Tuning Slide 5.30- Beyond Mediocre

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

If any of you have a desire to be mediocre,
you will probably find that you have already achieved your ambition.
― Hugh B. Brown

Fortunately, many people do not set out in their lives to become the most mediocre person that they can be. So the above quote lacks some reality. I have to admit though that I have met people who are completely satisfied with where they are at the moment and are making no plans to do anything about it. I guess that such individuals would qualify for planning for mediocrity. I guess it all depends on what amount of work you decide to put into it. The less you do, the more mediocre you become.

Another quote from the book Catch-22 is perhaps a better or a more realistic one.

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity,
and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
― Joseph Heller

Mediocre can be defined as:    

• being of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate. (Link)

Blah. Boring. So-so.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many of us who can be good to great at everything, which means that in some things we do we will be, by definition, mediocre. I know how to swim, but I am poor at it, I’m a mediocre swimmer. I know how to play the guitar, but, at best, I am mediocre. But that does not mean that I have to be mediocre at everything I so or in all areas of my life. Some of this also changes with age. I used to have better eyesight than I do now; today it is mediocre.

On the blog of Music Think Tank, I found a good tongue-in-cheek set of “tips for the typical musician". The author is talking to those who want to get into the music business and many of his tips are business-related. I went through and picked out some of them that might fit most of us. He introduces them this way:

For those of us who embrace shades of mediocrity, here are some tips for becoming a typical musician. (Link)

◆ Practice
⁃ Practice one hour a day. However, feel free to skip practice if there is something more interesting going on.
⁃ Play the same piece over and over again. Never try to deconstruct the music and figure out how and why it works.
⁃ Convince yourself that taking music lessons is out of the question since all your favorite musicians were self-taught.
⁃ Use only tabs and chord charts to learn new songs. Never try to figure it out by ear, it’s simply too frustrating.

◆ Gigs
⁃ Allow your instruments to decay to the ultimate state of disrepair. Only replace broken parts after you have repeatedly cut out during several shows.
⁃ Never listen to fellow musicians on stage. Stay entirely focused on yourself.

◆ Personal
⁃ If you play with others, vaguely explain why you’re the most valuable member of the group and thus most group rules shouldn’t apply to you.
⁃ Get jealous of all fellow musicians who find their way to success before you do. Make sure to complain to anyone that will listen about how much they suck.
⁃ Convince yourself that if you just keep hanging on, another few months, or another year, you will make it. Never stop to take a critical look at your music or live show to see where you are going wrong, or how it can be improved.
⁃ Close your mind to other genres of music because, quite frankly, it sucks.
⁃ Always do the bare minimum required.

I would add one more to the personal- Know that you are the least valuable member of the group and have nothing new or important to offer. Like the quote at the top, if you do that you will turn that into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In any case, the author, Mike Venti, ends the article by getting to his obvious point.

◆ Recognizing this type of destructive behavior is one of the first steps to getting rid of it. Never settle on being typical. Only by being atypical will you command the attention you truly deserve.

A couple of examples from my own journey come to mind. First is that changing my practice routine and mindset really did make a difference in my playing. I was a mediocre trumpet player for years- even when I was good at what I was doing. I remained mediocre in that I never got better. I had no plan, no direction, no idea in any way to change what I was doing. Until I got some direction- and challenge- nothing was about to change. I even remember after one Sunday morning worship when I had played a duet with the organ, I was grateful that I hadn’t made as many mistakes as usual- and I didn’t know why I was so good at making mistakes.

Another was not taking as good a care of my trumpet as I knew I should. Once in a while, I would take it in for a chemical cleaning, but anything more on my part, well, not so much. At one of the Shell Lake Trumpet Workshops, I remember one of the instructors taking the tuning slide out and looking down the lead pipe. I don’t remember the exact words he used to describe it, but they were basically that I would never get a good (i.e. Non-mediocre) sound out of that horn. I cleaned it that evening and have tried to remain better at that. If I don’t take care of my instrument, how can I expect it to play well?

One other step toward mediocrity is to expect it to happen overnight, or at least within a reasonable time, say three weeks to a month. I am now well into the sixth year of this renewed and revitalized trumpet journey. It was only at the end of five years that Mr. Baca basically said, now you’re ready to work on some new stuff. In fairness, Bob, that isn’t what you said. It is what I heard because I knew something had changed in my playing and I was at a different level. Originally it was when I heard myself playing on a video six or so years ago, that I realized how mediocre my playing was. Hearing that I was ready for something new to work on last summer was reaffirming what I had felt- I was making progress. Maybe I wasn’t typically mediocre anymore.

Tuning Slide #5.25- Professional Action

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
— Carl Jung

Last week I talked about being a professional or procrastinating? Part of it was based on this article by Mayo Oshin.

There she gave a two-part answer to how to become (and stay) “pro”:

◆ Thou shalt commit to a schedule.
A schedule is simply a pre-commitment to consistently put in your ‘reps’ and hours in your craft. Just like any new habit, your willpower and ability to delay gratification will also affect your consistency levels.

◆ Thou shalt believe that thou art ‘Pro.’
This is why it’s so important to shift your identity. You have the power right now to believe that you’re a professional. [But] To say that you believe you’re a pro isn’t enough because actions speak louder than words. Prove to yourself that you’re really a pro and do the things that a pro would do every day.

I then concluded that I have recently been guilty of procrastination. Being inspired by her directions, I said I needed to answer three final questions from Oshin’s article. So let’s see what happens.

◆ Am I committed to being a professional in any area of my life?
Two old statements I’ve used before came to mind as I worked on this:

• How you do anything is how you do everything and, from author Annie Dillard,
• How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

What these both mean is simple and two-pronged. First, it isn’t in whether I say I want to be professional at something, it’s whether I am truly committed to it. True commitment means action, it means doing the things that lead to becoming professional. I have worked at that over these past 5-6 years and it has been exciting. I know it can be exciting and rewarding to get beyond my amateur mindset because I have done it in my life in other things, namely my careers and my commitment to a recovery lifestyle. I was not- and am not- just playing with those, I am committed to them. I have taken the time to do the preparatory work beyond just the basics. I have worked at improvement on a weekly, even daily basis. If my preaching after 30 years or my counseling after 25 hasn’t improved, well, I have not become professional. I have not done the deliberate practice.

This also says that I have been willing to commit to what is important to me in these areas, then I can do it in other things. I suppose I could do it in everything, but that would take up far more than the standard 24-hour/168-hour week. Other things can be hobbies, interests, likes- but I can’t spend the time to become “pro” in all of them. But I have become a professional, therefore I can do it. It can be how I spend my life. That means I can honestly answer “yes” to the first question. (By the way, it is always a good idea to take some time to reflect on this question about many things. Am I still committed to this particular professional area? Is it still a driving force of my life? That’s why I am still not 100% retired!)

◆ Is there anything holding me back from going pro?
Ah, now the self-reflection needs to get into deep honesty. There can be all kinds of answers to this, some of which might even indicate that one might need to look at NOT becoming “pro” in that area. That’s back at the commitment level. But having answered that question first, we can look at other things. A few that I have discovered over the years and in the past week include:
✓ Fear of failure
✓ Being overcommitted, i.e. not being able to say “No!” to myself or others
✓ Procrastination
✓ Having too many interests and hobbies
✓ Boredom with the mundane routine of every day
✓ Getting easily distrac… Squirrel
✓ Procrastination
✓ Self-Esteem
✓ Putting off until tomorrow what I should be doing today. (Procrastination!)

When I reach a procrastination point, that does not mean that I am in failure mode. It usually means that in one or more areas I am at a “stuck-point” or a “plateau.” When I move to the next question I can begin to put these in some order of what must be done while the stuck-point or the plateau is happening.

◆ What can I do to create the schedule and identity of a pro?
Now, the whole quote from Annie Dillard hits just as hard as the initial quote we usually hear.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.

So last week I sat down and did the first step of a schedule, I made a list of the different projects and areas of my days (how I live my life!) and listed what needs to be done. That helps focus me, ease my distractability. If it’s written down it is less likely to get missed. I don’t call this a “To-Do” list. It is the raw material that tells me what is ahead, what deadlines I have made for myself, and allows me to do some planning of how much time needs to be spent at it. Once I get this I can now begin to think about how I want to do the schedule. I now see the skeleton of the day coming into being. I can put a timeline on some of them. For example, I need to have the Tuning Slide post done every week by Monday evening, latest. I need to take the time every day to practice trumpet. I have a monthly deadline for a book-writing group that requires writing and research. And so on…

That has helped me move beyond the plateau. I can now put some time frames on these. I know how much time I need and want to spend on my music routine. I know how much time I want to give to my physical fitness routine. I know what my different writing gigs will take. That means it’s time to move on. Stop worrying about the stuck-point or procrastination. I have a hunch I needed this time to put these all together in a new perspective.

As yourself, am I doing my “professional” stuff effectively? Am I putting my action and commitment together? Then make the plans- be deliberate. And, well, just do it.

Tuning Slide #5.23- Learning from Fitness and Exercise

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Fitness needs to be perceived as fun and games or we subconsciously avoid it.
— Alan Thicke

Trumpet playing, making music, like fitness takes discipline. While discipline doesn’t sound like fun and games, I have discovered over these years of music and exercise that it isn’t always in the moment that it feels that way- it is the result when you are done.

Trumpeter Davy DeArmond is both an athlete and trumpet player. He is the trumpet instrumentalist in the United States Naval Academy Band. In this position, he leads the Brass Quintet, performs with the Concert Band, Next Wave Jazz Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, the New Orleans-style brass band Crabtowne Stompers as well as several ceremonial and marching units and has recorded and toured nationally with many of these groups. He is also a member of the International Chamber Orchestra of Washington. As if that isn’t enough he is a competition-level triathlete! A number of years ago the blog Trumpet Journey interviewed Davy about the things he has learned about music from his athletics. It is not a surprise that he had some good things to say. As I have said before, there are many lessons to be learned from music about life- and vice versa.

Here are some of the things that DeArmond reported as important lessons. (As usual, my thoughts in italics…) (Link)

• WARMING-UP
… As a trumpet player you might find yourself saying, “I can do this short gig without a warm-up,” or “I’m just going to go through the motions today.”… If I take off on a track workout without warming up, I’m probably going to pull something—ending my workout early and possibly affecting my bike ride the next day. The same principle goes for trumpet. If you don’t take care of yourself on a daily basis, it will catch up to you and be extremely detrimental.

[I used to be afraid that if I warmed up on my trumpet for too long, I wouldn’t be able to play. So I kept the warm up as short as possible. I learned the importance of warming up from fitness training. In my music, it is just as important. The difference starts in the planning. Hence DeArmond’s next lesson:]

• IMPLEMENT THOUGHTFUL SESSIONS
In school, it is easy to get in six to eight hour practice days. As your time becomes more valuable and you have more responsibilities, it is imperative that you have thoughtful sessions. When I began training … I found that I couldn’t spend more time on fitness, so I realized that I needed to work smarter and more efficiently. … I realized that I needed to do the same thing with my trumpet playing. I don’t have the luxury of practicing six to eight hours anymore, so I need to ensure that the time I do spend is thoughtful and productive.

[When I began to plan what I wanted to do, it all became part of the discipline. My fitness warm-up time on the bike or elliptical is just as important as the weights or machines. It’s all part of the whole. Make plans and carry them out.]

• LISTEN TO AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY
[DeArmond talks about the necessity to take easy days after pushing the body to its limits in a race or competition. He says it is important to not push yourself to a point of getting hurt. He then goes on…]
… My trumpet playing colleagues and I have a phrase we use—that we have to “undo the day before.” What this means is simply that we take care of our chops the day after a big blow. Some days are more punishing than others, so, if you do have a rough playing day, take care of yourself the next day, and “undo” the pounding that you took. It might be an extended easy warm-up with soft articulations or maybe even a day completely off, but make sure those muscles, just like your leg or arm muscles, are not getting overworked.

[I am aware of the danger of days off. They can become habits- bad habits. The trick is in the planning of the “slower” days, and not in the “doing nothing.”]

• SET AND ACCOMPLISH GOALS
If you’ve never run a marathon before, you don’t really know what to expect, so you get a plan and follow it to success. Unfortunately, as trumpet players, we fall into these ruts of practicing or performing. We stick with the same practice patterns we’ve had for years, and we remain good at the trumpet. However, if you take the time to set and accomplish goals, you can improve on your trumpeting skills no matter how accomplished you are. Simply set a goal (recital, audition, etc.), devise a plan (I will work out of the Goldman book for articulations, Schlossberg for flexibility, Top Tones for endurance) and execute the plan. When you are done, you will be better, but it is of utmost importance to….

[Goals are the natural extension of plans and discipline. Set the goals. Learn the new stuff!]

• ASSESS PROGRESS
As musicians, it is easy to become too emotional when assessing our performance or progress. When I’m done with a long race, first and foremost, I am happy for my accomplishment. At that point, I can think about how I could have gone faster, trained harder, slept or ate better, but I am still happy there is a medal around my neck. For a long time, it was hard for me to assess my trumpet playing, because I was worried about missing notes. Now, I assess the two similarly. I have found that I can assess it fairly without falling into the depths of depression if I miss some notes! Was I relaxed? Did I do what I wanted musically? At what point did it start to feel uncomfortable? Why? Once you can ask yourself questions like this without getting too emotional, you can adjust your training plan and get ready for your next performance.

There’s one more that I have learned over the past five years from my fitness work and applying it to my music. After all these things that DeArmond lists,

• MOVE FROM THE COMFORT ZONE
You never get better doing only what you did yesterday. I need to push that extra ten minutes on the bike (sensibly) just as much as I need to take the time to do the Arban characteristic study, the Charlier etude or the slow, methodical work on the basics. I have to keep moving or nothing new will happen.

All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.
— Michael John Bobak, digital artist

Tuning Slide # 5.21- Taking Stock and Making Dots

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
— Steve Jobs

It is that time again- the end of one year and the beginning of another. Like the news shows and just about everywhere else, that means it is time to do your own “Year in Review.” For me, that means looking at what Steve Jobs called “the dots” of my past year. I do that, not to get all nostalgic over what happened last year, but to take a look at what my direction has been and to see if I need to do something about it. We can only see our path of dots looking backward!

A few years ago when doing this I came up with a number of categories of “dots” that I have found to be a good starting point. They were dots of:

• Inspiration
⁃ Listen to other musicians, attend live music concerts and events, read about some of the great musicians and how they got that way.
⁃ What has inspired me in the past year and how have I grown from it?

• Humility
⁃ Humility is several things. It is
⁃ Being teachable
⁃ Being honest about one’s abilities and shortcomings
⁃ It builds on what has inspired me this year and given me some idea of the direction

• Learning and openness to growing
⁃ How did I put humility’s teachableness to work in my music?
⁃ Was I as open to learning as I like to think I am and what did I do to show it?

• Patience
⁃ Did I want to be as good as Doc in two short, easy steps or was I willing to take each step as it comes?
⁃ When I hit a plateau in my playing did I get discouraged and want to be just satisfied with where I was instead of moving on through?

• Discipline and commitment
⁃ Did I take the time to take the steps necessary to keep moving in the right direction?
⁃ How successful was I at improving my skills through regular, intentional practice?

• Volunteering and sharing
⁃ Did I keep it to myself or did I live and share what I have discovered?

• Acceptance
⁃ Acceptance is what comes from living “mindfulness.” Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as:
⁃ awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally… in the service of self-understanding and wisdom.
⁃ When I am short on acceptance (and therefore mindfulness) I find myself unhappy and get upset that the world is not doing what I want the world to do!

At the Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop, the talk of dots from above led to a logical conclusion. Since we can only know from looking back at the direction our dots take us, we need to make sure that as we move ahead we are conscious of the dots we are making:

✓ Therefore make good dots

This is where we would have historically mentioned the old tradition of New Year’s Resolutions. Forget it! We never manage to follow them. Most people who are regulars at a gym or fitness facility, for example, do NOT look forward to January. The gym gets overcrowded for these few weeks with all the fitness "enthusiasts" who have made resolutions. Many of them are gone before the Super Bowl. (I would love to be proven wrong on this some year!)

Instead, look at your dots from last year and make notes to yourself about which dots were helpful and healthy and which ones didn’t get the energy they needed. Take an inventory of yourself for 2019 and see what direction you are moving as you begin 2020. Then figure out how to do it differently, more efficiently, or more intentionally. This is not a series of “resolutions” but rather action steps toward a goal. It is planning on making good dots.

For me one of those dots that always needs awareness is practice. Yes, I practice every day. Yes, I have a basic routine that keeps me mostly focused. But I can always use tools to keep on track. One thing I found recently that I will use in the new year is seeing practice as a spiral. Dr. Gabriela Mayer of the CIT Cork School of Music in Cork, Ireland describes this spiral in an article called “Reflective Practice.” According to the article:

Visualizing a spiral helps students focus on the following interlinking key areas during practice. The students need to learn to help themselves during their private practice time between lessons. The ‘practice spiral’ is an image describing an ongoing process which starts with clear intention, leading to execution, reflection, calibration and reinforcement.

In other words, practice is not a straight line. It is rather a continual cycle of a number of things that keep us improving. Some sample questions from the article associated with each key area are:

◆ Intention: What would you like to achieve? Define specific task and ways to tackle it. The clearer the intention is defined, the better the practice process will be.
◆ Execution: Practice must involve active listening. Be prepared to evaluate what you just did. What traps did you fall into and how could you be ready sooner in order to avoid them?
◆ Reflection: Following evaluation, articulate what elements you want to consolidate and what you want to change. Allow more space between repetitions. Are you clear about you new objectives and do they represent small enough goals?
◆ Varied Repetition: play again with new objectives
◆ Consolidation: Once a desired execution has been reached, focused repetition forms a vital component in retention. (Link)

Now repeat. The practice spiral provides a basic structure for an effective practice regime.

As I look to the new year it looks like this is an area I can continue to build on. I will see my growth as a spiral of planning to action to reflection to repetition to make it part of my music. One specific will be moving into more intentional areas of improvisation. I have given that a lot of work over the years building a foundation that is now ready to be built upon. Using the above steps I will see what direction I can plan on taking my dots for this year.

I hope your 2019 was a good one for you musically and that 2020 will be even better. Keep moving!

Tuning Slide 5.14- Acting Like a Pro- Attitude

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Discipline is for professionals.
Motivation is for amateurs.
― J.R. Rim

I know I must be a professional musician- I’m not getting paid. (Rim shot.) Okay, just kidding. But I got to thinking one day about one of the most surprising aspects of what I have learned over these past five years of growth and musical development. Professional musicians are often just like non-professionals- just different in how they think. When I first connected with the group of musicians at Shell Lake Big Band Camp and the Trumpet Workshop, I came at playing and practicing trumpet just like I always had. I was, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was an “amateur” and I would never be anything but an amateur.

1. a person who engages in a pursuit, especially a sport, on an unpaid rather than a professional basis.
2. a person who is incompetent or inept at a particular activity. (Google)

I knew that the first was true, and the second? Well, if I wasn’t inept, I was at least less than many others. I didn’t think about becoming a professional. I just enjoyed playing the trumpet at whatever level I was able to reach and then just try to maintain it. What I discovered in the group at Shell Lake was that there is something different about professional musicians- their mindset. They have a different attitude, they have an outlook on playing music that is far from what I was doing. That quote at the top of the post this week is one of the things I learned. Motivation and discipline produce different results, although motivation can, and does, often lead to discipline and the resulting change of mind. (But that’s a whole other story for a different time. See Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.)

For this week I just want to talk about what it is that I have experienced with this change in mindset.

On their website, the magazine Inc. has an article about motivation vs discipline. In it retired pilot David Burke, who spent 23 years as an elite fighter pilot, says that:

"More than any other quality, discipline is what drives a person to succeed when faced with adversity. And that's what the real world is: adversity." Discipline, Burke continues, is what "drives you to do the work you don't enjoy, but is required. Discipline conquers fear. Discipline keeps you going when your curiosity, motivation, and excitement evaporate." (Link)

When I walked away from my first summer at Shell Lake, I was motivated! Man, was I motivated. But I wasn’t yet disciplined. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to become disciplined, (I've been a professional in other fields for 40 plus years), I just didn’t think it was anything special in this area. After all, I was “only an amateur.” It was after a number of months of increased practicing, discovering a daily routine and the inner joy of just playing music at a higher level, that I ran across the dreaded “boredom.” Long tones! Clarke 1, 2, and 3! Over and over. Day in and day out. I was learning and growing, but the excitement did begin to evaporate. So I switched to willpower. But (and this is also for another day) I knew that willpower is a limited resource. If I had used too much of it just to get through the day, I wasn’t going to have any to pick up the horn.

That’s when discipline began to set in. Back to the article from Inc. Jim Rohn is considered to be America's Foremost Business Philosopher. He says:

"It takes consistent self-discipline to master the art of setting goals, time management, leadership, parenting and relationships. If we don't make consistent self-discipline part of our daily lives, the results we seek will be sporadic and elusive."

"It takes a consistent effort to truly manage our valuable time. Without it, we'll be consistently frustrated. Our time will be eaten up by others whose demands are stronger than our own," writes Rohn.

"It takes discipline to conquer the nagging voices in our minds: the fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of poverty, the fear of a broken heart. It takes discipline to keep trying when that nagging voice within us brings up the possibility of failure." (Link)

What kept me going was that I had changed my attitude, my mindset. I know that sounds like willpower, but it wasn’t. It was routine and habit. It was not a whim or a “well, let’s try this now” kind of attitude. That is what the professionals really bring to the table and what we can learn from them.

There is one aspect of this that I can’t overlook- I had to believe it was worth the time and effort, or else why would I do it? If all I got out of it was a sense of drudgery, boring long tones and scales, well, that isn’t enough to keep going. I also began to experience what I am sure drives most professionals in any field, including music- the sense of accomplishment. Disciplined and intentional practice began to give better results. I was enjoying the music and the routine. The habit was real- and I began to feel like a musician. Yes, that is motivation producing because my goal became I wanted to continue to improve. I was no longer afraid of succeeding or willing to say that at my age, why try?

Consistency, done daily, with good time management overcomes the fears Rohn mentioned above. It conquers the nagging voice that says, “Yeah, that’s nice, but you’re just an amateur!”

Not any more. No, I am still not getting paid for being a musician. But thanks to that incredible group of trumpet players I engaged with at Shell Lake, I am in the midst of becoming a “pro.”

Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.
— Amy Poehler

Dangerous Memes and Posts

• If you were beaten with a belt by your father and turned out okay, "Like" this.
• If your teacher paddled kids and you still learned in the classroom, "Like" this.
• If you rode in the open back of a pick-up truck when you were a child and weren't killed, "Like" this.

Well, they don't read quite that way, but pretty darn close. They seem to say that a violent approach to child-rearing is how to raise good kids; that corporal punishment by school staff is nothing; that unsafe driving practices are just ways of having fun.

And yes, many people did survive those events un-scarred by them. Including me for at least some of them.

But we have learned something about life and violence in the past generation or so. We have also learned about the dangers on the highway, especially in a world today where traffic is far riskier and "busy" than when I was a kid.

I agree that it is impossible to prevent all injuries or predict what a spanking will do to a child's psyche.  But I also tend to believe it is better to err on the side of caution and find other ways of discipline. Will a spanking at the right time prevent some child from becoming a criminal? Perhaps. But the odds are also that it might just teach- and perpetuate- a violent approach to life.

I don't "Like" those memes and posts on Facebook. I think they are dangerous and promote unsafe behavior. It's bad enough that young people, especially teenagers, are already prone to dangerous things. Let's not add to their dangers.

Too Easily Distracted...

... But that's part of the fun!


We have been snowbirds for the past 7 weeks, but alas, the trip is over. The realities of March in Minnesota (talk about March Madness!) have settled in. It has been one of the finest winters for us. Doing nothing, reading, sleeping late and/or taking naps, producing 16 videos and taking a gazillion pictures. Ah, the life.

If it hadn't been for the daily Lenten posts, I would have been far behind in my daily discipline of my blogging. While I may not be officially diagnosed with ADD, I certainly show all the symptoms. (Look- a parasailer. My, maybe I should go walk on the... Wait a minute, I need to get the shells... Oh- it's time for Better Call Saul...)

I realize that this is one of the advantages of partial retirement and I will agree that if I were 100% retired back home, I would probably eventually go a little (more) bonkers. But then again...

The biggest problem was that I last any of the standard discipline I had worked so "hard" at developing last fall. The work on my writings has taken a back seat to many of those parenthetical things above. I have gone to the library at least once a week and did some writing, I played in a local community band and I had a great experience at a recovery convention. I remember reading somewhere (wait for it- here comes my justification) that there are times when you need to take a vacation from your writing when there is something you need to work through. I know that has been part of what is happening.

As I have been researching and writing on my Dad's 10th Armored/80th Medical history from these months at the end of World War 2, I have also been coming to some new insights on my Dad, his family and how it all has impacted me. As one of those introspective (not introverted), intuitive, feeling types, these are important times for me. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to experience and introspect on these things recently. As I settle back into my daily routines at home, they will do me well.

But the distractions will still get in the way- which for me is good.

Olympian Feats - II

On Wednesday I talked about what I have been watching with such awe at the Olympics. Every four years especially I just cannot believe what I am seeing. This year has been even more so. Perhaps because I am more aware of the limitations of the human body (especially as we age) and I have just finished my 60 mile bicycle trip, but it is more obvious to me in this Olympics.

Maybe it also has to do with Michael Phelps and his amazing performances. At moments like these we see the heights to which we can fly- soar- when we put our minds to it and we have some of "the right stuff" that can move into unheard of territories. So we shake our heads in awe.

These are truly, as I said on Wednesday, Olympian feats of the Olympic Spirit.

But so are yours and mine.

Getting up and going to work day in and day out, even when we don't feel like it is no different from Michael Phelps getting up at the crack of dawn knowing he had five miles of swimming ahead of him. Day in and day out we do our best and build things, help others, serve others. Olympian feats occur in every home, factory, workplace, school every day. I don't have size 14 feet and the ability to swim like a dolphin. Very few do. But each of us is who we are. That sounds so trite that sometimes we miss the amazing truth in it.

When Jesus called a bunch of every day people to become his followers he knew they were capable of Olympian feats. He told them so when he said they would do even greater works than he was doing. All it takes is discipline to get up and go do them in whatever ways each of us has been gifted and called.

Ninety Days of Exercise
It was just 13 weeks ago last Sunday that I started in on my exercise program after joining the local fitness center. I have been a regular three-day-a-week exerciser throughout these three months. I am in the minority of that large number of people who join those places at the New Year, go great guns for a while, and then disappear into the wilderness. I ran into an acquaintance back at the beginning and he had encouraged me by saying,"Stick with it. It won't be as crowded here by April."

I was motivated though. I have been frustrated by what kind of shape I am in. I sit longer in the car to commute, I do less around the house due to my back problem, my assessment came back when I first joined that my body age was significantly older than my chronological age. So Sunday I went back for an update of my condition.

I would like to report that in these three months I have lost weight, improved by "lean" body mass, and lowered my body age. But I can't. They all stayed the same. I had a slight improvement in my cardio ability, but that was about it. On top of it, my lower back problems have not gotten any better.

But I am not discouraged. In fact, I am even more motivated. Because I feel better. I have more energy. And I am actually enjoying it. I have never been a particularly athletic person. I was a runner at one point in my life, but that eventually pooped out. This time people have told me that I look better. The exercises have slightly changed the contours of my body (i.e. the stomach doesn't stick out as far.) With the help of physical therapy I have a sense that my back issues are moving in the right direction- away from surgery.

I am learning that the discipline to keep at something like exercise is not natural, but depends on motivation. Not a particularly deep or profound insight, I know. It is truly on how much you perceive the value of what you are doing, whether you think you are getting something out of it, and how much "pain" you are able to put up with.

All disciplines do involve pain, even if it is only the pain of boredom- doing the same things over and over. Or the pain of not getting the results you want as fast as you want them. I was actually surprised when my body assessment came back with no changes because I feel the changes. I know they are happening. The numbers may tell the truth, but I know it is not the whole truth.

In so many things in our lives we quit because we get bored or frustrated or go after it too quickly or intensely. I have had to hold myself back in these three months. In the past I would have jumped in and started pushing harder and harder expecting that doing it that way would provide quicker results. I seem to remember a story about a tortoise and hare that seems to be about that.

Perhaps it is age that has slowed me down or fear of doing serious damage to my body at an age when the repairs are much more difficult to achieve. But it has worked.

Maybe I'll try this in the rest of my life. It might even work.

Holy Week 2007-
Tuesday- Conflict and the Son of Man
(Based on thoughts from Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in the book, The Last Week.)

Surprisingly Mark spends more time on Tuesday than any other day of the week. Three chapters (11:27 – 13:37) and 115 verses continue the narrative. Of those verses two-thirds involve conflict with the Temple authorities and one-third are about the coming of the Son of Man- an apocalyptic vision.

When I think about it, it isn't a big surprise that Jesus (and Mark's editing) would put it together this way. The apocalyptic vision does follow on the conflict with the authorities. Apolcalyptic visions are always the produce to a time and place of oppression, conflict, and misplaced worship. The Book of Revelation was written in such a time of fear and uncertainty. The Y2K version, often picked up by Christian apocalyptics, came in suc a time of change and uncertainty.

So Jesus challenged the powers that be and gave a vision that the world was changing. Radically. Quickly. Be aware and alert. Such is the message of all apocalyptic literature. Be faithful and single-minded about your faith. Don't collaborate with the powers that be- they will soon be gone.

We can argue- and we Christians HAVE argued- over the exact meanings and timetables and impacts of the apocalyptic prophecies. But the point Jesus is making is that faithfulness means being there when the world starts to change- and being there with God. The power of the "domination system" collaboration between religion and government will not stand through the change. Don't put your hopes and security in the state. Even to advance or protect the faith and the faithful as the leaders of Jesus day (and ours?) would hae argued.

Is this Holy Week just a political demonstration? That's what it can begin to sound like. That may be because in the end it was the ways of the world- usually wrapped up in the politics- that challenges the faith most fully. It is in many instances a competing entity calling for worship. Don't let it fool you.

To remain faithful to God means to remain faithful in all our lives. May this Holy Week lead us deeper into being aware of that and doing it more fully.

From March Madness- to April Depression-
to Opening Day
Okay- so Corey won the pmPilgrim bracket challenge. Just because he got the right winner in Florida. He bettered me in the final score, 129 to 96. But I do have to point out that in the overall tournament I have 43 right picks and he only had 41. So what if he picked Florida? That's the depression part.

But let us not overlook Opening Day. Ah, the season of Baseball has begun. Can summer, even in Minnesota, be far behind?

Some Friday Thoughts
Four Weeks Into Health
It was four weeks ago today that I joined the fitness center. So far I have managed to work out three days a week. I started slowly with only doing cardio for two weeks. Then I added some strength work on the machines. The one thing I do NOT want to do is knock my back out. I just got that in good health again. It has been fun and I am definitely feeling better already.

What is most interesting is that I started working on losing weight back in December when I hit that Big 200. I was averaging one pound a week until I started the strength training and then it semi-plateaued. That's to be expected as even a little strength training at that point would change fat into muscle mass which doesn't cause weight loss. Anyway, I am now down to 193. Seven pounds in nine weeks. Not bad.

Plateaus Do Occur
I also noticed that there was a plateau in my workouts. It goes along well for a few weeks and then seems like it is going backward. I remember the same thing happening every summer when our Municipal Band would start up. After a few weeks I would be feeling really good about my trumpet playing, then, out of nowhere it felt like I was losing by ability. Then after a week of keeping at it, it comes back better than it had been.

I think there's a lesson in this somewhere. As much as I would like life to be a continuous positive experience, it isn't. The soul is probably not any better at constant motion- even in a positive way- than the body is. You have to have times to marshall your resources, take a personal inventory, keep doing what your doing so that what you have gained will be able to take you to the next step. You need to do this even when you don't know why or you get frustrated because it isn't happening as fast or in the way you want it to.

I think of St. John of the Cross whose marvelous (and dark and hopeful) book, Dark Night of the Soul chronicles the way that happens. In the dark night, or on that plateau, you don't stop doing what you need to do- exercise, practice your trumpet, pray even when you think you are praying to the emptiness. You are, in truth, still moving, still gaining, still growing. It happens so often in my life in so many different ways it is probably one of those truisms.

You may have to remember that easy does it but don't forget to just do it.