like father, like son

like father, like son
Originally uploaded by rod lewis

I've enjoyed watching Jack process through precisely the same steps as I did in this tiny area of life for several years now. But it has all ramped up these past 3 weeks as I've watched the culmination of his work here at the end of his senior year.
I've bubbled with pride as I've watched his performance peak at exactly the time it should. I've felt deep emotions with him, simply because I've felt them before.
Track is a special sport because its main focus of competition is within each individual. Of course, to everyone watching, it appears as if the athletes are competing against one another. But don't be fooled, you're witnessing each and every athlete competing against himself together with all the others.
Of course, this is not said to diminish the importance of other sports that teach us to find our place, and to contribute within team and community, but track provides the opportunity to struggle within yourself to strengthen your contribution to team and community.
The track is a microscope that focusses weakness, laziness, fault, victory, overcoming, and success exactly where it must be dealt with - on each individual on the team. And it forces it to be addressed by the only appropriate person - the individual.
Perhaps, only when we learn to compete with ourselves are we equal to the task of contributing to team and community.

become who you are

Our culture for quite some time has told us that we can become anything we want to become. These days, in our product-oriented world, the same concept is expressed by “you can buy anything you want to buy.” Perhaps for some time, these were merely two side-by-side attitudes. But I truly believe that today we’ve melded the two concepts.
Once upon a time, people educated themselves by sitting under the teaching, and being around people who knew what they wanted to know, who understood what they wanted to understand. We gathered knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and set about assimilating it ourselves. These days, we buy a product, a program, a fake transformation at a university, and expect - regardless of what the product is - that upon payment, we will become the result of the product.

You cannot become anything you want to be. There are things that are unavailable to you. You can become what you are supposed to be. But that is going to take a lot of commitment, devotion, hard work, and perseverance. No, you cannot buy commitment, devotion, hard work, and perseverance. Yes, it would be much easier to buy what you can’t become.
Don’t be fooled.
You will not be convinced that you’ve become what you’ve bought. Unconvinced, you’ll be burdened with the extra effort required to pretend like you’re convinced you are what you bought.
You’ll be burdened with the extra effort required to convince others that you’re what you bought.
You’ll be burdened by the extra effort required to deal with the knowledge that neither you, nor anyone else is truly convinced that you are what you bought.

Why would you want all those burdens? Why not simply become what you’re supposed to be? And gird your loins, because it’s a lot of hard work.