Tag Archives: Pope Leo

My Pleasure Thursday Rundown

Posted on by
Reply

We have reached mid-April and we finally received some of the showers that make this month famous. Thankfully Mother Nature waited until after a sunny spring break to bring the rain. Let’s jump into tonight’s Thursday Rundown…

Day Off – Speaking of spring break, I had the opportunity to take last Friday off to be with my kids. I took them to Dave & Buster’s for a couple hours and then we followed it up with lunch at the Spokane Valley Mall food court. As I have written before, I always try to take my children out to lunch on spring break.

A few images from our outing to Spokane’s Dave & Buster’s location and to the Spokane Valley Mall for lunch.

Fun Saturday – My day off on Friday was followed by another adventurous day. On Saturday I had the treat of taking Sid and the kids to ONE Stadium for a USL Soccer match as the Spokane Velocity defeated the Richmond Kickers, 3-1. It was EWU Night and my family had the opportunity to sit in one of the suites with some of my other co-workers and President Shari McMahan. For someone like Beau who is a soccer fanatic, the experience was something that he especially enjoyed.

A photo of Beau absolutely loving life at the Spokane Velocity soccer match we attended this past weekend.

Great Horror Film – I watched the best scary movie I have seen in a couple years this past week. Called “Weapons,” it tells the eerie story about 17 elementary students from the same classroom who end up going missing on the same night at 2:17 a.m. The plot of the movie is completely original, the concepts are creepy, the images are jarring, and the scares are real. The film receives an A+ from me for its creativity. If you are looking for a terrific horror movie that might even resonate with non-scary film fans (it did win Academy Awards after all), I recommend “Weapons.”

“Weapons” was a great film.

My Pleasure – On this date eight years ago, I wrote about “the problem” with the phrase no problem. I also discussed why I will say my pleasure for the rest of my life. But in short, when someone says “no problem,” it insinuates that there is/was a problem. When someone expresses their gratitude to you, it doesn’t make sense to respond by saying something that doesn’t convey any sort of warmth or sentiment. At best, “no problem” means nothing. How is it acknowledging what someone said to you?

This was my Instagram post from my Life’s Little Instructions calendar back in 2018 that influenced me to write a blog post about “no problem” and “my pleasure.”

Popes – Today would have been Pope Bendict XVI’s 99th birthday. Shortly after his death, I wrote this blog post about our former pope’s status as a master theologian on complex issues but also his simplicity at heart. When Pope Francis passed away, I wrote about his humility and exemplification of what it means to be a servant leader. When it comes to Pope Leo, I hope I don’t have to write about his legacy for a very long time 😉. But what I can say about him right now is that I feel extremely blessed to have him as my pope and I hope he continues to advocate for peace at every chance he gets.

Pope Benedict XVI was as sharp as they come (photo cred: New York Times).

——————

That’s all I have for tonight. Thanks for your readership and I hope you have a nice weekend. Don’t Blink.

For Better or Worse

Posted on by
Reply

“If you aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse!”

I can’t count the number of times my high school football coach shouted this in the Mead High School weight room during my prep years. The insinuation was that if you weren’t getting stronger, you could only get weaker. Coach Sean Carty’s constant declaration definitely increased our weight lifting intensity and it added plenty of pressure when max week came around.

This photo of me with Sean Carty was taken in either 2013 or 2014 after a University of Montana football game. Coach Carty was always fond of saying, “If you aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse!”

But Coach Carty wasn’t the first person to theorize about the regression that could ensue if constant improvement isn’t attained. In fact, we can go all the back to the 400s to hear something similar. Saint Leo the Great said: “For the one that is not advancing is going back, and the one that is gaining nothing is losing something.”

This is the thinking of the ultra-motivated, the high achievers who do incredible things in life. The people who embrace the thinking of Coach Carty and Saint Leo are never content. But is that necessarily a good thing? Well, probably not for everyone.

I feel most of the time I am a motivated person who likes to keep my foot on the gas pedal. Just ask my wife, she will describe me as a “go-go-go” type of dude. But I also do appreciate periods of rest. Taking a month in the summer to be lazy and not chase goals is something I feel worthwhile. If I do take that time do I really feel myself regressing? I guess it depends on how much ice cream I eat.

But as the Bible says, there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under Heaven. And even though “rest” or “relax” isn’t specifically mentioned in Ecclesiastes, I like to think that it probably is acceptable and that it can be achieved without drastic decline in one’s current state.

Bottom line, I admire the people who manage to always improve themselves and hesitate to take a break in fear of regressing. But I think I tend to agree more with the way that Coach Carty eventually modified his weight room warning just before I graduated high school: “If you aren’t getting better, you’re staying the same!” Don’t Blink.