The Forest for the Trees

Summer Begins I'm a lucky guy.  As a teacher I get a little time off in the summer.  I'm not going to lie, its one of the best parts of my job.   The past five summers have begun with a trip to East Lansing, MI.  I know it isn't as glamorous as Key West or Paris, but for a Michigan State graduate and Spartan fan, it's fun nonetheless.   My thirteen year old son, Owen, has attended the Tom Izzo Basketball Day Camp each of the last four years, and it has reaffirmed my belief that developing passions, whether athletic, artistic, intellectual, is and should be about more than just those passions. In this case, the saying "Ball is Life" is the most appropriate, albeit cliche, way to express my understanding. I'd like to walk you through in detail one example of how Coach Izzo and his staff make sure the camp is about more than just basketball.  Then, I will relate a few things he says and suggest a way of applying them to life your...

I wasn't going to plug my class again, but God bless it, yesterday was amazing. The least amazing part was that our colleague, Brad Seeley, ran 50 miles.  I know, least amazing?! Yeah. Least amazing. But he was at the center of it all, running 200 laps around our track in 80 degree weather for 7 hours and 44 minutes. And his fastest lap was his last at 6:28. But other, more amazing things were revolving around Brad's run. More amazing, Brad did it with a genuine smile on his face the whole time. If you haven't met Brad, he's literally the nicest person I've met since Jesus.  Hold that, there was a wonderful old custodian in the church I grew up in named Harry Harwood, R.I.P., who would have given Brad a run for his money as nicest.  But its safe to say Brad is the nicest  living  person I've met. More more amazing was the reason Brad ran 50 miles.  He ran because he wanted to go "On Track to Pack the Pantry".  In other words, he...