The Summer of Brick Begins!

A couple of blocks away on the Riverwalk.

     Well we spent our first weekend in the city and the "Summer of Brick" has official begun, kinda.  Since we are only going to have the apartment for two months it was a little bit of a treat to be able to get in a few days early and to get a taste of city living over the Memorial Day weekend.  So back to the suburbs to finish off the school year and then we can pretty much stay downtown as much as we want.  However, I was loading events into my Outlook Calendar for the month of June and it is going to be hectic.  We have graduation parties to go to and to give, school orientation, weddings, etc. so the Sienna or "loser cruiser" as my son likes to call it might be logging the same amount of miles as it would without the move.

Entertaining our first guests.

   
      We are fortunate in that the apartment that we are renting is furnished but we still had to move in some essentials like a t.v. and extra bed so our first day was the typical logistical nightmare of getting a van's worth of stuff up a small elevator to the 51st floor.  In reality it made it feel much more permanent and less like a hotel stay so I kind of enjoyed it.  This woman I know works only 3 blocks away and so it's not a completely unknown neighborhood to us, but we did spend the rest of the day orienting ourselves and locating grocery stores and the fastest beach access routes.

I have a picture of the two of us
in front of this fountain when we
were on our first date.

     On Sunday we went back out to the suburbs to go to church and then turned back around so that we could entertain our first house guests.  Or actually they stopped in long enough to change and head out to eat and then go to the beach, but still nice to get to show off the apartment and the rooftop sundeck.  Then we did some walking and some more exploring.  So far our eating has been limited to fast food places like M Burger (4 of 5 bricks for their burgers and strawberry milkshake) and I have an absolute weakness for Qdoba's breakfast chorizo burritos (they serve breakfast in the city but not in the suburbs) which I had Sunday morning before church.

People we don't know
kayaking the river. 

     Monday was awesome!  We got up early and walked/jogged eight miles along the lakefront.  We saw Navy Pier, the Planetarium, McCormick Place, Soldier Field, Buckingham Fountain, the skyline, but mostly the people. I can people watch all day long.  I think this is going to be the thing I like most about this summer, just walking around a big city.  A quick shower and we went back to Lisle to make sure our house was still standing (it was) and then we went to DeKalb to watch the girls softball team play in the Super Sectionals, unfortunately they lost.


     So now a busy week finishing off the school year and then back to the city.  I'm very excited.

Beautiful skyline, beautiful woman I know.

Cubs, Colts, Legends, and Brick

This picture is just so wrong.

     Ryne Sandberg and Peyton Manning are not really athletic contemporaries.  Sandberg last stepped onto the field at Wrigley in 1997.  Manning began his career in Indy in 1998.  One played baseball and the other plays football.  One was good while the other is IMHO the best to ever play his game.  But they do have two important things in common as far as I'm concerned.  The first is that in their respective sports they are the two people that I most enjoyed watching play their game.  The second is that both of them got completely screwed over by their long time team.

As is this.

 

     Any Cubs fan that was watching in the 80s and 90s knows what Ryno meant to that team.  He was the heart and soul of an organization that at times seemed right on the verge of turning things around.  Even during the dismal seasons Sandberg was the perennial ray of hope and the building block and the veteran to stabilize the club house.  He chased records and made all star teams.  He was the quiet leader on and off the field.  And even though he had personal problems that probably affected some of his career decisions, at heart his fans like me saw him as the ultimate Cub.  So the treatment that he got from the Cubs new organization last year of not even granting him an interview for the open manager position was both shocking and disheartening.  He deserved better and I'm pretty sure that history is going to show the Cubs that once again they have made a bad decision.

     But that doesn't even register with the level of disrespect that Peyton Manning received from the Colts this season.  I understand that no one player makes a team and that no one player is bigger than the team.  But that doesn't mean that all players are equal and their impact over time can't be measured and appreciated.  Peyton Manning is the best football player in history.  He redefined the position of quarterback.  He was the ultimate community guy for Indianapolis.  Not only was he the face of the Colts he was the face of the NFL.  And he got punked.  I'm not going to take the time to recreate the timeline on this because anyone that cares about this topic already knows it, but I will offer my take on why it happened.  I believe the Jim Irsay felt betrayed.  He is an old hippy that has more money than all but 311 Americans.  He loves the rock star image that his money provides for him.  I think he also loved thinking that Peyton and he were BBFs.  But when Peyton supported the players during the lockout and then was not completely forthcoming with him about his injuries, I think Irsay took it personally and decided that he would make a statement by getting rid of Manning no matter what the fallout might be.

     So both guys deserved much better from teams that they played such big parts in during their careers.  One wanted to come home to manage and the other just wanted to end his career in the same uniform.  Where is the loyalty?  But it has lead me to an interesting personal place, I'm still a Cubs fan but not a Colts fan.  So you might ask, "where is my loyalty"?  In the case of Peyton Manning, with him.  I was ready to embrace whatever team was lucky enough to land Manning after he was released by the Colts.  So now I'm a Bronco fan.  My greatest hope for this NFL season is that the Colts go 0 - 16 and that the Broncos win the Super Bowl and that when Peyton throws a record breaking pass to win the game the televisions cameras cut to a live feed of a broken Jim Irsay with his face in his hands finally looking up to the camera and mouthing the words, "what did I do".

     As for the Cubs we'll see where I'm at when Ryno gets his first major league manager's gig.

What Would Today Brick Say to 18 Year Old Brick?

I like to think that
I haven't changed that
much, but I know better.

     .  

    Many of the conversations that I've been having lately revolve around the fact that we have a son who will be graduating from high school in a matter of days.  Since he is our only child this will not only be the first time this will happen it will also be the last.  So some of my friends have been very free with their advice and in most cases it is appreciated.  One friend in particular said something to me the other day that I found especially provocative.  He said that one thing he had done when his oldest son had graduated was to give him life advice by answer the question, "what would you tell your 18 year old self".  Now this is something that I have actually contemplated before, not in relation to advising my son, but just being reflective on the life lessons I've learned since those heady days of my youth when I was made of Kevlar and possessed the wisdom of Solomon.


 So I won't go into great detail as to how I would advise an 18 year old Brick, but here are a couple of the highlights:

• Don't be so afraid to explore your relationship with God.
• Stop being a jerk to people just because it appears that you're getting away with it.  The reality is that people are not so enamored with you that they will put up with your crap forever.
• Work a little harder and challenge yourself every once in a while in areas of your life other than sports. 
• Date, don't go steady.
• Your gut instinct about going into teaching is right, looking at other options is not a waste of time but you were meant to be a teacher.
• Don't ever let yourself get over 200 lbs.
• Take all your disposable income and invest in Apple stock.

There is more but I come off looking bad in most of it so I will just leave it at the above abridged version.

     The next step was to then take this advice and see if it would be useful in passing along to my son to help him avoid the pitfalls and pursue the paths to prosperity and happiness that I have enjoyed, well happiness at least.  The conclusion that I came to was that it really didn't apply, at least not specifically.  Although I see myself in my son in many ways, I also see my wife in him.  And more than that I see his uniqueness.  My problems are not his problems.  And that's good.  So here is another life lesson.  No two people live the same experience and so "one size fits all" platitudes might not be all that they are advertised as.  It's not that I can't advise him or that my friend can't advise his son, but their world is a different place.  And so I can pass this stuff along and someone might find bits and pieces of it useful, but this is specific to the life that I have lived and only anecdotally applicable to others if circumstances align.  Don't get me wrong, most people can benefit from the big ideas here: get to know God, be nice, work hard, don't get too serious with girls too young, follow your passion, and take care of yourself.  But the specifics are not going to speak so directly to anyone else like they do to 18 year old Brick.

Creative Writing Brick

In the movie "Throw Momma From the Train" Owen takes a creative writing class.  I think some day I will do

Owen loves his Momma

 the same thing.  I love reading those pulp fiction "who done its".  Also in the movie Larry has trouble getting started with a book he is writing because he can't seem to come up with the perfect first line.  Well I've started my book and not only do I have the perfect first line, I have a great hook and twist.  Now please be aware that I am very generous with words like "perfect" and "great" when it comes to critiquing myself and I have no idea if "hook" and "twist" are words real writers ever use, but, like my book, I'm just making it up as I go.  So here is the first page of 

Walk Reading

I had never hunted another human being before.  Rarely had I hunted anything and most of the time hunting for me was an exercise in extreme futility.  But today I was determined to find my human prey, take aim, and squeeze the trigger.  I was feeling elated at the prospect as I stalked through the green and brown underbrush.  The planning for this ambush had not necessarily been meticulous because meticulosity implies a certain level of expertise or at least aptitude.  I had neither.  But I was motivated and I had devoted a great deal of time over the past few weeks to visualizing the event.  Not the aftermath or the consequences, but the actual thing.  I realized how bad I wanted to do this. 

This was not just a random victim.  I knew the person that I envisioned on the other side of the gun sight and I was taking great pleasure in the thoughts going through my mind of seeing the look of pain and confusion as he realized that it was me that had shot him.  As I crawled behind a rotting log that smelled of earth and decay I heard a sound to my right.  I flattened against the ground taking care that the muzzle of my gun was pointed up.  I didn’t really enjoy sprawling on the ground in June.  The air was still and the sun was hot.  Sweat trickled into my eyes and stung them.  I tried to wipe them clear, but only managed to spread dirt on my already filthy face.   Sharp blades of grass stung my hands as I crawled to the end of the log.  I looked to the west and the horizon was blocked by a copse of evergreens.  Just to right of the trees was a dirt path that looked well worn and recently tread upon.  “He is going to come down that trail anytime now and then he’s mine”, I thought and a smile creased my face.

I didn’t like having to wait for my opportunity because it gave me too much time to think.  In the vision that I had run through my mind hundreds of times before I didn’t have to wait.  He walked in front of me, I shot him, he looked and saw it was me, I turned and walked off.  End of game, end of story, end of my desire to exact a semester’s worth of revenge.  My mind kept dancing around tough guy catch phrases that I had either heard in the theater or on my television or better yet new ones that I was coming up with on the spot.  Arnold, “You know Sully when I said I was going to kill you last?  I lied.”  Clint, “Go ahead, make my day.”  Me, “Time to pay your reality check.” 

It wasn’t good to let my mind wonder like this, I needed to stay focused.  At best I was only going to get one chance at this.  

Universal Truth v. Cultural Relativism

      No pictures, no catchy Brick related title, just an issue that I feel like writing a little bit about tonight.  I have been reading several articles today regarding North Carolina's ban and Mr. Obama's "new" stance on gay marriage and now it seems to have reached Facebook.  I've read several short comments and a couple of long debated threads both of support and derision regarding the President's announcement and frankly it has me smiling a little bit to read what my "Facebook friends" think on this issue.  The main reason for my bemusement is that I would have guessed wrong about which side of this issue these people would have come down on in about half of the cases.  I also find it intriguing that this is the issue that is stirring the passions of this particular group of people since very few of my friends are gay and would want to avail themselves of the opportunity to get married given the chance.  So it leads me to speculate on the cause of the polarizing nature of this and like issues of moral or ethical standards and why so many people have opinions on these issues even when they do not directly have any bearing on their own lives.

      One of the most consistent things I do when teaching my Honors US History classes is conduct debates.  Two people are randomly selected and given their side of the debate while the rest of the class is free to choose the side that they wish to write a position paper on regarding the debate prompt.  During the actual debate the class forms a circle with the two debaters in the center and the rest of the class lined up behind the debater that supports their position.  Although the two people debating do most of the talking, everyone in the class is given the opportunity to rebut the person with an opposing opinion.  And all of the students help in writing a closing argument for their side to conclude the debates.  The prompts are based on historic events and usually are pretty straight forward questions of ethics such as "was the war in Vietnam justified" or "were the industrialists of the late 19th Century Robber Barons or Captains of Industry".  The point for the students is to force them to take a side and defend it.  Since the prompts are all centered on an issue of ethical or moral behavior the very first debate each year is "are your morals based on Universal Truths or on Cultural Relativism".  This usually freaks the kids out and it generates at least one or two parent phone calls each year.  It will be the first time for most of these students to be faced with a philosophical question of this nature and then be required to research and support a position.  It really is one of the best things I do in the classroom and the thing we do that causes the most student agida.  So when I see people voluntarily debating these issues of ethics of their own free will I chuckle a little bit because more than a few of the people that I am referring to are former students.  It does a heart good.

     And so I want to present my argument in favor of the concept of Universalism.  The belief in Universal Truth basically means that certain things are either right or wrong regardless of public opinion or evolution or consensus or any other man-made philosophy.  These things transcend human thought because they are well... universal.  Not every issue is subject to a universal truth.  Many acts of humans are basically ambiguous.  For example is it not inherently and universal right to eat eggs for breakfast and sinful and wrong to eat pancakes.  That is a choice without a corresponding universal determination of the ethical and moral weight of right or wrong.  But there are somethings in life that I believe are truly right or wrong, good or bad, something to emulate or something to avoid, for everyone in every situation for all time.  And from those universal truths stem our ability as humans to construct ethical codes for actions that fall somewhere in between the universal and the ambiguous.  So what things are subject to universal truth?  I believe that they are issues where an individual with malice and forethought seeks to harm another individual.  So it would be universally wrong to murder someone else.  It would be universally wrong to physically attack or rape another person.  It would be universally wrong to steal from another person.  It would be universally wrong to lie to another person.  Since I am a Christian I can pretty easily wrap this into a neat little maxim for myself called the Golden Rule.  But I won't try to justify Universalism based on a "faith" based religion because if you don't share that faith my arguments along those lines will be meaningless to you.  I will attempt to argue Universalism on the basis of logic.

     To begin I think there must be an understanding of the other side to this debate and that is Cultural Relativism or the Fletcheran offshoot sometimes referred to as "situational ethics".  Relativists believe that there are no universal truths only human agreement of the nature of right and wrong.  Therefore what is determined to be right depends on all of the circumstances surrounding a particular action.  What is the cultural norm for the person making the decision?  Are there mitigating circumstances that might tend to lead the person to believe that their actions, although at times considered wrong, might serve a greater good?  Is the person making their decision based on love?  When all variables are weighed it is then the responsibility of the decision maker to determine the rightness of the action based on his best assessment of the relevant data and anticipated outcome of the decision.  This is just a thumbnail sketch of Relativism and not a particularly flattering one so if this is your particular bent than I will be happy to give you equal time to make the case for your philosophical belief.

      So why do I believe that Univeralism is true and Relativism is false?  I have two logical arguments to support Universalism.  The first argument is that without a universal truth no action of another person can ever be judged as wrong.  Since individuals are free to determine for themselves the rightfulness of their actions based on the available information they can always claim and truly believe that what they were doing was correct for the given situation.  And even if there is a consensus of opposing opinion about a particular action, it can be argued that a consensus can change over time.  Therefore calling something wrong today might leave you in the position of having to amend that opinion if, overtime and circumstances, a new consensus is formed.  (i.e. gay marriage)  It is hard to believe that the public consensus would ever change enough to accept as correct the actions of someone like Hitler, but remember it was the democratic process that brought him to the office of Chancellor of Germany and that was after he spelled out his political and social agenda in his book Mien Kampf. So my point is that within his community he felt, and the community supported, his final solution because it would serve a greater good for the Third Reich.  A Cultural Relativist would have to consider that before condemning his actions as wrong.  An interesting "catch 22" to this argument is also that while a Universalist is not only free, but also obligated, to charge a Relativist as being wrong a Relativist can not charge a Universalist as being wrong because within the community of Universalists that philosophy is the accepted norm.


     The second logical argument that I present to support Universalism is that within Universalism you never have to assume an unknown outcome like you do within the Relativists' world.  Let me use an example that I typically present to my classes:


 One day while your sister is taking a nap in a hammock in the backyard a 6'8 hulking man rings the front door bell and you answer it.  He is covered in gore and is holding a 12 inch knife also dripping blood.  In a very sinister voice he demands, "where is your sister?"  Since you like your sister you are reluctant to tell him the truth knowing that she is completely vulnerable in the backyard.  And even though you have been brought up to believe that lying is wrong, certainly this would be a case where telling this guy that she just went to Hawaii for an extended vacation would be the right thing to do to save her from whatever evil this monster has in mind for her.  So you lie believing that you know what would have happened had you told the truth and assuming that what you have done is morally and ethically correct.  What you didn't know was that this man is actually a very good friend of your sister and he had just been fighting with a guy even bigger and uglier that wants to kill your sister and this real bad guy is on his way over to your house.  Meanwhile because of your lie the only guy big enough to protect you sister is at the airport trying to catch the next flight to Honolulu.


     So how would a Universalist deal with this same situation?  If a universalist has determined that lying is wrong in every situation then he would not lie.  He would have the option of not answering.  He could question the person regarding his motives.  He could slam the door and run to the backyard to warn his sister.  None of these things would be considered Universally wrong.  And even if the protector goes away and the harmer comes and harms the responsibility is not on the shoulders of the person that did not lie, the responsibility is with the person that did the harm.  You might want to argue that he is culpable for not preventing the attack, but did he truly possess the ability to prevent it?  Sometimes bad things will happen even when the right things are done.  That doesn't mean that they weren't the right thing to do.

     So back to the issue of gay marriage or at least back to the moral dilemma that this issue seems to have generated for the average American Facebook friend of Brick House.  I think I can identify several groups on both sides to this issue.  On the pro gay marriage side I think I see Relativists that want to support and show love and acceptance to this particular constituency and also want to deny Univeralists their belief in the wrongness of the act and in so doing are violating their own basic tenant of not judging as wrong the actions of a different community.  On the other side I see Univeralists mis-identifying a legal issue as a moral/ethical issue and resenting the fact that their moralizing opinions are being challenged.  Now I am not trying to be condescending to either side and my opinions are just that, my opinions.  I also am not speaking for any Christian community or all knowing pontificating brain trust.  This is just my take on this debate.  In essence I kinda look at it as a non-issue.  I have not commented on any of the postings or given my opinions on any of the threads.  I figure that this little isolated corner of cyberspace is all mine to wax philosophically within and so I intend to limit myself and my take on life to only those people that have had the intestinal fortitude to read through this entire blog.  And in so doing you have earned the right to comment so please do and have a good day.

The Sustainable Brick

Big boy

     There is a word that has gained a lot of traction in the green world of conservation these days, sustainability.  It's a good word and one that I have used to motivate myself over the past several months.  However, for me it is not about renewable energy sources or environmental impact studies.  I have used the word to try and remember a commitment that I made to myself around Christmas last year to get fit (not just the cop out "fitter") by my Birthday (10/25/62 in case you're wondering and I will happily provide gift suggestions upon request).  The reason that I made this commitment to myself is that right now I can't do things I want to do physically because I'm too fat.  I can be harshly realistic about that fact because I don't have to be fat.  I'm not suffering from an addiction, my physiology does not prevent me from losing weight, and my environment is not filled with enablers and discouragers.  I'm fat because I eat too much and exercise too little.  I have lost and gained hundreds of pounds in my lifetime and at Christmas of this year I was the fattest I've ever been.  Frankly I scared myself when I stepped on the scale.  So after we returned from a vacation in Key West I revisited all of the diets and exercise programs that I have tried over the years and gleaned from them the most successful aspects and started to apply them to a program of lifestyle modifications that I was committing to for the rest of my life.  
      

Still a big boy but 35 pounds less of one.

      I don't know about you but saying that I'm committing to something for the rest of my life is a pretty daunting statement for me.  It reminds me of marriage vows.  And I started to doubt myself in terms of sustainability (not with my marriage vows, with the diet thing).  Can I really break the bad habits of a life time?  Well, for four months I did pretty well.  I committed to going to the health club and actually working out.  I held my calories under 2000 a day.  I drank 5 glasses of water throughout the day.  And I lost weight. Then last month I got sick and I stopped going to the health club (at one time I had gone 65 days without missing) and I stopped counting my calories and drinking water because I told myself it was okay to take a break while I wasn't feeling well.  And I stopped losing weight for a couple of days and then for a couple of days I started to gain back some weight and then I stopped getting on the scale.  And this is the pattern that I have gone through so many times in my life that I can't even count them.  

     But I think here is where the pattern can be broken.  I'm not discouraged or disgusted with myself the way that I have been in the past when I hit a critical stage of motivation or de-motivation.  In fact I just got back from the gym and I'm drinking water as I write this.  Falling off the wagon doesn't mean that you have to go back to the barn.  (I have know idea what that is supposed to mean).  And so I'm still committed because this isn't a diet based on time parameters.  I'm going to try and sustain this permanently and that means that these lapses of commitment are the exception and not the rule.  If I can convince myself of this then I think a healthy lifestyle is sustainable.  I promise to post a picture on my Birthday for comparison.  (yeah right, like I'm not going to post pictures of myself).  


(did you notice all of the parenthetical thoughts in this post?)
     

Reader's Digest Disrespects the Brick

      I'm a big fan of the "slice of life" stories found in Reader's Digest.  These humorous anecdotes sent in by the readers most often strike me as events that for the authors become part of their personal lore and are retold countless times whenever the opportunity arises such as cornering an unsuspecting victim at a party.  I have one of these that I think is exactly right for RD; they seemingly think different.  I'll let you be the judge:

      "I had been teaching at a local high school for a few years when I first started dating my wife.  The first time she took me with her to her church in the same town I was being greeted by several of the parishioners who made some small talk and then welcomed me and moved on.  One such gentleman asked me what I did.  I replied that I had been at the high school for the last six years.  He responded, 'Don't let it bother you.  It took me five years to get out of there myself.'"

     Now I ask you, doesn't that have Reader's Digest written all over it?