Just sing

 

The Star Spangled Banner is intended to leave you with a lump in your throat.

Since we are celebrating Memorial Day it seems appropriate to discuss the Star Spangled Banner.  We all have pet peeves.  One of my biggest ones has to be when people who sing the National Anthem during a sporting event and try to make it their own.  My advice, which I often voice from my living room in the general direction of the TV, is just sing.

The song, in my opinion was meant to encourage the country, not to exalt an individual.  Not time to make it your own and bring attention to yourself and help give you career a boost.    

In 1990, Roseanne Barr showed us how not to sing the national anthem before a baseball game with an embarrassing performance laden with inappropriate humor.  Meanwhile, Whitney Houston showed her country the right way before Super Bowl XX when she brought the house down with stirring and most memorable rendition.  Since the National Anthem was written in reverence, it should be sung as such.

Here’s a little history.  For many years, I thought the Star Spangled Banner was written during the Revolutionary War.  However I was mistaken, it was actually written during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, in which we fought the British. 

The Francis Scott Key, who was a thirty five year old attorney at the time, was in the act of successfully helping a client be freed from the British.  However, he was detained by the British because the siege on Fort McHenry was under way.  It was there aboard a neutral vessel, about eight miles away, that the song writer was given a bird’s eye view of the American Fort .

Despite Great Britain’s best attempt to seize the city of Baltimore, by firing upon it ceaselessly for twenty five hours, they could not overtake the Americans.  Swept up by the moment of seeing the flag at Fort McHenry still flying as the smoke cleared in the morning, Francis became inspired and began to write. Thus in an act of pride, Key penned the patriotic words we now know as the Star Spangled Banner.

I don’t know about you, but I get a lump in my throat whenever I hear these words:  And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ;O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Play ball.

The best way to pay tribute to a song writer is to just sing it the song as it was intended.

Swavel

 

Bacon On Monday

          

Make sure your exit strategy for eternity is undersigned by Jesus.

Just a little while ago, my family and I flew into Texas for my son’s graduation weekend.  It was there at the hotel check-in counter I had an epiphany.  As the manager handed my credit card back to me she made mention of complimentary breakfast and  then she uttered this celestial announcement:  Bacon on Monday. 

The words hung in the air like I had just won the lottery.    Who doesn’t love bacon, especially the free kind, and nothing would be better on our last day before a long flight home to Pennsylvania.

Needless to say, the Bacon on Monday was alright, but in many ways it sounded better than it actually tasted.   It got me to thinking though that so many of us are living our lives, me included,  like how we make and eat bacon, leaving a greasy mess.  Many of my relationships, and how I do things when I do my own thing, leave a lot to be desired.  Consequently, I have left a lot of smudges.

Come to think of it, so many of us are so set on doing our own thing and when we get what we want, like that bacon, we are disappointed.  Simply put, heaven is better than anything we can come up with on our best day, even bacon.

Here is my exit strategy on how to live life, while trying to avoid the smell of the bacon, better known as the cares of this life:

Pursue Jesus so closely that you have to hang on to His shirt tail, so that all you can see is His light.  Similar to when I take off my glasses and wander down the halls at work , while I  just keep following the florescent lights overhead.  It never fails; I always end up at one of those bright orange exit signs leading me to the way out.

Truth be told, no one gets out of this life alive: we all die.  Therefore, we all should have an exit strategy when it comes to death, so as to make the most of each precious day we have.

Meeting Jesus is so much better than Bacon on Monday; you’ll forget it was even an option.

Swavel    

 

Rise Above

If every father told his son he was proud of him the world would be a much better place.

Just last weekend, my favorite and only son, Jordan, graduated from LeTourneau University located in East Texas.  I will not mince words, I am proud of him.  

On Facebook there were many who felt a similar sense of pride for my son and a few who greatly admired his ability to persevere so well. Graduating college is huge, but I am even more pleased with how Jordan is learning to rise above life’s difficulties. 

Consequently, during Jordan’s graduation on May 3^rd the guest speaker even inadvertently spoke about how to rise above.  He stood behind the stage’s lectern and made it profusely clear to the students that he believes there are three people in life.  In a way, he was telling the graduates what he thought they needed to do to rise above and be successful in life. 

First, he mentioned that you can be a victim and allow life to make you feel small and overwhelmed when things don’t go your way.  Second, he stated that you can be a manager and try to stay one step ahead of life by planning ahead and living within reason comfortably.  Or thirdly, you can be leader of change, who is willing to take risks and make a difference with his life.

 He made it clear that only the last was truly successful.  The speaker then shared his own difficult life experience and how he overcame it and now was a successful CEO of a large energy company.  Moments later, my wife, two daughters and Jordan’s girlfriend watched as Jordan crossed the stage and became a graduate from LeTourneau, where he had diligently invested the last five years of his young life.  It was a short walk to celebrate a long accomplishment in his life and I have never been more proud of a young, yet so mature young man.

When it comes to rising above one last image of my son looms large. This memory has to do with a red sweatshirt he used to wear often during his high school years on the basketball team. It was a sweatshirt with Michael Jordan’s image on it soaring high above the rim, just like one displayed at the top of this article, which screamed rise above it.  Jordan does not play organized basketball anymore, nor do I believe he has that red sweatshirt. However, I hope and pray that his drive is to be the best at whatever he does, is like Michael Jordan used to exhibit on the basketball court. 

My son’s graduation reminds me that there comes a moment in all our lives, despite the adversity, that we must not give in to difficulty and will ourselves to rise above it.  My son’s actions have proven at least to me that he has chosen the later. We cannot force or produce results in our children.  However, we can fan the flames with the appropriate praise and encouragement when the fire is in full blaze

To rise above our adversity is never a once and done kind of thing, rather it needs to become common place kind of thing.

Swavel

 

Waking up

 

 

In a perfect world all the mornings would begin at 10 am.

To be honest, I hate waking up in the mornings.  However, I tolerate them.  So, my tried and true method, to at least get through, is drinking coffee and lying to myself. Then, the other week I made a profound discovery about waking up that encouraged me.

Just a week or so ago, I went on an architectural scavenger hunt to Center City Philadelphia with my eleven year old daughter and her class from school. My favorite part of the trip had to be walking around inside the historic Wannamaker Building.  Much to my delight there just happened to be a Starbucks coffee house inside. So, we took our place in line and waited.

After a ten minute wait, it was our turn.  During the interval I overheard the barista say something about waking up the customer’s cookie in front of us.  So, when I ordered a coffee for myself and a cookie for my daughter, I made it a point to have him repeat what he had just said. With a smile he repeated this phrase, “Do you mind if I wake up the butter in your cookie?”  My daughter exuberantly said, “Yes,” and he took her cookie warming it up for her in the microwave.  He was right; it certainly did taste better with the butter awakened.

My newly acquainted friend at Starbucks inadvertently reminded me that at times like these, we all need some waking up. However, as stated previously, waking up for me throughout my life has never been a strong suit.  Even when I am awake I still am not totally lucent.  For example, every morning I get up a half hour early, drink some coffee, pray a little and check on some sports’ scores.  Then I can embrace the morning much better and with much more clarity.

Yet, although I struggle with waking up, I believe it is an imperative in all our lives to be more intentional with how we spend our time.  We all need to be at our best for our own sakes and for those we interact with on a daily basis.  We need to be the best listeners.  We need to be kinder and gentler, while being less harsh.  We need to love like there is no tomorrow, especially when it comes to our loved ones.

So, regardless of whatever means you must use to be more awake and alert in your relationships I would implore you to keeping engaging those around you.  To be ignorant and sleepwalk through life should never be an option. 

Wake up and don’t let the barista at Starbucks be nicer to the ones you love than you are.

Swavel