Joannie Rochette a Canadian six-time figure skating champion and bronze medalist in the Olympics made history. She was the first Canadian woman to win a figure skating medal in twenty-two years. It is quite an accomplishment.
Above and beyond that, she had to do it while in the midst of a personal tragedy and stay focused. He mother died suddenly a few days before her participation and she had to make the difficult choice to either stop competing or go forward. She chose the latter and did what she knew her mother would have wanted.
Isn't this what we all must do in our everyday lives? But do we do it? No.
All too often we stop moving and become stagnant in grief, in fear, in poverty, in relationships, in health, and in life in general. We become paralyzed.
When dealing with the human body, whenever there is a blockage that prevents the flow of blood, bile, urine (or anything else that should be moving), trouble sets in and we get sick. The same principle applies to our lives in general. Our minds and bodies were meant to be moving forward and achieving all of the time.
There is a time for quiet, rest, and solitude but not at the expense of forward progress. Ms. Rochette's mother knew this principle and taught her daughter it very well. Now Joannie will mourn her mother with her bronze medal in hand. It will never replace her but it will validate her mother's legacy. Her mom is smiling all of the way.
Take a page out of the Rochette playbook. Keep moving. Love those who love you and even some of those who don't. As long as you are moving forward, you have nothing to fear.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
John Donne and Snow Flakes 2010
The blizzard of 2010 will go down in the record books. It will be highlighted as one of the worst storms in Washington, DC history. It taught us a few lessons.
The first is that a snow flake is one of the smallest of God's creations but when you get a large number of them together, they can be a formidable force. They have certainly done a job on business, industry, and our everyday lives. Many have been without power and others have become dependent on neighbors that they barely acknowledged existed before the storm. "Can I borrow your shovel?"
These snowflakes teach us that we are some how dependent on one another although we sit in our homes writing on Facebook and ordering online in isolation. Without a disaster, do we truly engage other human beings? Do we value them only when we need something from them?
The next lesson is that during this event a prominent Pennsylvania congressman died. He served his country as a Marine on the battlefield and for many years in Congress. He had supporters and detractors as most men do but his death went pretty much under-reported by the media. One radical individual in a Facebook posting celebrated the man's death and called him ugly names. He rejoiced in the man's suffering and demise.
This is where John Donne, the Renaissance man comes into this lesson. His classic statements that "no man is an island" and that "each man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind" ring truer today than ever. We may be twenty-first century intellectuals with "advanced" scientific knowledge but the fact remains: no one gets out of this life alive. During that journey every single person will need the help of another person, often a stranger, to make it through. I wonder what John Donne would have told our radical Facebook friend?
Perhaps he would say that we all share a common beginning and end and that we are all connected in a mysterious way. For him, a priest, that connection was through God. For someone else, it might be through Mother Earth. No matter whether we like it or not we share a commonality with each other. Each one of us will have a turn to suffer and then die and so it is foolish and cruel to ever rejoice in another man's misfortune. "...and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
The Blizzard of 2010 is in its final throws but we must persevere and seek out what is the correct journey for ourselves. Value the people you meet along the way and don't be afraid to collect a few friends who can help you find the way. Going it alone may be impossible. Be a blizzard, not a snowflake.
Check out John Donne- http://isu.indstate.edu/ilnprof/ENG451/ISLAND/
The first is that a snow flake is one of the smallest of God's creations but when you get a large number of them together, they can be a formidable force. They have certainly done a job on business, industry, and our everyday lives. Many have been without power and others have become dependent on neighbors that they barely acknowledged existed before the storm. "Can I borrow your shovel?"
These snowflakes teach us that we are some how dependent on one another although we sit in our homes writing on Facebook and ordering online in isolation. Without a disaster, do we truly engage other human beings? Do we value them only when we need something from them?
The next lesson is that during this event a prominent Pennsylvania congressman died. He served his country as a Marine on the battlefield and for many years in Congress. He had supporters and detractors as most men do but his death went pretty much under-reported by the media. One radical individual in a Facebook posting celebrated the man's death and called him ugly names. He rejoiced in the man's suffering and demise.
This is where John Donne, the Renaissance man comes into this lesson. His classic statements that "no man is an island" and that "each man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind" ring truer today than ever. We may be twenty-first century intellectuals with "advanced" scientific knowledge but the fact remains: no one gets out of this life alive. During that journey every single person will need the help of another person, often a stranger, to make it through. I wonder what John Donne would have told our radical Facebook friend?
Perhaps he would say that we all share a common beginning and end and that we are all connected in a mysterious way. For him, a priest, that connection was through God. For someone else, it might be through Mother Earth. No matter whether we like it or not we share a commonality with each other. Each one of us will have a turn to suffer and then die and so it is foolish and cruel to ever rejoice in another man's misfortune. "...and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
The Blizzard of 2010 is in its final throws but we must persevere and seek out what is the correct journey for ourselves. Value the people you meet along the way and don't be afraid to collect a few friends who can help you find the way. Going it alone may be impossible. Be a blizzard, not a snowflake.
Check out John Donne- http://isu.indstate.edu/ilnprof/ENG451/ISLAND/
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