pigletpaper.com

One other thing I have to say today, mainly because it’s been a week and Ronn hasn’t said anything. Perhaps it’s old news for you, but to us, it’s still NEWs.

Midland Christian won the State Championship a week ago Saturday! I have just been dying to write about the experience, but it’s really more Ronn’s glory than mine and I thought he might write about it. Maybe he still will.

I must admit football has never really been a focal point in my life primarily because I just didn’t understand it. But admitedly, I was focused on the wrong aspect of the game. I just never saw the point in a bunch of boys clanging helmets like antlers in pursuit of a ball. Today I know that the game of football is about much more than touchdowns and field goals. It’s about relationships. It seems as though, once again, I am reminded that the fruit of life is in relationships.

This season, I had the privilege of being down on the sidelines in and amongst the team. And I can’t really say while I was down there I built any relationships, but what I can say is I got to watch relationships being built. How often do we really ever get the privilege of truly watching something grow? I don’t know about you, but I am usually too busy for that.

Although football hasn’t been a source of passion for me, it has been for Ronn. And this year he decided to pursue one of his dreams. To coach with his dad. If I have learned something that I occasionally remember, it is that other people have interests and dreams different from mine. I wanted to be supportive of Ronn’s dreams, but I also recognize that you can cross one of those invisible lines from being supportive to being obnoxiously smothering and I didn’t want to do that. So what I did was embrace the idea of taking pictures of Ronn and his dad in action of their passion.

At first I was lost. Out of my comfort zone. Everything happened so fast and my camera was so slow. But as the season got seated in it’s groove, I began to discover the opportunity in the art. I began to figure out why I was down there. The conflict of trying to watch the game and take pictures of it became obviously ridiculous. I could watch the game from the stands, but I couldn’t capture a story from up there. I couldn’t witness all that goes into a game from a distance. At some point, although I can’t clearly tell you when, I realized that my purpose for being on the sidelines was to gain perspective. Perspective on football and what it’s really all about.

I must admit that I have never really aspired to take pictures, let alone pictures at football games. But such is the opportunity I was given, so I did what I could with a camera that was not designed for what I was doing. By improvising to the situation, adjusting to what was, I learned alot about things that now intrigue me, but I would have never selectively chosen.

I now have a new appreciation for the eye of a photographer. I learned that photography is the art of telling a story. Focusing on the things that most of us see in an instant and feel for a lifetime. Capturing the very essence of those split second expressions that mark a person’s life. You wouldn’t believe how hard that is! By the time I saw it, it was already gone. But with a determination to figure out this very thing that was eluding me, I buckled down and got serious about figuring out how to take pictures at football games with my ’slow, take forever, make your cheeks hurt from smiling so long’ camera.

I focused on the process and quit worrying about the results (i.e., the crappy pictures I was churning out game after game). The rewards I received in exchange for surrendering the results still amaze me. Not only did I end the season with some pretty good pics, but I also learned how to doctor those ‘could have been good, but missed it by a second’ pics.

Even more importantly than the pics, though, I now have the unforgettable experience of having walked in and amongst a team. A team of coaches. A team of young men. All in pursuit of something that each and every one of them believes in with all their hearts. I now understand that football is much more than clanging helmets to chase a ball, scoring touchdowns or kicking field goals. Football is about fighting for something you believe in. Football is about defending family. Pursuit of passion. Giving your all, even when you don’t think you have anything left. Integrity. Intensity. But most of all football is about relationships.

I had the privilege of witnessing these relationships for a moment in time. The pictures I can now give back will never repay the experience those coaches and young men gave me to just be a part, an insignificant part, of their team.

I now know what it’s like to be part of team!

Some of you have been asking if I fell into a hole somewhere and I guess the answer is “Yes”. I fell into the hole of getting my priorities out of whack, which is an easy hole to fall into, but I am comforted in knowing that, in the big picture, we are always exactly where we are supposed to be even if that is seemingly off track. Sometimes, I suppose, I have to get off track to remember what being on track looks like. Perspective I like to call it.

Well, in any case, life has still been good to us. I hired an assistant this last week and am secretly turning cartwheels when she is not looking. It still continues that life presents us with many opportunities, some of which are disguised as impossible situations, but I suppose if that were not the case, it wouldn’t exactly be life now would it? Funny how hung up on definitions I can get sometimes, which really are just expectations that I have chosen to label as “definitions”.

Something I have been thinking alot about lately is why I ride a motorcycle, probably because people have been asking me that alot lately. So it dawns on me the other day (while riding of course) that riding a motorcycle keeps me humble and grateful. This is an interesting discovery, even to me, but in the context of riding a motorcycle it makes perfect sense. I think about how many times when I am on four wheels and shielded by the frame of a car, my ego can bully people because I take what someone else does personal. Can you visualize the futility of a motorcycle trying to bully a car? I could probably draw a funny cartoon depicting this parody of life and the picture would be worth a thousand words. Maybe I will do just that!

Simply put, riding a motorcycle requires me to take responsibility for my own experience. Funny how when the line between safe and unsafe is black and white, I am more willing to assume that responsibility than when the lines get grayed by the superfluous paraphernalia of life. Come to think of it, riding a motorcycle reminds me that life really can be simple–as simple as I want to make it. Can it really be as simple as taking responsibility for my own experience in life, aka my happiness? When I stop demanding that other people adjust their actions to accommodate my happiness, can life suddenly be peaceful, instead of taxing and toiling? I would conjecture “Yes!”.

Upon such a serendipitous discovery, I realize I have so much for which to be grateful, the fact that I am able to ride a motorcycle is only the starting point at which my perspective on life’s privileges start to come into focus.

So as we enter into this time of year that brings such a mixed media of emotions, remember that life really can be simple and that its fruit lies at the heart of our relationships. Personally, my focus this year will be on the people in my life, both those that complement my joy as well as those that try to take it away. When I choose to put life in its proper perspective, I no longer have to feel threatened by others; I can just simply Be. This year, I will keep at the front of all my thoughts an Attitude of Gratitude even in the midst of those seemingly impossible situations. When I can be grateful, humility and simplicity follow naturally.