Chief

I am notably a competitive person. So much so that I can't play card games because of how much my competitive streak rears its head. Like those who know better than to mess with temptation I steer clear of instances I know will get the better of me. Most of my competitive streak has now internalized and I compete solely with myself most people call it a perfectionist.

I was naturally nervous when I first accepted the coaching position out at Wilmot. I remember expressing my fear to other coaches about Bobby Nighting it and tossing a chair. My coach friend gave me the advice to keep it about the kids and their acceleration at the sport. I took that completely to heart, and even said if it becomes about anything else I'll quit.

Thinking back to even when I personally played athletics or took up running. If I wanted to improve I just listened to my coaches, stuck to the training, and worked as hard as I could. I never cheated or did anything other than congratulate and esteem the other players on my team. It never even occurred to me to be catty or form a clique.

Being on the other side of the fence I would never put an ineligible player out on the court or into competition. I would never play an injured kid, or advise my players to do anything physical to the other team to win. If a player were to actively move their hand at the end of a match to avoid congratulating I would make them shake each players hand and apologize for being a poor sport.

To be completely honest if a ref misses a call I do not draw attention to it. It goes both ways I am not the ref. I am the coach.

Sometimes people make compromises in order to win, and then they do. They get recognition, and advancements at the hands of their success. It can make it feel like integrity is a waste of time.

The reality is nothing can replace a pure win. A win won where every player out there could be and should be. If you do a bunch of underhanded shady and sleazy things just to earn the W. Then even if you admired you are just the chief of jerks. Commander of sleazy tactics, or the champion of false victory. Raise the banner of perverted adoration high and swing it above the head to the devils delight.

I love to win as much as any coach, but have no aspiration to be the Chief of the Jerks no matter how big the trophy.

Not for Kids

I know you are just dying to hear if I liked Where the Wild Thing Are, or if it was a let down

........ Dramatic Pause........
It has likely taken over my number two spot for all time favorite films second only to Dead Poet Society and just above Terminator 3.
It is NOT a kids flick. The messages are run pretty deep, and the wild things made Audrey jump a couple times. But Faith was never scared.

Spike Jonzes wanted to create a film from the perspective of a 9 year old boy who was essentially created to save his folks marriage, and he could no more sustain the pressure or responsibility of that, than he could rule and be the king of a bunch of wild monsters.
The voice of the head monster was the guy from the Sopranos, and the range of frustration and helplessness he was able to convey was absolutely felt by every audience member. I mean you could totally see how anyone could put, so much hope in one thing ,or all their eggs in one basket, and then before it totally crumbles just smashing the whole thing, basket in all, to maintain some kind of sense of control. Capitol R...Riveting.

Now we make forts out of the couch and play Max. I play the trailer and do the piano Melody on their tummy's, and we howl together after dinner. Its awesome. The kids didn't really understand the film, but they like the silly monsters and the crazy boy. I tell them all boys are crazy, so get used to it. lololol :)

Kenosha Royalty

This past weekend was the Wedding of my Sister and her fiance' Matt. Tiff and Matt were never lacking for friends and social invites. People I'd not seen in ages dusted off the coat tails to come out and celebrate the joining of two incredible people. If Kenosha ever did have a Royal Family Tiff and Matt would likely be in it. :)

The flowers that accompanied a set of Diamond earrings waiting at my folks house were we all got ready for the church.

Mr. and Mrs. Gename married at Immanuel Baptist Church in Kenosha

Kel and I @ the Milwaukee art Museum for photo ops. The photographer asked me to move his car. What!?!

Me stealing a smooch on the Bus.

Very Ginger and Fred.

My Dad bringing down the house.

Audery didn't make it down, but Faith was a total pro.

Just like the old days.

Tiff, Tim & I. Tim and I were best buds since the Sandbox.

Good for us!

Faith looking like she off to college.

Faith started Kindergarten on Tuesday. I know that this can be traumatic for some parents, but I get this image of a 30 year old woman education less still sleeping in her hello kitty bed. This mental picture takes the sting right out, and I know this is not only very good for her. Its good for me.

I like her school, but its a bit over crowded. Well see how this year goes.

My Fave

Dwight has a prodigal son feel. He has a very vibrant and connective past with the girls of O. town, but leaves them for Ava a manipulative man eater of a woman who uses all the most attractive elements of being female to gain power over the men in her life. Ava is beautiful, cunning, smart, skilled in the bedroom, and can play the role of a caring as well as endangered woman to earn an Oscar. She embodies all the characteristics of the more obvious or socially acceptable powers of the female sex, but uses them as weapons to gain power.

Dwight gets caught up in her schemes, and almost dies, but is recovered by the girls of O. town, and healed. In that healing he has an entirely different face, and there is a massive sense of homecoming and celebration reunited with his family who welcome him home with open arms.

Dwights love interest before he strays from the path is Gail the leader of all the femme fatals in O. town. She is strong, confident, independent, beautiful, and all in all pretty bad ass.

When two people get married they enter into the status of couple. Those who make it work always keep the other persons interests in the forefront of their decisions. There is some autonomy but with all the shared spaces home, car, meals, experiences, quirks, daily interactions, hopes, dreams, memories there is a certain amount of meshing that takes place. You are a team whose collective goal is the well being of them, you, and the children that could potentially enter the situation. In that meshing a certain amount of sacrifice ensues, and part of you surrenders for good of the whole.

Dwight realizes that to snare Gail would be to change who she is, and since he loves who she is he chooses to go without tying her down. He is content in his feelings and in his manhood to let her be the strong independent leader she is and would never dream of stifling that potential.

He calls her is Valkyrie woman always his and never his, and there is heat, and there is attraction, and there is passion, but no commitment. Because if they were to couple that would change her, and then she wouldn't be Gail. So instead he loves her as she is. They never possess one another.

Dwight is my favorite, and he and Gails story are very important. The film and the books are all done in black and white which I think suggests that things are modern the contrast of right and wrong distinct. The name Sin City the first contrast to the graphics. The second is in how the good guys are prostitutes, and the bad guys politicians and clergy. People are victims of their circumstances, and the powers holding the context in place. The only exaggerated ideas are the powers men and women embody. Men are strong, protective, sensitive, caring, heroes that the women need. Women are beautiful, smart, independent, sexy, have strong community together, and are vulnerable. It really displays how the sexes can sustain and support one another in a world of corruption, greed, and poor values. How each can be powerful in their own right, but to recognize those powers, their potential, and not abuse them or use them as weapons against each other. When we work for one anthers collective good everyone wins, but when we don't everyone looses.

Hands

I remember the first time I watched the film Saving Private Ryan and sweating and ducking in my seat as soldiers fell on the beach front. I went again a week later with my mom and felt her grip and pull my arm down dozens of times during the same scene. That motherly instinct that makes a woman put her arm out when she has to stop fast at a traffic light kicking in as she tried to protect me from whizzing bullets and land minds.

It dawned on me after the third yank that I wasn't flinching. After a single viewing I was already desensitized. Kind of gross when you really think about it.

In the film Sin City the character Marv is depict as an enormous gladiator of a fellow who has been in so many battles his face has been permanently scared and disfigured. He also hallucinates the human carnage of bodies all around the city, but his life has seen so much bloody battle it might as well just be the common trash cans they really are. His greatest talent is killing, but that is not all that marketable or valuable of a skill outside of military service. So he wanders aimlessly alone, hallucinating, and drinking purposeless. Marv has a tender spot for dames, and zero tolerance for fellas who rough them up. Despite his menacing appearance and hyper aggression in the comics themselves he is constantly using his killing talent to save damsels in distress (protect and serve the innocent the defenceless :), and he is given the most fantastic lines like "She smelled like angels ought to smell." Not exactly the kind of thing you would think runs through a killing machines mind.

Marv is sought out by a call girl named Goldie, because she was in desperate need of protection. They share one intimate night together, and she is still murdered next him leaving her killers with a primo fall guy. Marv however goes all vigilanti and avenges Goldie's death. One informant was a priest and he essentially asks Marv if this whore is worth all he is doing. Marv responds "Worth killing for, Worth dying for, Worth going to hell for as he pumps him full of bullets.

Essentially Goldie's motivation was selfish. She was looking to save her life, and picked the guy she believed had the best shot at succeeding. She slept with him, but that was her job. She did not deserve his vengeance.

Marv however understood her motivations, and did not blame her having needs in the circumstance. But choose instead to see the need she met for him, and considered it kind that she would be with him despite all his obvious facial and personality hang ups.

His actions born out of kindness. He ends up bringing down a serial killer, and the corrupt head of the church. Not a decent guy, not a well adjusted guy, not a spotless role modle, but messy, gruff, complex, tender, caring, crazy. He like Haritgan also gets the chair for interfering with the people in power, and takes the wrap even for Goldie's death again not a heroes reward.

But hey kindness is pretty hard to come by. :)

2 Peter 1: 5-7 "For this very reason, make every effort to add ...kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, hi is near sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins."

I guess his 6 word memior would be "In the end only Kindness matters."

Poster Child

In the film Sin City Bruce Willis plays the character of J. Haritgan a seasoned cop hell bent on nabbing a child molester and murder. Sadly this killer has been able to avid capture because he is the son of a powerful political figure of the city. His crimes have been looked past out of fear, personal gain, and power again leaving the innocent suffer and pay at the hands of corrupt hearts. Adolescent girls in desperate need of a protector a hero, and Haritgan despite age and an ailing ticker steps up to the plate. Albeit Hartigan was on the verge of retirement, and a heart attack which made him in a place with very little to loose. He also could have relied upon all the good he had already accomplished in his life, and quietly went onto peaceful retired bliss. But he opted instead to be the hero the girl needed. Big Sigh :)

The repercussions of this decision were bullet wounds, a long road to recovery, and being imprisoned for the very crimes he protected against. Not exactly a heroes reward. And the young life he saves goes on saturated in a world where the only power women are tapping into is their objectification and sex appeal becomes an exotic dancer. Appalling right!

But exactly the same kind of sacrifice Christ has made for each of us. He did not go to the cross for the behaviors that bring glory to God. He went for our transgressions to break down that barrier between us God's beloved children and Himself.

Sin City is very graphic and very gritty, and because of that not very many people will be able to get past these elements to digest some of the more pertinent messages. And I will likely be hard pressed to find too many Christians who have seen it, and this is tragic as well because its an exaggerated idea of what the world has become, but also dangerously accurate. Most of the time I think Christians have very little idea of what they are dealing with when it comes to the secular community, and they leave people ill equipped to deal with the struggles and challenges they are likely to face. The common headaches of personality clashes quickly become their cross to bear or "loving their enemies," and the mild annoyance gets labeled "suffering." And then that whole suffering for Christ gets a big check mark. When in reality were all pretty dam comfortable.

So the options become stay a cloistered community, and only bring outsiders in who will conform to the group demonizing everything on the outside to validate closing ones self off from this world going to hell in a hand basket. Or you engage the world and thus are viewed as watering down your faith, or fallen away.

How about we seek first to understand then be understood. Romans 8:37 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Be a Hartigan we have NOTHING to loose. World do your worst!