Happy Thanksgiving

This year feels different somehow as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday. The challenges that we all face with global economic problems leading to financial meltdowns, causing job loss and concern about investments, creating a potential doom loop. Bad things happen every year, but this one seems excessively pervasive. Nearly every business is facing an uncertain future. Consumers and investors (you and me) are more cautious than ever to part with our hard-earned dollars. Consumer confidence is lower, which twists up the free enterprise system. Stress of all types ensues. And we think turkeys have it bad this time of year!

I think there is another way of looking at this which gets me out of the spiral mentioned above. I need to be thankful for what I have, and to be helpful to those who are less fortunate. As we learned in Belize during this past summer, we (Americans) are too blessed to be stressed!

Happy thanksgiving!

Senior Night - Philip's Last Game

Philip played his last high school football game on Friday, November 7. It was senior night, so Kim and I got to escort him as the players were announced. Unfortunately they lost the game. It was not a good year at all for Godwin football.

To make matters worse, some time in the 4th quarter, my son crashed helmets with an opposing player. After the game was over, he was not acting like himself, so we had to take him to the emergency room to be treated for a concussion. I told everyone afterward that the emergency room doctor did a brain scan and it came back negative!

I'm glad that this happened on one of the last plays in the last game. I would not have wanted to have to see him kept out of a game because of injury, or to have a head injury get worse.

This week he got some good news though. Seems his hard work and pain were not in vain. Philip was honorable mention for the All-District team at the center position. And he made the All-Academic team. Now, I don't think they will be retiring his number 58 jersey over the next few months (unless someone takes a good whiff of it!), but offensive linemen don't play the game for glory and rewards.

I'm not sure who will miss the game more next season, him or me.

Taking Health for Granted

Hi! How are you?

No, I mean it literally... how are you feeling?

My inclination when someone asks how I am is to say "fine." or "I'm good." What I really should do in response is to think about how I feel and come up with some measurement that is meaningful. I used to work with a guy who would answer the question with something like "I'm about a 5." Without the scale and context (5 out of 10 is not so good, but is much better than 5 out of 100!), the number is just that -- a number.

I take good health for granted. Until I get sick, or have sore muscles from exertion, or I have a headache. Then when I feel better after feeling poorly, I really feel good. So I think the moral of the story is that we sometimes have to feel badly in order to appreciate the many days that we feel well.