June 2006

I’ve just spent the last five days as Coach Shanklin at Duke Univerisity basketball camp. As a matter of fact, I am typing this entry on a very nice ibook in the players lounge. Anyway, I was responsible for coaching, teaching, mentoring, 10 sixth grade boys. It was an amazing experience (my team was 7-0, which is 95% the kids I was given and 5% coaching.)

I’ve always thought the coaching world to be pretty shallow. Grown men, place their identity, all that they are, in the hands of a group of boys and their ability to put a ball in a hoop. Success is defined by wins and losses much more often than character and individual growth. Then I spent a week at Duke. And for the most part, I was reminded that the coahing profession can be very shallow. But it can also be world changing. I love the game of basketball and having spent four years studying under Coach Bob Knight, a Hall of Famer, I know a few things about the game. I’ve had unique basketball experiences that alot of aspiring coaches never get to have. Basketball and coaching are a part of who I am. There are a few coaches out there that still see the game as an opportunity to positively shape the lives of young men and prepare them to positively impact the world. I spent some time with those coaches this week and was reminded of the role that I can play in shaping lives with the knowledge and expereince that I have.

One of those coaches I was able to spend some time with was Coach K, the head coach of Duke. Here are a few of his words of wisdom…

How well you finish shows your character.
Imagination doesn’t have an age limit. When you stop imagining, you stop dreaming, stop having goals.
Courage is the absence of self. Feel fear, and walk through it.

 

“Consciousness precedes Being, and not the other way around, as Marxists (and capitalists) claim.  For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human modesty, and in human responsibility.  Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better…and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed, whether it be ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization, will be unavoidable”

         -Vaclav Havel addressing US Congress in 1990, a few months after Czechoslovakia freed itslef from communist rule.

 

In Paulo Cohelo’s book, The Alchemist, the main character embarks on a journey in search of a hidden treasure.  He discovers that “treasure lies where your heart belongs”, and that the treasure was the journey itself, the discoveries he made, and the wisdom he acquired. 

My wife and daughters embarked on our own journey two years ago that led us to LA and then to Nashville, where we have struggled, rejoiced, fought, cried, become fans of bluegrass music and Jack’s BBQ, and are in the process of discovering that real treasure has nothing to do with personal belongings.  

This week I was offered and accepted a job as a sixth grade teacher, specializing in science and math.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a classroom teacher.  I went to school to be a classroom teacher, I have an education degree.  I do not regret the journey I have taken that led me down paths of searching, for it is the journey that has led me to realize that my heart belongs in the classroom.  Here am I.  Embracing my design, discovering a hidden treasure.    

 It’s difficult to describe the feelings, the knowing that is inside of us.  It’s this quiet assurance that we’ve discovered something invaluable that will shape the rest of our lives.  To me, it’s as if I am becoming comfortable in my own skin, at home in my place on earth for the first time.  Elizabeth and I are celebrating our 7th anniversary this week and on the front of the card she gave me it says, “No one’s grass is as green as ours.”   

Continue on, all of you who pursue that hidden treasure, and Godspeed to you and your journey.

So, I just read back through this and laughed at myself.  What the hell am I talking about.  There definitely is a mystical sense to what is going on in our lives, and I guess that’s what I am trying to express, an unforced rhythm of grace that our lives are starting to live by.  I’m not sure how else to explain it.  If you are there, you’ll know what I mean, and if you are not, this may make no sense, but I pray that someday it will.