Moving On . . .

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/11/03/3498674/texas-rangers-need-cj-wilson-back.html

Check it out . . . I think Galloway is right about some stuff (not so sure about the C.J. discussion he has going on there). I won't "move on," either. I can't just forget it . . . as much as I have tried to.

In the midst of this past season, I realized that I was putting too much of myself into it. I knew that I was investing too much of my time and energies into a baseball team. I had decided that I would back way off of following the Rangers as much next year. And I was even telling myself that during Game 6, before, well, you know what happened.

But a funny thing has happened in the week or so since that fateful game. I am more of a fan now than ever. Now I have definitely come to realize that there needs to be boundaries with my fandom. I need to keep things in balance. But I can't just give up on the Rangers, or quit being as much of a fan, even at the most opportune time ever to give up on them. Being a fan and backing a team is a spirit, an attitude more than it is watching every single pitch of a season.

I think where it all started to turn for me was Game 4. Game 3 was horrific. Having been there in person for the 16-run slaughter by the Cardinals was miserable. And the hours leading up to Game 4 were not very pleasant. But something happened in the parking lot, while tailgating, and on our way walking up to the Ballpark. I suddenly had a feeling. I said that Holland would throw 7 scoreless innings that night. He threw 8 1/3.

Optimism, being positive. Those are not things that the Rangers have always instilled in me (and with good reason). But something happened there, right before Game 4. And something has happened in the time since Game 6 (Game 7 didn't really matter--we were done by that point, anyway--how's that for optimism?). I'm optimistic, I'm looking forward to next year.

Can't wait until pitchers and catchers report in February . . . there's a life lesson in there somewhere.

Cherish Life?

When I tell people the town I live in, many times they say, "Oh yeah, that's where they kill people." Unfortunately, it's true. Huntsville is where the death penalty is played out for inmates on death row. Being a strong opponent of the death penalty, I take no pleasure in this.

I was driving around town, in Huntsville today, and saw a billboard that read: "Cherish Life" at the top, with a picture of a baby below it. Without even having to look back, I knew what the billboard must be referring to. Sure enough. It was about abortion.

Here's what I don't get. People want to apply a certain "ethic" of life to the abortion issue. Their slant is that people should not be intentionally killed, as they apply their line of reasoning to an unborn fetus. But these same people will then say that people who do especially bad things should be killed (i.e. the death penalty).

Now I believe there should be consequences for bad things, particularly evil, sinister things, like murder. But I just do not think it's okay to kill people. How can the same person who says, "cherish life" about babies not apply the same ethic to babies who grow up to be adults? How is it ever okay to kill people?

I Might Be Done with Dr. Pepper

Dr. Pepper now has a commercial for their new drink, Dr. Pepper 10, that proclaims the drink is not for women. I understand what they are trying to do: they are trying to market this drink towards men. I get that. But at the expense of women? I expect that many women are offended, and rightfully so.

We do not need to be tied to gender roles, defined by anyone. In the book of Galatians, Paul declares that: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Human-made categories do not need to define us. If a man finds that he is somewhat "macho," as culture defines it, that is okay. But a man that is not macho need not feel that he is not okay, just as women who might not fit into culturally-defined roles does not need to feel less worthy.

I guess that is in my mind because of my life situation right now. I am searching for a position, while my wife has a great job. We are happy and things are going well. I wish I had a job; but I do not despair that I do not. Many people that we meet and talk with think our situation is odd, because I do not have a job that our lives are centered around. In that sense, our situation probably goes against much of what our culture (our traditional culture) has said is "okay."

We do not need to be tied to what others think of our lives, such as the way others define gender roles.