He is writing about baseball...........

 

........but it is a more apt description of football:

Sport, they said, is morally serious because mankind’s noblest aim is the loving contemplation of worthy things, such as beauty and courage. By witnessing physical grace, the soul comes to understand and love beauty. Seeing people compete courageously and fairly helps emancipate the individual by educating his passions.

-George F. Will, Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball

Choices.........................

 When the choice is between effective and smooth, choose effective.

-Michael Wade

savor.......................

 We are obsessed with optimization. Professionally, most of us are under considerable pressure to produce. Do more, better. Faster. Regardless of your line of work, you likely have a to-do list. And, if you’re anything like me, it is never-ending. There is always unfinished business. Another opportunity. Something important needing my attention. But our lives should be more than a list of tasks that we just trying to power through. Instead, we need to treat our days for what they are: fleeting gifts to savor.

-Joy Lere, from here

    via

Easier too...................

 ................Persistent, gentle pressure almost always outperforms sudden, violent blows.

-Seth Godin

The amazing thing.......................

 .........................is that it looks like he made it.

Now here's...........................

...........................................................a tradition worth emulating.

Grace under pressure....................

    via

Harder than it seems........................

"How to give a five-minute presentation: Give a four-minute presentation and take your time."

-Seth Godin

in the scene.................................

“In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. 
      On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.” 


-Robert M. Pirsig,  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

the radiant stars......................

Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

-Martin Luther King, Jr., concluding one of the most amazing letters ever written

Compelled.................................

“The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” 

-Napoleon Hill

Privilege and adventure...........

      I cannot pretend I am without fear.  But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude.  I have loved and been loved;  I have been given much and I have given something in return;  I have read and traveled and thought and written.  I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.
      Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

-Oliver Sacks,  as excerpted from Gratitude

Pretty sure he is not talking about Kasich...

 Now things almost seem to have reversed.  Now conservatives increasingly seem to rely on the “reptilian brain” (and a leading GOP candidate who will not be named (to avoid a horror show in the comment section) seems to rely on almost nothing but his reptilian brain.)

-as extracted from this Scott Sumner post, which sends warm regards to President Obama for his "cool, cerebral style" in responding to the Brussels bombing.

Grace under pressure..............

"What such a man needs is not courage but nerve control, cool headedness.  This he can only get by practice."
-Theodore Roosevelt

Tranquil courage...................................

     When we aim high, pressure and stress obligingly come along for the ride.  Stuff is going to happen that catches us off guard, threatens or scares us.  Surprises (unpleasant ones, mostly) are almost guaranteed.  The risk of being overwhelmed is always there.
      In these situations, talent is not the most sought-after characteristic.  Grace and poise are, because these two attributes precede the opportunity to deploy any other skill.  We must possess, as Voltaire once explained about the secret to the great military success of the first Duke of Marlborough, that "tranquil courage in the midst of tumult and serenity of soul in danger, which the English call a cool head."

-Ryan Holiday,  The Obstacle Is The Way:  The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

Majestic...............................

You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

-The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., as excerpted from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Full text of the letter is here.

One thing we might look forward to...............

........................................................in a Trump presidency.

via

Understanding.......................................

      Much of the Bible is confusing, but the most important parts aren't.  Sometimes I wonder if folks keep arguing about the confusing parts so they don't have to get started doing the simple parts.  So a long time ago, your father and I decided that if a certain scripture turns our judgment outward instead of inward, if it requires us to worry about changing others instead of ourselves, if it doesn't help us become better lovers of God and life and others, it it distracts us from what we are supposed to be doing down here - finding God in everyone, feeding hungry people, comforting the sick and the sad, giving whatever we have to give, and laying down our lives for our friends - then we assume we don't understand it yet, and we get back to what we do understand.

-Glennon Doyle Melton,  Carry On, Warrior:  The Power of Embracing Your Messy Beautiful Life

A ministry of presence..............

We are all called at certain moments to comfort people who are enduring some trauma.  Many of us don't know how to react in such situations, but others do.  In the first place, they show up.  they provide a ministry of presence.  Next, they don't compare.  the sensitive person understands the each person's ordeal is unique and should not be compared to anyone else's.  Next, they do practical things - making lunch, dusting the room, washing the towels.  Finally, they don't try to minimize what is going on.  They don't attempt to reassure with false, saccharine sentiments.  They don't say that the pain is all for the best.  They don't search for silver linings.  They do what wise souls do in the presence of tragedy and trauma.  They practice a passive activism.  They don't bustle about trying to solve something that cannot be solved.  The sensitive person grants the sufferer the dignity of her own process.  She lets the sufferer define the meaning of what is going on.  She just sits simply through the nights of pain and darkness, being practical, human, simple, and direct.
-David Brooks, The Road to Character

Speaking of Carlyle.........................

courtesy of