In my high school days, peers and counselors each told me, on more than one occasion, "You could be valedictorian if you wanted to." To which I invariably replied, "Yeah? So what?"
One counselor in particular induced a WTF reaction in me when she said "With a verbal SAT score of 760, your math score should be higher than 580." Like I said, WTF!?!
It took me several decades to realize that the stubbornness which is both my genetic legacy and one of my most common responses to opposition didn't serve me well in this context. What I've learned, through my efforts to practice Buddhism and just plain old-fashioned tolerance, is that I can be right, and feel myself to be doing right, without having to convince others. They're entitled to their opinions; I'm entitled to an enlightened self-interest and autonomy. And I have the responsibility of listening to others rather than dismissing their ideas out of hand ...
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Only the Ball Was White
That, and one short, stocky, egalitarian spectator.
My dad had the opportunity to see some of the stars of Negro League baseball - men like Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell. Both Gibson and Bell played for the Homestead Grays, the steel town of Homestead being just across the Monongahela River from our stomping grounds in Braddock and North Braddock
Read about Bell, Gibson, and their colleagues in the book whose name is also the title of this post.
My dad had the opportunity to see some of the stars of Negro League baseball - men like Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell. Both Gibson and Bell played for the Homestead Grays, the steel town of Homestead being just across the Monongahela River from our stomping grounds in Braddock and North Braddock
Read about Bell, Gibson, and their colleagues in the book whose name is also the title of this post.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Tikhii bitz!
That means be quiet in the dialect of Russian both sides of my family spoke. It also represents one of my biggest life challenges.
The joke in the family was that I didn't start talking until I was 3 years old, and I've barely stopped since. That wry observation also gave rise to one of my dear companion's best teases of me.
He bet me that I couldn't keep quiet for 5 minutes. He claimed and still claims that at about the 3-minute mark the veins in my neck were standing out.
Need I say that the 3-minute mark was as far as I got?
The joke in the family was that I didn't start talking until I was 3 years old, and I've barely stopped since. That wry observation also gave rise to one of my dear companion's best teases of me.
He bet me that I couldn't keep quiet for 5 minutes. He claimed and still claims that at about the 3-minute mark the veins in my neck were standing out.
Need I say that the 3-minute mark was as far as I got?
Monday, March 9, 2015
You Heard It Here First
The popular wisdom has it that there are no tied games in baseball. Well, ...
In Spring Training games, only the regulation nine innings are played. If, at the end of the ninth, the score is tied, it stays that way.
That's how BMB (Bodhisattva Mickie's Buccos) ended today (Monday, March 9th, 2015) with a 1-1 tie with the Milwaukee Brewers. Of course, one of the best center fielders to come along in decades, Andrew McCutchen, contributed to the sort-of-win.
Dive into Bucs history here. Listen ot one of the most famous moments in Bucs history here.
Oh, the Bucs are goin' all the way ...
In Spring Training games, only the regulation nine innings are played. If, at the end of the ninth, the score is tied, it stays that way.
That's how BMB (Bodhisattva Mickie's Buccos) ended today (Monday, March 9th, 2015) with a 1-1 tie with the Milwaukee Brewers. Of course, one of the best center fielders to come along in decades, Andrew McCutchen, contributed to the sort-of-win.
Dive into Bucs history here. Listen ot one of the most famous moments in Bucs history here.
Oh, the Bucs are goin' all the way ...
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