in his league.  He also inherited his father's speed and that doesn't help him 

much either when it comes to being a running back.  Not that Caleb complains mind you, exactly the opposite 

he relishes the challenges of blocking and tackling.  I've never heard him complain once this year  about 

anything, not the score, not the heat, not the coaches and not being at the bottom of a number of piles of 

entangled limbs and bodies after the end of a play.  Quite the contrary, he constantly talks about how great

it is to be a football player, to tackle, to block and to play the game every week.  He smiles and waves to me

occasion during the game and practices.  He truly plays for the "love of the game".  Yesterday his team was 

losing 41-0 and on the extra point Caleb tackled the kid on the one yard line.  He immediately got up, 

started jumping up and down, slapping his teammates on their helmets and pumping his fists.  Most of his 

teammates just walked off the field with their heads down but he truly celebrated just the moment.  It 

was glorious in his mind, as if he were Barry Krauss and he had stopped Penn State for the winning 

touchdown in the National Championship game.  In today's age of technology, nutrition, training techniques 

and the monetary awards for being a great athlete my son celebrates the moment for what it is....an 

opportunity to play for the love of the game.  I am humbled by my son who reminds his father to 

celebrate every moment, to cherish every opportunity and to do my best every day regardless of the reward.

You'll have to excuse me now, I've leaving shortly for my daily run of 6 miles, only today I'm leaving my 

expensive modern runner's watch at home.  I'm just going to run, give it my best effort and have a good time.

If you are around when I finish today don't be surprised if  I high five you, jump up and down with a big

smile on my face.  I didn't just win the Boston Marathon, I ran for the love of the game.  

Idiot Tax

I use to be for something I'm gonna call "idiot taxes".  It began with cigarettes and I actually thought it was a

good idea at the time.  You know what I mean, it's the tax that  is suppose to discourage you from smoking

and at the same time "pay" for all the smoking related diseases.  Like I said, I was in favor of this tax but I'm

beginning to rethink my support.  What made me start thinking (always a dangerous thing as my father would

say) is that San Francisco is adding an "idiot tax" to alcohol.  Now it's citizens will be paying an extra 3.5

cents per beer and around 4.5 cents for liquor.  It totals around 16.5 million dollars a year.  The city

decided that all of it's citizens should "share" the medical costs and police costs from drinkers who caused

trouble and those that can't pay their medical bills for alcohol related injuries, accidents and diseases.  Again,

you might think this is a good idea, but lets take it further.  Maybe we should  impose an idiot tax on cars, for

those drivers that drive without insurance or after drinking.  Then we'll idiot tax condoms for those that don't

use them to pay for venereal disease and uninsured pregnancies.  Let's also idiot tax soda and ice cream to

pay for weight watchers for everyone who overeats and needs to drop a couple of pounds.  Now I'm really

getting the hang of this I think, lets have an idiot tax for everything, that way we don't have to promote

responsibility and self control as a society.

I do have one alternative though.  Consider this,  Bill Haslam the republican primary winner for the Governor's

race in Tennessee spent 8.7 million dollars to win just the primary.  Let me repeat this, he spent 8.7 million

dollars to win a primary race for a position that will pay him 155,000.00 per year.  I say we just tax these

candidates every dollar they spend over their annual salary based on the 4 years they'll serve.  We'll call it by

the name I proposed earlier the "idiot tax".   Only now we'll know it's being paid by the right idiot.

Sad songs say so much

I love music.  I especially love a good sad song.  I've been accused in the past that I'd rather listen to


sad songs rather than happy ones and at times that has been true.  I do love a sad song.  I have around 3000


songs on my iPod and most of them are country and many of them are sad songs.  It seems as I've gotten


older I've realized you can't just call them sad songs. Even some of the songs that might sound like a happy


song really expresses  sadness of life's events as they unfold around us.  They express the emotions that


we feel at times when our words or hearts betray us.  Music will heal us when we don't feel like we'll ever be


whole again.  If you'll allow I thought I'd share some of the ones I love with you.


Two that immediately come to mind are Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven", he wrote it after the death of his


5 year old son it may be the most healing song I've ever heard.  The other is Vince Gill's "Come rest high on


that  Mountain"  both assure me that there's a heaven.   How could there not be with songs like that?


Then there are heartbreak songs.  We've all had our share of them.  Each of our heartbreaks are different,


sadness, loneliness, and despair all seem to surround us during these times.  Songs have always made it easier


for me through the hard times. Here are some of the ones I have loved or have loved me:


"He stopped loving her today"  George Jones  (a classic and maybe the best country song ever written)


"Being drunk's alot like loving you"  Kenny Chesney (drunk in love and drunk in loneliness is alot alike)


"How can you mend a broken heart"  Andy Gibb (he actually took his own life over a lost love)


"Annie's Song"  John Denver (if you know the story you'd realize this was a sad song)


"Tonight I wanna Cry" Keith Urban (actually Sarah's ex-husband wrote this with Keith)


Each of these songs and many others have soothed me when nothing else would help.  They always invoke


memories both good and bad.  I have several you've probably never heard of that you should listen to at least


once:


"Who wants to live forever"  Queen (who does?)


"It's not just me"  Rascal Flatts (if you've never felt this way you've never been in love)


"Bluer than Blue" Michael Johnson ("and when you're gone I can run through the house screaming and no


one will ever hear me"  <---now that's a sad lyric)


"I'm not your blue skies anymore"  Emily West (the title says it all)


I know that there is a time coming that will need a sad song.  There always will be I suppose.  Sugarland sings


a song called "The very last Country Song", it goes like this:

But if life stayed the way it was

And lovers never fell out of love

If memories didn't last so long

If nobody did nobody wrong

If we knew what we had before it was gone

If every road led back home

This would be

The very last country song

I don't think I have anything to worry about.