Positive News for a Change

I am always harping on the news and the media for giving the world so much negativity, when the truth is the world has so much wonder to enjoy. But when the media gets it right, I think its fair to give them credit.

1.) Better than Perfect: The blown perfect game last week for Detroit Tigers Pitcher Armando Galarraga was the first major news story. When I first heard it, my immediate thought was to give him the perfect game, it was obvious that he deserved it. Until I heard George Will's commentary in the Washington Post. He said that if you give it away, all you have is the 21st perfect game in history, but what happened was actually better than a perfect game. The actions of the pitcher and the umpire, was an incredible life lesson, and it made me realize what's terrific about the imperfections in baseball. Baseball mirrors life, in baseball the imperfections make it great, maybe we should realize that life's imperfections are what make life great. The truth of the matter is, "you can pitch a perfect game, literally do everything right, and on the very last play, the umpire kicks the call," True in baseball, and true in life. In life, we should expect that maybe God has something better planned.

2.) One of my heroes dies: John Wooden died on Friday night last week, and again the media caught the true essence of the man. I've never met John Wooden, so I can't vouch for anything about him, however I have to say that I have been greatly influenced by his thought and his philosophy since college. What has always struck me most about him, was how he placed process over results as the true measure of uncovering our own greatness. He never mentioned the word win, it was only about meeting our potential. When he was asked about this in a pbs special, the interviewer took exception with him, "I find it very hard to believe that after 10 national championships that you never cared about winning," Wooden stopped him, "oh no, you have it wrong, I cared about winning everyday of my life, I just never let the scoreboard be the judge of whether I won or lost," He would speak often about how there were many games where they lost on the scoreboard, but they won, because they met their potential.

3.) Shrek- Forever after: I took the kids to see Shrek, Forever after over the weekend, and I was expecting Hollywood to give my kids plenty of worldly ideas for their minds. But thankfully the exact opposite happened, I was amazed that Hollywood has given the world a true gem with this movie. It was fun, and had an incredible message: Life is sacred, so live it with true thanksgiving everyday.