I Am Third

  I've been reading this book I Am Third, by Gale Sayers.  It's one of those books that I think is important for all men to read at some point in their life.  A book that is almost a religious text.

  I get a lot of the books you guys read throughout the year on ebay.  I buy what's called "book lots," assortments of books on the cheap.  (Yes, I buy these books with my own money.  Appreciate.)  This came in a "football" lot.  I thought a bunch of football books would be a great addition to my library.

  I started off kind of slow with this book.  It's written in a pretty straightforward style--almost simplistic.  I normally don't like books that are so "here it is."  I like figurative language and lots of stuff that makes you think.

  However, once I got into this thing, it's really affected me as a person.  Gale Sayers lived by a mantra, a mantra which should be familiar to you guys as Delbarton students: I AM THIRD.  That is, God is first, my friends are second, and I am third.  It's a motto the Brian Fleury used to live by, and encouraged everyone around him to live by. 



You can find the book on Amazon.com

  It seems so simple, almost boy-scouty.  But I got to thinking, how much do I put others ahead of myself in my life.  Admittedly, I'm a pretty self-absorbed person.  When something interferes with my teaching or my coach, it really pisses me off.  I have a big ego.

  And here was this guy, Gale Sayers, maybe the greatest running back of his time.  But he's not some big Terrel Owens kind of guy.  He's got a job in the off-season, a great family man, and he just wants to do his best and compete for his team.  He doesn't consider himself special, just blessed.  When his career is cut short (HE MADE THE HALL OF FAME AFTER 5 YEARS OF PLAYING!), he doesn't blame anyone, he doesn't get angry, he just accepts it.

  I think sometimes we make life very complicated.  It's not.  We make it complicated because we don't have the courage to just do the right thing and hold ourselves accountable when we don't. 

  It's not often you read a book that affects the way you interact with the world, but that should be your goal.  Don't just read for entertainment.  Read for enlightenment, read for change, read to become a better person. 



This is why they called him "Magic."  LEGIT!

Coach Desplaines' favorite video

Screw it, Red Bull time...

What makes a blog?

Ok, this is supposed to be the big example post for my classroom.  "See kids, here's a perfect example of exactly what I want you to do.  I am perfection; envy me."  . . . not exactly.
  In truth I'm as new to this blogging thing as all of my students.  I've read blogs, I know what one is, I can define what I would like to see, but I've never done it before.  This is just my deal, my experience, how I manifested my reading experience onto a web page.  Everyone is different, that's the great thing about it.
  

  So, to answer the question at hand...something about summer reading experience...my most potent reading experience came from reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind in Italy. 

  I went to Italy with my girlfriend during the no contact period, and boy was it great.  No teenagers (at least none that I was responsible for), and tons of food.  One day I counted that we stopped to eat 8 times.  That's a lot of antipasto.

   Now, I don't know how many of you actually read The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, but I recommend it highly.  It's a touching book that has a lot to say.  In it, there's an enormous famine.  I've never experienced anything like this, but William describes it in heartwrenching detail.  I got very emotional and very invested listening to William describe how his family and his country suffered, all over something so simple.  For William, every minute of every day was spent thinking about eating.  Hmmm...sounds familiar. 

  
   So did I feel guilty as a rich westerner, stuffing my face while reading about an African famine.  Yeah, I guess I did, but my real emotion wasn't so cliched.  Being in a culture (Italian), that treated food with such reverence and care, that had the entire day built around meals, made me really appreciate what it is to eat, to have nourishment.  As Catholics, we're supposed to thank God for our "daily bread," but how many of us are really sincere with that thanks?  Not me, certainly.  Food is one of those things that we all take for granted, yet it's THE thing, the most important thing in our lives.  We can be deprived of anything besides food. 
  I don't have a whole lot of real cogent political thought on this matter.  I'm not big into action or politics or "we should be doing this."  But it really makes you think: before we help anybody with anything...shouldn't we be helping people get their "daily bread?"  What could be more worthwhile?
  With that in mind, here's a here's a really cool website called "Free Rice."  You answer basic questions and for every question you answer right, the website donates 10 grains of  rice to people who need it.  Try the "grammar" or "vocabulary."  Make sure to change the level to "5."