Black History *yawn* Month?!?

Maybe i'm wrong about this but i remember when Black History month was a big deal. i recall getting totally excited about having a whole month in school where the decorations, teachers visual aids and special assemblies focused on the contributions that black people had made to our country. i remember reading about...

• Harriet Tubman
• Charles Drew
• Booker T. Washington
• Marcus Garvey
• Rosa Parks
• Frederick Douglass
• Jesse Owens
• Crispus Attucks
• Phillis Wheatley
• Sojourner Truth
• Malcolm X
• Sidney Poitier
• Marian Anderson
• George Washington Carver
• Matthew Henson
• Benjamin Banneker
• W. E. B. Du Bois
• Duke Ellington
• Jackie Robinson
• Althea Gibson
• Muhammad Ali

... just to name a few.

i think the thing i loved most about learning about all of these figures was that i could be just like them. That if i wanted to, i could become almost anything i made my mind up to be. The promise of almost unlimited opportunity was for me a driving force growing up. Knowing that my own family was well acquainted with the ugliness of racism and still managed to find ways over and around it made me "swell" with a certain sort of pride. That sense of pride would grow and my determination to achieve would increase every February in light of Black History month.

Maybe some would say that we shouldn't have a month, not even a week or a day that highlights the achievements or accomplishments of "one particular" group of people. i don't know, maybe we should have even more! I mean why not?!? This doesn't have to be a political thing at all... maybe this could be about what it was all about for me as a kid... how awesome it was to know that i might possibly one day make a real difference like so many of those in the list above!

i am willing to admit that we live in a time of pretty rough political waters (perhaps even poisoned waters) and the subject of Black History month itself has perhaps become yet another victim of hyper-political sensitivity, hyper-political correctness or misguided multi-culturalism. Maybe.

That said, it would be great to be assured that there are other little kids (particularly little black boys) out there getting the same message i did when i was kid... that no matter what the odds... you can achieve, you can make a difference!

Man, i love Black History month!

Pinch me... i must be dreaming!

i have been wondering about something lately.

Have you ever had the feeling or the impression that you were finally doing what you were always meant to do?

Over the last several years for some unknown reason to me i have found myself becoming more and more focused on the concept of community and all the implications that living in authentic community brings. Much of my casual reading and to a certain extent some of my graduate school work has revolved around the concept of living in community. Now i find myself thinking even more deeply about this subject due in large part to making a change to another church staff here in Illinois.

i think i now understand why the issue of community has been a growing area of interest for me. i have spent the majority of my life trying to make sure that i could please the most important people to me. So i think you could say that in the classic sense i am a people pleaser and to an extent a people person... i like being in situations where i am liked... the more liked, the better. This can be good and this can be bad... very bad. At the core of this desire on my part i believe has always been a desire to never be alone. Now don't get me wrong, my family didn't abandon me or anything like that... it's just that i have always wanted to be part of something that was more than just me. Does that make sense?

Now as a guy who responsibilities on a church staff include trying to figure out ways to help people connect in authentic community, i sense for the first time in a long time fulfillment of something i couldn't even really describe as recently as four years ago.

i believe i am right where i am supposed to be and it definitely feels like a case of the right place at the right time for the right reasons... the best part is i know i am not dreaming and it's what i am supposed to be doing... how sweet is that?

PS. Way to go Blue! (The Colts!)

The Difference Maker

I wonder what the difference really is between Mike Ditka, coach of the world champion 1985 Chicago Bears and Lovie Smith; coach of the Super Bowl XLI bound 2006 Chicago Bears?

Both men are incredible motivators no doubt... each has excelled in their profession and have the hardware to prove it. As I have heard people wondering aloud about the differences and pointing out distinctive characteristics I have also wondered to myself which I'd rather be a player for.

I remember Mike Ditka and his incredibly animated, passionate and sometimes over the line behavior on the Bears' sidelines! The one thing you always felt when watching Da' Coach in action was that the game was literally a matter of life and death. The way he would yell at players, the referees, the opposing team, the other coach... the fans... it was awesome! I loved it! It made absolute sense to have this amazingly fiery guy as the head coach of the Monsters of the Midway!

In sharp contrast is Lovie Smith who is as laid back as Ditka was insane! When watching Lovie with the Bears there is a quiet resoluteness. Great game or not Lovie always seems to have his own emotional state completely under control. I think in the years that I have seen Lovie as head coach of the Bears; I have never seen him yell at or berate a player or an assistant coach in public. Even under the glaring lights of the press who repeatedly asked him why in the world the erratic Rex Grossman remained the starting quarterback, he never once lost his cool. Instead he repeatedly stated that "Rex Grossman is our starting quarterback...”

So here is the deal, is it possible that in the rough and tumble world of professional football there is a turning of the tide (and I don't mean Crimson Tide either...)? Have the days of the screaming, foul-tempered, sometimes ill-mannered, win-at-all-cost coach gone the way of the wooly Mammoth? Has the era of the quiet, even-keeled, polite, chivalrous, winning-is-great-but-a-loss-is-not-the-end-of-the-world coach emerged? Who knows for sure but the difference between the two is nothing short of incredible to lifelong Bears fans!

Truth be known... I'd play for either one... as long as he was coaching... da' Bears!