FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​7

• May 2023

CAN A TRIP TO THE BATHROOM inspire a poem — and is poetry intended only for English classes and literature textbooks?

To find out, you’re invited to read this newest post from A Slow Life in the FAST Lane:

• Let’s get this clear — the best poetry isn’t meant for English-major types and literary elites, but rather for everyone — after all, I believe every human being is a living story and poem and movie script, all rolled into one — do you believe this too?

• The vocational pastor of the New Jersey church where I grew up, Julian Alexander, spoke about a line from the Ephesians letter — “For we are God’s workmanship aka masterpiece aka handiwork” — and explained that the Greek word utilized here is poēma … and yes, this Greek term is the root of the English word poem

• On a Sunday morning in my teenage youth, he told our Willow Grove church assembly of humans: “You are God’s poem — let that blow your mind”

• What he didn’t say then, as far as I recall, is that every human being will choose whether they want to be God’s unraveled new-creation human poem (aka a good poem) or a twisted old-creation human poem (aka a bad poem) — and this human decision, dovetailing mutually with God’s decision, will essentially determine each person’s destiny — and while he didn’t explain that on the Sunday in question, I believe this is a key corollary facet of the poēma reality … and certainly, this is is what many witnesses have proclaimed for centuries

• See the Poetry Notes below for definitions of a few words and some related thoughts connected to the following sonnet — aka poetic human message — that is meant for everyone who cares to read further…

Yes, you are invited to join in as I aim to share here part of my journey that somehow dovetails with everyone’s human journey — and I invite you to share your journey too, as you so choose, whether in the “Leave a Comment” section or via another blog platform or otherwise:

+++

OUTDOOR COMMODE — take a hike and a leak —
and bluebird flits to bathroom … I wonder
now: How did Adam name fauna — unique
names for each, creative nomen-thunder-
-clature — sum-times seems Greek to me — and some
question: Did one dude truly give beast-names
to animals — snout, beak, trunk, nose knows — dumb
one and all? So chic — yet do creature-claims
here on earth speak surely of One Divine
Son’s freakish-geekish seeking artistry,
proclaim loudly sans words as stars align
with — and are peak signs of — Mary’s weakly
spoken Word … as clearly as Narnian
persons, one for all, voice-christen Aslan?

© Bruce William Deckert • May 2023

+++

— POETRY NOTES —

DEFINING TERMS
In a brief poem, surely every word counts — in that light, following is a brief glossary of words that might be less familiar, in the order they appear, with definitions from online dictionaries that correspond with their usage in the sonnet above:

commode • noun — toilet

flit • verb — to pass quickly or abruptly from one place to another

fauna • noun — animal life: especially, the animals characteristic of a region, period or special environment

nomen-thunder-clature • noun — you can search for this word in the dictionary, but don’t expect to find it because I came up with the term on the spot, as a playful variation of the word “nomenclature” — the immediate goal was to rhyme with “wonder” and the added benefit of this made-up hyphenated word is the intimation of the apparently powerful and thunderous aspect of the naming process

nomenclature • noun — name, designation — the devising or choosing of names

chic • adjective — cleverly stylish — currently fashionable

chic • noun — stylishness and elegance, typically of a specified kind — a faddishly popular stylishness or appeal

sans • preposition — without

Narnian • adjective — related or pertaining to Narnia

Narnia • proper noun — a made-up magical land conceived by C.S. Lewis via his seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia — a domain populated by talking animals and mythical creatures and properly ruled by human beings under Aslan’s ultimate authority

Aslan • proper noun — the main character of The Chronicles of Narnia, a talking lion who is the Creator and One True King of Narnia, the Great Lion, the King above all High Kings in Narnia, the Son of the Emperor-Beyond-The-Sea — derived from the Turkish word for lion — in the world of Narnia, Aslan corresponds to Jesus of Nazareth as He is presented and described and proclaimed in the New Testament documents, rooted in the Old Testament documents, and attested by multiple other historical sources — the same One who is called the Son of God and Son of Man, the Highest Authority and King in the universe who has and holds the Name above all names

ORIGIN STORY
The seed for this poem originated and was planted, as I recall, in the early summer of 2022 just as I began a walk on the Farmington River Trail in Collinsville, Connecticut.

While this sonnet doesn’t explicitly mention the creation-evolution debate, this apparent dispute is intrinsically connected to the poem’s theme — indeed, this debate-dispute-discourse has engulfed and fascinated our society and academia since Charles Darwin published​ “On the Origin of Species​” more than 150 years ago.

Darwin’s book was printed and disseminated in 1859 — at least, most historians and scientists and literary types seem to universally agree this is the year his evidently influential work was produced. Yet how can we know this is accurate aka true?

Let’s consider this question and revisit it another time.

And if you’re wondering: When I refer to “Origin Story” — yes, the pun regarding human origins is both intended and inherent.

DEFINING SPORTS
Since this blog focuses on faith-and-sports topics, each post in FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace has a sports connection, naturally — in this case, hiking.

But is hiking a sport? Most online sources I found via a Google search for “is hiking a sport” say the answer is no. Do you agree?

In my opinion, many human endeavors that aren’t necessarily considered sports can be turned into a game — so in my book, yes, hiking can be considered a sport.

Another more oblique sports connection is the reference to “Greek” in the sonnet’s fifth line — given the link between Greece and Olympic history.

SONNET SCHOOL
What is a sonnet, exactly? Given my experience as an English major and high school English teacher, I thought I knew the essentially definitive answer.

However, as I researched the term sonnet while writing this post, I learned how much more there is to learn about the amazing and classic and intense and magical and splendid communication form known as the sonnet.

So to understand more, let’s go to school — and as the best philosophers and dictionary publishers advise, let’s define terms — in this case by visiting the impromptu FAST Sonnet School:

• sonnet • noun — 14-line poem with 10 syllables per line and a specific pattern of rhymes at the end of each line — this definition is my paraphrase and a compilation of several dictionary definitions

Word to the Wise — If you are satisfied with the definition of sonnet in the previous paragraph, you may disembark from this amusement-park ride now — however, if you choose to stay on this roller-coaster train, please buckle your seatbelt and remain seated for the rest of this topsy-turvy linguistic journey:

• The 10 syllables per line can be described as iambic pentameter — and in the next two bullet points you will find (hopefully) simpler explanations of these two potentially obscure literary terms

• The word iambic is listed in Merriam-Webster.com as an adjective or noun — with the apparent root word iamb — and an iamb is a group of two syllables, consisting of one short syllable and one long syllable

• In this usage, the word pentameter refers to a line of poetry comprised of five iambs — equaling 10 syllables — and the prefix penta- comes from the Greek term pénte — or five, per Dictionary.com

• Shakespearean Sonnet — Among the various types of sonnets, a Shakespearean or English sonnet features three four-line stanzas (aka quatrains) and a closing couplet — the above poem is essentially a Shakespearean sonnet, albeit with a modified and unconventional closing couplet

• Various sonnet types have various rhyme repetitions, known as a rhyme scheme — that is, the pattern or sequence of rhymes at the end of each line — and Shakespearean aka English sonnets have the following rhyme scheme — abab cdcd efef gg

• Sonnet Origins — The word sonnet is derived from the Old Occitan term sonet that means “little song” per online sources — Occitan is a Romance language spoken in southern France and parts of northwest Italy and northern Spain, according to various sources — a Romance language is a language that developed from Latin, such as French or Italian or Spanish, per Merriam-Webster.com

• In my view, the sonnet is one of the best poetic structures for the time-challenged and smartphone-distracted residents of the 21st century — instead of lengthy and time-consuming and potentially laborious free verse, the sonnet offers a brief power-packed literary roller coaster •

Here’s hoping you’ve enjoyed the ride!

+++

— MORE POETRY NOTES —
— If you have time to keep reading further fascinating info —

SONNET REVISIONS
More than one writing guru has extolled revising and rewriting as a virtue — comparable to tending a garden through pruning and weeding.

• “Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost” — so says William Zinsser in “On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction” — and by the way, I’ll say the same principle applies to fiction, poetry and every other type of written message, as far as I can see •

• Revising a sonnet is a special exercise — language is jam-packed with so many latent and abundant and multi-layered meanings that can barely be contained in prose •

• With poetry — and especially the friendly and disciplined confines of a sonnet — each word counts exponentially … perhaps exponentially is a hyperbolic term here, but surely every single syllable in a sonnet costs more, coming at a higher premium than a prose-used syllable or word, so a one-word change can be monumental •

• Several lines in this sonnet experienced revisions and makeovers as I transplanted this poem, so to speak, from the original handwritten version in an old-school maroon notebook to a Pages word-processing document on a MacBook Air and then to WordPress — here are a few before-and-after revisions, with the changes underlined:

Original
…and some / question: Did one dude truly give these names / to animals with snout, beak, trunk, nose — dumb / One and all? Come to think, do creature-claims…

After — Take 1
…and some / query: Did man verily give beast-names / to animals with snout, beak, trunk … knows? Dumb / one and all? So chic — yet do creature-claims…

After — Take 2
…and some / question: Did one dude truly give beast-names / to animals — snout, beak, trunk, who knows — dumb / one and all? So chic — yet do creature-claims…

After — Take 3 — in the sonnet above
…and some / question: Did one dude truly give beast-names / to animals — snout, beak, trunk, nose knows — dumb / one and all? So chic — yet do creature-claims…

———

Original
…proclaim loudly without words — stars align…

After — Take 1 — in the sonnet above
…proclaim loudly sans words as stars align…

———

Original
…as clearly as Narnian / persons, one and all, point to Aslan?

After — Take 1 — in the sonnet above
…as clearly as Narnian / persons, one for all, voice-christen Aslan?

———

In my opinion, the revised sonnet is better for these makeovers — what is your opinion? Feel free to share your perspective via the “Leave a Comment” link below.

TRAIL MAP FOLLIES + FORESIGHT
Here’s a brief note regarding the nomenclature — in other words, the name — of the Farmington River Trail referenced toward the top of these Poetry Notes, in the “ORIGIN STORY” section:

Upon further review, I checked Google Maps and encountered some confusing designations and multiple trail names — confusing to me, anyway. An ironic twist, given the naming theme of this poem.

According to the Google map that’s on my computer screen as I type these words, this popular pathway isn’t actually called the Farmington River Trail in Collinsville, a distinct village of the town of Canton, Connecticut — not to be confused with Canton, Ohio home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

This iconic rails-to-trails boulevard has at least three names in Canton, per Google Maps. Yes, it bears the Farmington River Trail moniker from the Canton Shops on Route 44 going west to River Road aka Route 179 — but then the trail takes a sharp left-hand turn and heads south into Collinsville.

Appropriately, this section of the pathway is called the Collinsville Walking Trail per Google Maps and runs into historic Collinsville, taking a slight left-hand turn as it crosses Route 179 — in another potentially confusing twist, this section of 179 is no longer River Road but rather Bridge Street.

Here, the third trail name comes into play — the Farmington Valley Trail runs concurrently with a Main Street sidewalk, the online map indicates, though only for a stone’s throw after taking that slight left off Bridge Street, and then continues south toward the trail’s footbridge over the Farmington River.

Aren’t you glad you visited A Slow Life in the FAST Lane today?

The next time you’re playing a trivia game and the topic is the trail system in Canton, Connecticut, you’ll be as prepared as a Boy Scout or Girl Scout and you’ll be ready to come to the rescue of your trivia team, like the Coast Guard — for the Guard’s service motto is Semper Paratus, aka Always Ready!

If you wonder how I know this, the answer is twofold:

• 1 — My son is a health-care professional in the Coast Guard, a domestic-focused military affiliate and the only branch of the U.S. Armed Forces in the Department of Homeland Security.
• 2 — As a fact-checking safeguard, I confirmed this motto info via the U.S. Coast Guard Academy website.

THE DEFINING WORD
By the way, my experience is that Google’s maps are helpful, but far from foolproof. The broader category here is the following: Technology is awfully beneficial, except when it isn’t — and especially when it’s awfully harmful.

The Google Maps platform is surely and sorely in this ballpark — Google’s maps are quirky and tricky in such a way that while they can shine light and point in the right direction, they can likewise mislead and misdirect.

As far as I can see, this is the common human experience with virtually all written and visual communication — from the CDC’s COVID guidance, to the instructions accompanying an assembly-required Christmas gift, to a computer manual, to a coach’s work-hard-and-always-hustle injunction, to the Bible itself.

To those who belong to the Church: Are you questioning whether the Bible — aka God’s Word — can be misleading?

Absolutely, the Church affirms that the Bible will shine light on our path throughout our earthly sojourn — yet mis-utilized, the Bible will shine light on the absolute wrong path — and that pathway will lead not to eternal life but to destruction, the Church asserts.

Who and what is the source of such a haunting yet hopeful assessment of the Scriptures, aka the sword of the Spirit?

• First, the “what” answer — the very Bible that the Church proclaims as the written Word of God carries this caveat like an insidious parasite on a viable and healthy living organism: Remember the account of Jesus’ temptation in his biographies ascribed and attributed to Matthew and Luke — commonly known as the Gospels according to Matthew and Luke?

What did Jesus’ enemy quote in a direct attempt to trip up Jesus so He would not only fall — and crash-and-burn — but also fail miserably in His human-and-divine rescue mission?

God’s sworn enemy — who is said to be hell-bent on forever harming and never benefiting human beings — directly quoted God’s own written Word as an apparently viable way to derail Jesus … like a terrorist planting a destructive bomb that somehow appears to be a healing balm on a passenger airplane.

Yes, God’s Google Maps tool — known as the holy and healing and ultimately health-giving Scriptures, aka the Holy Bible — can equally be an unholy and poisonous and ultimately harmful map tool when utilized inaccurately and mistakenly, whether in a naively unwitting way or a deliberately deceitful way.

Mind-boggling and maddening, yes — yet also a sad but true reality, as far as I can see.

Some classic lyrics by gifted songsmith Bruce Cockburn — a poem-spinning and storytelling Canadian treasure among countless other Canadian treasures — apply here:

• Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword —
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it’s pointing toward
…
Sometimes the best map will not guide you —
You can’t see what’s round the bend —
Sometimes the road leads through dark places —
Sometimes the darkness is your friend •

—Bruce Cockburn • Pacing The Cage

• Second, the “who” answer — Jesus of Nazareth Himself is the source of this assessment of the Scriptures.

The Bible proclaims Him not only as God’s incarnate-and-crucified-and-risen Son, but also as the human-and-divine Living Word who can and will properly arbitrate and elucidate and translate God’s human-and-divine written word, aka the Bible. Remember, when He was presented with a presumably wise course of action via God’s written word — by His sworn enemy — He resisted the persuasive temptation by appealing to, yes, God’s written word. In other words, Jesus knows the proper timing and the correct interpretation regarding how and when to apply the Bible’s written instructions.

To those who don’t belong to the Church: Are you questioning whether the Bible is reliable at all and whether Jesus’ victory over death in sudden-death overtime — aka His Easter resurrection, as described and defined in the New Testament — is a reality?

Vis-à-vis my doubts, in my best moments I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is essentially the Most Real Person in the universe and thus the Best Person to ultimately follow and listen to and trust on our shared flesh-and-blood journey — and He’s the Ultimate Best Teacher to ask the questions posed in this blog post, along with every other question that has ever been asked or ever will be asked by we mere human beings who desperately and surely need His new-creation solution for the life-and-death questions and conundrums we inevitably face in our human quest to discover the meaning and message of life.

In other words: Jesus is the decisive Person and the defining Word across human history.

To all those who belong to the human race:
What do you believe about the value of poetry and storytelling, and the meaning of life, and the life-and-death reality of Jesus of Nazareth?

+++

If you’ve read this far — thank you and kudos to you!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by… and it’s safe to say I got carried away with this blog post, by far the lengthiest FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace entry in the history of A Slow Life in the FAST Lane.

+++

In February, I also got carried away (so to speak) when I penned by far the lengthiest publisher’s Leading Off column in the brief history of Today Publishing — here is that commentary article:

• Contemplating marriage, divorce and genocide

For those who don’t know, I produce a monthly publication called Today Magazine via my role as publisher and editor-in-chief of Today Publishing — in a significant way, this has been a necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention venture marked by many twists and turns and ups and downs. Yes, the roller-coaster metaphor comes to mind again.

Another metaphor occurs to me: If ESPN Digital Media — one of my former employers— is a 20-something media empire of sorts, Today Publishing is a mere preschooler among media outlets.

ESPN Digital Media is the rebranded newer identity of ESPN. com, the website that launched in April 1995, and therefore the math is clear — ESPN Digital Media turned 28 years old last month. Meanwhile, Today Publishing turned 4 years old in October 2022.

​Today Magazine t​ied 50-year-old Connecticut Magazine​ — perhaps the state’s most well-known publication —​ for the most first-place mag awards in the Society of Professional Journalists contest in 2022.
• Today Magazine wins 12 more SPJ awards

Today Publishing debuted with Canton Today Magazine in October 2018, added Avon Today and Simsbury Today in April 2019, and then combined as tri-town Today Magazine in July 2019 before branching out as a full-fledged Farmington Valley publication in July 2020 — covering the heart of the Valley and recording the underreported upside of the Valley community.

We focus on these five core Valley towns — Avon, Canton, Farmington, Granby and Simsbury — yet our news coverage encompasses and includes and incorporates Greater Hartford and Greater Torrington and, in significant ways, the entire state of Connecticut as well as all of New England, the entire United States and the far-flung global human community on planet Earth.

Yes, Today Publishing covers the heart of the Farmington Valley via community news that matters nationwide and worldwide.

How is our coverage national and global, you ask?

Here’s one simple answer — we’ve featured a cover story about adoption in October 2022 and about foster care in May 2023. Correct me if I’m wrong: These two topics are national, global and universal in scope … in my opinion, anyway. What is your opinion?

Today Publishing is the DBA name (doing business as) of BWD Publishing LLC, the media outlet I established in January 2018. Our first publication appeared nine months later.

Take care, Godspeed, and onward and upward in this proverbial journey of life and storytelling +

© Bruce William Deckert • May 2023

FAST Fiction: Fall Classic Dream State #13

• Posted — February 2023

What happens to a dream deferred?
— Langston Hughes

Somewhere out there someone’s saying a prayer
That we’ll find one another in that big somewhere out there
… Somewhere out there, if love can see us through
Then we’ll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true
— Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram — Somewhere Out There

Synchronized with the rising moon
Even with the evening star
They were true love written in stone
…Oh, yes, other hearts were broken and other dreams ran dry…
— James Taylor — Never Die Young

• Fall Classic Dream State:
Part 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12

Once upon a couch, I was home watching the pregame show before the decisive game of the 2000 World Series — the Mets-Yankees Subway Series — but I fell asleep just before the first pitch, and soon I began to dream…

In this surreal yet seems-so-real dream — paradoxically haunting-and-hopeful and lucid-and-confusing and real-life-and-trance-like — I’ve been whisked from one location to another in an astounding narrative…

…from my couch in a Connecticut Cape-Cod-style home to New York City, from the pinnacle of the Empire State Building to a strange parade in the Canyon of Heroes along Broadway, from the Bronx to the 9/11 crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 in western Pennsylvania close to Shanksville — indeed, a shank to human hearts, uniting everyone on board in the spasm of death and the chasm between a seemingly unknown afterlife and the aspiration of a hoped-for and dreamed-of new creation destination.

9/11, you ask? Yes, my whisking dream-induced journey has included time travel — when I fell asleep, I was watching the 2000 World Series on Fox TV and listening to broadcasters Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, but in the proverbial twinkling of an eye I witnessed the Twin Towers implode on September 11, 2001 and then watched the plummeting and exploding of Flight 93.

The time travel continues, for after being present on 9/11, I was taken to Yankee Stadium during Game 7 of the 2004 American League Championship Series — and according to the prophetic headline at the NYC Canyon-of-Heroes parade, the Red Sox routed the Yankees in Game 7 in the Bronx to complete a historic comeback from a 3-0 series deficit, the first time in Major League Baseball history that a team accomplished this feat.

How on earth could this have happened, I wonder, shaking my head — speaking of surreal dreams, how can we be sure this Red Sox resurrection actually occurred?

And now, suddenly, I’ve been transported from the 2004 ALCS Bronx massacre to a farm-and-barn converted into a church in Connecticut’s Farmington Valley — on my wedding day, of all blazing-amazing summer days, at a breathtaking outdoor sanctuary adjacent to a sure-flowing stream and woodland wonderland.

However, in a paparazzi flash my bride and I have disappeared and the temperature has plummeted to sub-freezing. The woodland has instantly turned into a winter wonderland — except for a glaring issue: I’ve never seen a winter wonderland that resembles a crime scene. Where my bride and I were standing on that distant summer’s day, three dark-blue baseball caps lay where our feet had trod … a Boston Red Sox cap with the classic red B and a New York Yankees cap with the interconnected white N-and-Y — and a third cap in-between with the NY and the B interlocked as three joined superimposed letters.

Why is this an apparent crime scene? Underneath the three caps, a blood-red mark in the shape of a heart stains the virgin snow near the bottom of the gentle slope where the seats and witnesses at this outdoor sanctuary rise and fall.

At the top of the slope, the tallest woman I’ve ever seen begins to descend the stairway toward where I stand hard by the heart-shaped stain — clearly, she would be the most imposing center in the WNBA. She somehow resembles a larger version of my bride, but besides the gargantuan size, another off-putting anomaly betrays that this isn’t my better half but rather an impostor.

As I try to pinpoint the anomaly, in my peripheral vision I see ancient Miracle Max of “The Princess Bride” — he’s back again, and now he’s running in circles in the snow on the outdoor podium, chased by an equally ancient woman.

Max cries out to her, “Get away, witch” — but she replies, “I’m not a witch, I’m your wife!”

When I look back at the WNBA-sized giant lady descending the stairs, I see more clearly not only her beauty but also her terrifying cruel bearing and her royal scarlet robe and her lily-white skin, which jars me to recognition — indeed, this must be Queen Jadis of Narnia, the infamous White Witch. Then I faintly hear a woman’s cold words in my mind, though the Witch’s lips remain motionless, intoning in a mocking sing-song voice: “Always winter, but never Christmas — always winter, but never Christmas — always winter, but never Christmas!”

Miracle Max has stopped running from his wife and instead is staring — no, glaring — at the White Witch, and he says:
“Kid, be careful — this broad is bad news through and through.”

Then, in a moment that seems simultaneously like eons and a sneeze’s swift expulsion-propulsion, I’m transported to an indoor auditorium in New Jersey — I can somehow sense that I’m in the Garden State, even though Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” isn’t being piped over the intercom. Instead, Mrs. C is announcing my name over a loudspeaker. I pick up a mimeographed program from a banquet table and peer at the header — An Evening With the English Classes of The Covenant Master’s School • Fanfield, New Jersey — and I see my name next to: “Dreams” by Langston Hughes.

Mrs. C calls my name once … twice … three times — but no dice. I try to reply and say “I’m here” but that disconcerting and disturbing dream-turned-to-nightmare phenomenon is occurring as we speak, so to speak — namely, try as I might, I can’t speak at all. Against my will, I’m muzzled and mute.

So instead of me reciting the fabled Langston Hughes poem, an unidentified young man steps to the microphone — my gut conveys an unsettling sensation to my heart as his quasi-blondish locks glisten in the artificial inside light — and he reads these lines in a certain calculated way:

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Why was I unable to voice the poet’s dream lines?

Earlier that day, after the Covenant baseball game where I played center field and batted leadoff, my Dad took my alter ego to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Plainwood, my hometown and Fanfield’s neighboring city, and we lost track of time — or time lost track of us — or we simply ignored the ticking onslaught of time.

Instantaneously, Miracle Max transports me back to the frozen outdoor wedding venue — in-between bites of a fortune cookie — at least, I believe Max was the human conductor.

The White Witch is now standing beside me, towering over me, and when Max turns his gaze toward me, his face contorts in shock and horror and he shouts: “Hey kid, what happened to you — you’re looking beastly!”

Glancing at my hands, instead of human appendages I see hideous fur-covered paws featuring claws rather than fingernails. The immediate association that springs into my mind and memory is unmistakable — beastly, indeed — I’ve evidently become the antagonist-protagonist fusion from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

+++

By the way, momentarily returning to the summer scene, blazing is surely an accurate description of that mid-90s August wedding day — mid-90s not in years but in degrees. Indeed, no wedding would be complete without the Murphy’s Law factor coming into play — when the bride and groom selected tuxedos the winter before, the tux salesman failed to illuminate that the tux they chose was intended for a freezing-cold day as opposed to a sweltering summertime day.

Can you guess the seasonal fashion gaffe this soon-to-be bride and groom inadvertently made?

Here’s a hint: sheep-shearing.

Given this hint and your innate human power of deduction, if you surmise that this nuptial-planning couple picked out wool tuxedos, you are correct — yes, wool tuxedos that five groomsman and two Dads and the groom wore by necessity in the midst of the dog days of summer.

At day’s end, the groom’s Dad — who would sweat buckets sitting stationary in a T-shirt in humid heat — took off an utterly drenched and soaked-through tuxedo. It appeared he had worn the tux while swimming in the Sanchiz’s pool back home in Plainwood … or so he wished, by George!

Meanwhile, back at the frigid outside sanctuary, my true bride and my true self are still nowhere in sight.

To be continued

© Bruce William Deckert 2023

FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​5​

Birth-Celebrating + Birthday Poem #1

+++

He entered my still-broken world one bright
Winter morn — ten pounds of emphatic boy,
Wrapped sure in swaddling clothes of our delight,
Incarnate miracle — tidings of joy!
With newborn’s cries a symphony to start
A trio, I held you — and your wailing
Ceased as you rested close to your Dad’s heart.
But memories of a father’s failing
Sail along with newfound bliss — unwelcome
Barnacles clinging to hull of my soul.
Forgive me, son, when fear mocks and makes dumb
My hope — Best Dad, help navigate this shoal.
Our two-ordered lives You have rearranged —
Let son-forsaken past be ever changed.

© Bruce William Deckert 2022

+++

Related Post:
Birth-Celebrating + Birthday Poem #2​ — in Kayla’s honor​

+++

February 2022

POETRY 411 NOTES

• Milestone Birthday for My Son
Luke George Deckert was born 30 years ago today, to proud and glad parents Bruce Deckert and Mina Elizabeth Sykes Deckert — at 10:24 a.m. on February 3, 1992.

As I mentioned to Luke recently, he and Kayla are dynamic human products of a true marriage marked by true love — I didn’t employ those exact words in our conversation, but when one has an opportunity to put thoughts into writing, it’s possible to fine-tune and hone the message.

Since Mina and I started dating on November 8, 1986 — after meeting in 1984 — our relationship has been marked by more ups and downs than a roller coaster … friendship brewing like good strong coffee, marital hurts and anger flaring perhaps too often, and then friendship and passion renewing. But the bottom line, from my vantage point, is that we’ve shared real love — not a fake paste-on-a-smile and pretend-you’re-happy relationship, but instead a real-life and true-love and real-world relationship … and that’s the best kind, in my book, even in the face of our more recent heartache.

It is hard to comprehend that Luke’s birth occurred three decades ago — wow, 30 years can apparently go by in a few blinks of the eye.

• Storied Sports History
This blog focuses on faith-and-sports issues, so each FAST Sonnet in Cyberspace has a sports connection. In this case, see the reference in the ninth line to sailing, calling to mind competitions such as America’s Cup — the oldest trophy in international sport, dating back to 1851 and predating the modern Olympics by 45 years, according to the Cup website.

When I penned that sailing reference, I had no clue that Luke would be a seven-year veteran of the Coast Guard upon his 30th birthday — I’m thankful for his service.

Further, Luke’s stellar sports history has been evident throughout his life, complementing an outstanding academic and career history. He was a three-sport captain on his high school soccer and basketball and baseball teams, attaining all-conference in soccer and baseball. College sports didn’t pan out — giving him more time for other pursuits — but a local baseball coach I know who has trained many college ballplayers says Luke had the talent to play Division I college ball.

Naturally, I’m even more proud of his character intangibles and off-the-field accomplishments.

Regarding the college baseball coach who released Luke in the last round of cuts during his freshman-year tryout — as far as I’m concerned, not keeping Luke was clearly that coach’s loss. Again, Luke pursued other worthwhile college endeavors … and God has a Way of working these circumstances for good. I’m hoping and praying that this will be the case in every circumstance in Luke’s life and in our family.

• Sonnet Rundown
This is an English (aka Shakespearean) sonnet — a 14-line poem with 10 syllables per line, comprised of three four-line stanzas and a closing couplet, with this rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.

• Sonnet-Wise, Less Is More
For my money, the sonnet is the best poem structure for the time-challenged and smartphone-distracted residents of the 21st century here in the so-called First World — instead of lengthy free verse, the sonnet offers a quick and power-packed reading adventure.

Luke is typically a man of few words, as the saying goes — certainly, a man of fewer spoken words than his Dad — so in that light, the sonnet is an especially fitting poem form to celebrate his birthday.

FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #14

A Wedding Poem

+++

“With this ring I wed thee,” we pledged that day
when diamond-vow made moons before our sun
gave cause to rise — we gave our lives away,
by holy stream and forest wise undone.
Un-secure I felt, undone still — sunset
vision, a beauty framed in brilliant light
descends from virgin clouds — can I forget
memory’s haunting dreams of son-sad night?
Oh, still my hope of home, like sunrise roar,
grows day by day — though surely rising slow —
and held in soar-embrace, I wait-endure.
Love’s mystery remains, but this I know:
Every wife-jewel costs all beauty on earth —
And all jewels pale in light of her love’s worth.

© Bruce William Deckert 1992-2021 — posted: August 2021

+++

• August 2021

POETRY 411 NOTES

• Marriage Memories
More than three decades ago this month — on August 6, 1988 — Mina and I were married on a blazing day at an amazing venue: an outdoor sanctuary in Connecticut’s spectacular Farmington Valley. I penned the original version of this sonnet for her in the early days of our marriage — the above version has been revised, making the sentiment less personal and more global in certain ways, given what has transpired in the past couple of years … anyone who is aware of the recent history of our relationship understands the heartbreaking circumstance I’m referring to.

• Marriage Musings #1
Yet to me, the occasion of our wedding is surely worth commemorating upon this 33rd anniversary of the month we married. The reality of our union as seen in our son and daughter will make every anniversary of our wedding day worthy of celebrating, in the midst of heartache — a heartache, by the way, that every spouse in every marriage experiences and that is part-and-parcel of the true joy and true love of the marital union. Indeed, marriage heartache well-endured and well-managed leads to deeper joy and truer love when both spouses want and seek such rapture together.

• Marriage Musings #2
When the endurance runs longer, measured by decades not years, the love and joy grow stronger … when both spouses choose to cultivate their relationship with companionship and camaraderie — like garden flowers given the tender care of time and the rootedness of long-term commitment and the fertilizer of forgiveness.

• Marriage Musings #3
Yes, heartache attends every human heart, as the close companion to and flip side of hopeful joy — and therefore every spouse in every marriage of a human man and woman can experience a paradoxical hopeful heartache, whether the marriage is hitting on all cylinders or, conversely, is splitting like the atom. Yet even then, when the marriage splits open like an atomic blast, wounding hearts in a perfect and horrific storm, the ensuing energy can be harnessed — for wholesome and life-giving destruction as well as conclusive and life-growing construction.

Whew … who knew true love is such a messy blessing of paradox and poignancy, of gravity and buoyancy, of modesty and flamboyancy … OK, maybe I’m getting carried away, but I sense another sonnet in the wind.

• Ring of Truth
Since this blog focuses on faith-and-sports issues, each FAST Sonnet in Cyberspace has a sports connection — in this case, see the first-line reference to a ring … yes, a fleeting and perhaps oblique sports theme, yet fitting. The Olympic rings are the symbol of the ultimate in athletic training and achievement — and given the New Testament’s elucidation vis-à-vis the training and true love Jesus of Nazareth offers His bride, aka the body of Christ, the connection is as clear as day. Jesus also promises to be with and stay with His bride, providing the ability and can-do perseverance and wherewithal to make this marriage work … that is, both survive and thrive.

• Sonnet Synopsis
This is an English (or Shakespearean) sonnet — a 14-line poem with 10 syllables per line, comprised of three four-line stanzas and a closing couplet, employing this rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.

• Busy-Friendly Poetry
In my book, the sonnet is the best poem for the ever-busy residents of the 21st century — no time for lengthy free verse? No problem … a sonnet takes perhaps a minute to read.

Someday, I may post the original version of this sonnet — in the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

FAST Blast: Derek Redmond’s extraordinary Olympic story

• July-August 2021

THE FOLLOWING ESSAY launched this faith-and-sports blog in August 2012, during the London Olympics. Nine years later, we’ve entered a COVID Olympic time warp — in apparently unprecedented fashion, the Olympic Games are occurring in an odd-numbered year.

Welcome to the 2020 + 2021 Tokyo Olympics!

I hope you enjoy the new version of this embryonic classic from A Slow Life in the FAST Lane — strap in for a roller-coaster Summer Olympics reminiscence.

+++

First Post — August 2012
Second Post: Revised — August 2016
Revised + Updated: Third Post — July-August 2021

PREGAME TALK — Welcome to A Slow Life in the FAST Lane. The stars of this blog, faith and sports, need no introduction. And for those who think, “I’m not a person of faith and I’m definitely not religious” — that is perhaps an understandable sentiment, but think again!

Consider these dictionary definitions: Religion is “something of overwhelming importance to a person: football is his religion.” Furthermore: Religion is “something a person believes in devotedly” — and aren’t we all devoted to someone and/or something?

Once more, welcome — read, vote, comment as you wish — and play ball!

Bruce William Deckert

+++

THREE DECADES LATER, a riveting Olympic story still resonates.

This story echoes like a starter’s gun across the tracks and fields of time, signaling dreams deferred and shattered — and then, after the heartbreak, dreams somehow restored and reborn.

This story pulsates with an afflicted runner’s energy, reverberates with raw emotion, celebrates the never-give-up Olympic ethos.

This is the true-life tale of British track star Derek Redmond.

• The Setting — 1992 Barcelona Olympics
• The Event — 400-meter dash: semifinal
• The Backstory — Redmond’s career was beset by Achilles tendon injuries and surgeries, and at the Beijing Olympics in 1988 a tendon injury forced him to withdraw moments before his first race … four long years later, some considered the British sprinter a medal favorite

+++

THE TV COVERAGE leading up to Redmond’s 1992 semifinal reminds viewers how he missed the ’88 Games and documents how hard he trained to return to Olympic glory.

Redmond starts strong in this race — but after about 150 meters injury strikes again, this time a torn right hamstring. Devastated, he kneels on the track. When medical staff come to him, he decides to keep going. Rising to his feet, he begins to hobble along … and hobble is the operative word.

Redmond describes his motivation this way: “The thought that went through my mind — as crazy as it sounds now — was: I can still catch them … I just remember thinking to myself: I’m not going to stop — I’m going to finish this race.”

What happens next is an indelible Olympic moment.

A man descends from the stands to the track and, getting past security, chases Redmond from behind. A crazed spectator, perhaps? The man catches up with the limping sprinter and puts his arm around Redmond’s shoulder.

The man is Derek’s Dad.

“The old man went to put his arms around me,” Derek says, “and I was just about to try and push him off because I thought it was someone else — I didn’t see him, he sort of jogged from behind. And he said, ‘Look, you don’t need to do this. You can stop now, you haven’t got nothing to prove.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I have — now get me back into Lane 5. I want to finish.’”

Jim Redmond wants his son to stop in case he’s able to recover and compete in the upcoming 4×400-meter relay for the British team that won gold at the 1991 World Championships. Nonetheless, Derek is determined to complete the course, so his Dad says, “Well then, we’re going to finish this together.”

Derek continues his strange and moving race — at a walking pace now, with his Dad’s arm draped around him, and vice versa.

As they walk around the track together, Derek is overcome by the emotion of the moment and his tears flow freely. He sobs at intervals, leaning on his Dad’s shoulder.

“You just knew how destroyed he was and just how much that race meant to him,” says Sally Gunnell, the British women’s team captain in 1992 who won gold in the 400-meter hurdles. “It’s … a picture that just stays in your mind forever.”

Meanwhile 65,000 fans stand and applaud — and some weep along with Derek. When father and son reach the cusp of the finish line, Dad releases his hold and Derek crosses the line solo.

In a postrace interview, Jim Redmond says, “He had to finish, and I was there to help him finish. … We started his career together, and I think we should finish it together.”

+++

A STANDING OVATION — why such rousing applause for an injured athlete who won neither a race nor a medal? The answer, I believe, is simple: This story reflects the deep yearning of the human heart.

Three decades ago, I was awestruck at the glimpse Derek Redmond’s story gives into the message of the Christian view of reality.

Yes, I grew up in the Church, and I’m endeavoring to persevere in the Church. As someone who subscribes to the historic Christian faith, while aiming to avoid its caricatures and counterfeits, I believe there are solid reasons why a genuine biblical worldview makes all the sense in the world.

Yet I also continue to wrestle with questions — by the way, I reckon I’d have questions whatever worldview I embraced — and one of them is the timeless query that’s older than Mount Olympus: What is the meaning of life?

Naturally, the world’s various philosophies, faiths and worldviews all give an answer, and so do people who consider themselves nonreligious — and while everyone is at it, could someone also answer the mystifying question of how on earth the Yankees lost to the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS? No MLB team had ever surrendered a 3-0 series lead before. It still seems surreal — are we sure it actually happened?

But I digress … let’s return to the standing ovation for Derek and his Dad: Do the messages of other worldviews elicit such a deep human response?

Let’s imagine a couple of parallel-universe versions of Derek Redmond’s story.

After his hamstring snapped, what if Derek had sat on the track and penned a poem about the meaninglessness of life, or cursed his fate, or smiled in the face of his misfortune — and then hobbled into the tunnel under the stadium, never to be seen again?

Spectators might have considered him stoic or quasi-heroic — but would they have been moved to stand and applaud with abandon? If every human being departs into nothingness, as atheism proclaims, is the human heart moved to high praise?

Not exactly … more literally, not even close.

What if Derek had sat on the track, accepted his suffering bravely, and disappeared into the stadium tunnel, and then another sprinter emerged from the tunnel? But an announcement was made that this new sprinter was Derek in another form. And this occurred over and over again.

Spectators might have been heartened about Derek’s ever-new opportunity to run the race. Yet do pantheistic religions, such as Hinduism, and eclectic New Age belief systems — with their claim of reincarnation and apparent loss of personality — provide a unique individual narrative that moves people to weep openly at a father’s intervention?

Perhaps I can only guess at your answer to this query, but I can communicate my answer readily: No, pantheism doesn’t inspire our hearts to praise or commendation … far from it.

What of the Christian worldview — does it furnish a framework for a resounding ovation as a father’s heart and mind and feet respond to his child’s pain?

The parable of the prodigal wild child gives us more than an inkling.

In the incarnation, God enters the arena of human history, coming alongside hurting human beings and offering to guide us home before it gets too dark. In the crucifixion, Jesus of Nazareth shares the suffering of humans with all their wounds and heartache — enduring heart (and hamstring) replacement surgery, apparently sans anesthesia. In the resurrection, Jesus achieves and realizes brand-new life — athletically and otherwise — on the other side of the finish line called death.

+++

THE FOLLOWING GEM is attributed to British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge by numerous sources:

“Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us — and the art of life is to get the message.”

This statement resonates with me. True, Derek Redmond’s Olympic moment doesn’t answer all my questions about the meaning of life and life’s many messages, but it does offer a clue, some athletic forensic evidence in the case of a lifetime — a case about which we all will make a decision.

Do you think God speaks through Derek Redmond’s Olympic heartbreak and parental redemption? Or do you believe such occurrences are unlikely or impossible? Does a Creator exist, and does He speak to people through the world of sports?

This blog aims to investigate such questions — and you are invited to join me on this journey to discover the answers that can be found at the intersection of faith and sports.

+++

P.S. — I’ve heard a few observers essentially dismiss Derek Redmond’s actions in Barcelona as melodramatic and attention-seeking. I’ve watched the video more than once, and I don’t see an act. For my money, among the Olympic Games I’ve witnessed, his story is the signature moment in Olympic history.

The signature accomplishment in Olympic history, in my book, is the remarkable four-gold-medal triumph of black U.S. star Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in racist-driven Nazi Germany.

+++

• Related Post — Derek Redmond’s Olympic heartbreak and the problem of suffering

Information and quotes from various media outlets and YouTube were used in this article

© Bruce William Deckert 2012-2021

FAST Blast: On worldviews, detecting truth and Messiah College soccer

Related posts
• Intangibles at heart of stellar Messiah College soccer program
• Reflecting on sports, holiness and Messiah College soccer
• Musing about relative truth, exclusive claims, Messiah soccer
• On worldviews, ‘reasonable disagreement’ and Messiah soccer

+++

This blog post completes a five-part series on Messiah College soccer and related life-and-faith motifs. If you’re just joining us, no worries — while this post caps the series, it can also stand alone.

ALLOW ME TO NOTE once more, in the interest of full disclosure: I’m a Messiah College soccer parent. My daughter Kayla completed her Messiah career this past fall and graduated this May.

Her class produced a four-year record of 86-6-7, back-to-back Final Fours, and a run to the 2016 national championship game after a rocky start to the season. Yet after that 2-2 start — yes, by Messiah’s standards, 2-2 is a rocky beginning — the Messiah women didn’t lose another match, until the championship game.

In the title game, they fell 5-4 on penalty kicks despite outplaying their opponent (in my view) throughout regulation and overtime. Of course, that’s how soccer works sometimes.

Speaking of Messiah’s standards: 12 Final Fours and five national championships (NCAA Division III) and an undefeated regular-season conference record in 17 seasons under coach Scott Frey.

Messiah’s overall record in that time frame — regular season and postseason — is 362-20-20. I’m no math whiz, so correct me if I’m wrong: That’s an average of barely more than one loss per season. Wow.

+++

Naturally, such success has resulted in media coverage, and that’s where I left off last post. We’ve examined a philosophical reference to reasonable disagreement by an ESPN.com/espnW reporter in his outstanding story on the Messiah women’s soccer program and what sets it apart on and off the field.

Essentially, the context is the ever-present disagreement about the meaning of life.

When human beings consider the meaning of life, it seems there are as many faiths, worldviews and philosophies to choose from as there are eateries in New York City. Clearly, consensus is elusive if not impossible. Given the numerous menu options in this surging sea of worldview rumination, how can we discern the truth?

Apparently, we need to search, investigate, discuss, mull, and hope and pray we arrive at the right conclusions about matters as weighty as life’s meaning — especially, the origin and identity and destiny of human beings. In other words: Where did we come from? Who are we? And where are we going?

Every worldview addresses these questions, and everyone must answer the question of which worldview is truly on track.

Which brings us back to — how can we ascertain whether something is true? We consider evidence, we contemplate, we seek to verify … and ultimately, we must decide what to believe. And take steps based on that decision.

Another option: We can decide that the worldview question is impossible to answer, a la agnosticism, which maintains that big-picture truth can’t be known. But note the contradiction: The agnostic says we can know that truth can’t be known. In other words, it’s true that we can’t know truth.

I confess, I don’t exactly like the elusiveness of the truth-seeking process.

I tend to prefer that these life-and-faith issues (especially the life-and-death ones) be crystal-clear and so self-evident that we all agree — like the basketball scouts who found and followed LeBron James. Given the uncertainty of the age, I see the appeal of agnosticism.

Yet besides its inherent contradiction, I sense that agnosticism misses out on the necessity of commitment, and when we’re commitment-shy, we miss out on … love.

+++

The Christian worldview proclaims that truth can be known — not fully because humans are finite, but known nonetheless. In fact, Truth and Love are embodied in a Person: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and the Son of Man.

This worldview infuses the ethos of Messiah College and the Messiah soccer program.

In a speech my daughter gave at the 2016 Division III Final Four banquet, she spoke of her Messiah soccer experience: “I saw friendships that were marked by a willingness to care for the other in radical, sacrificial ways. Most importantly, what I found was the foundation from which all these actions stemmed — the desire to love God and love others. Although soccer is what brought our team together, that is not the foundation of our program. Our goal is to point back to God.”

Kayla’s teammate and classmate, Erin Sollenberger, likewise spoke about Messiah women’s soccer (or MWS) at the team banquet that closed the 2016 season: “I know my life wouldn’t be what it is now without the caring hearts of my best friends who … showed me what the unconditional grace and love of Christ looks like. MWS is so not about soccer. Sure, it brings us together, but our God is at the root of it all.”

Compare those quotes with a comment by Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson, who previously coached in the San Antonio Spurs organization. In an ESPN.com story, he discussed his coaching journey, including his interview with the Spurs — which took place in the immediate wake of his brother’s death.

Watson expressed gratitude to the Spurs for hiring him “at a time when I was very fragile in my life.”

“I went to [my brother’s] funeral on a Saturday, and [met] with the Spurs on Monday. Three days,” Watson says. “I guess you could say I got lucky because I ended up in a place that wasn’t about basketball — it was about family and love.”

Sound familiar? Sure does. That comment could readily be applied to … Messiah soccer.

Under coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs are known for their selfless, team-first, play-the-right-way culture — which has resulted in the most NBA titles of the past two decades (five, tied with the L.A. Lakers in that time span).

Let’s place Watson’s quote side by side with excerpts from the two Messiah teammates above.

• Suns coach Earl Watson
“I ended up in a place that wasn’t about basketball — it was about family and love.”

• Messiah wing Erin Sollenberger
“MWS is so not about soccer. Sure, it brings us together, but our God is at the root of it all. … My best friends … showed me … the unconditional grace and love of Christ.”

• Messiah defender Kayla Deckert
“I saw … a willingness to care for the other in radical, sacrificial ways … [and] the foundation from which all these actions stemmed — the desire to love God and love others. Although soccer is what brought our team together, that is not the foundation of our program. Our goal is to point back to God.”

+++

To me, the symmetry of these sentiments is exquisite. One significant difference, though, is that the two soccer players credit God outright as the source of such love, while Watson doesn’t mention God (though he reportedly believes in God).

This brings us full circle … back to a comment, cited in a previous post, by Messiah forward Marisa Weaver: “It’s just kind of impossible to love someone else unless you have the love of Christ in you.” Which prompted this remark by the ESPN.com/espnW reporter: There is ample room for reasonable disagreement on the exclusivity of such sentiment…

So, yes, a skeptic might say: Look, a secular pro team like the Spurs has the same culture as a Christian college team like Messiah … that proves you don’t need God — in fact, it might even prove God doesn’t exist.

But that critique has a counterargument: What if the unseen God of the universe — unseen like oxygen, perhaps — is the lone source of the selfless love that causes people and teams to flourish … whether they believe in Him or not?

What if knowing Jesus Christ — connecting with Him and receiving his heart, like a transplant patient who would die otherwise — is the only way to secure the well-being offered by the Giver of love and life?

And what if growing in the Creator of the cosmos — like a grafted branch on an apple tree — is the sole means of bearing the fruit of love that keeps us from withering away?

Can this counterargument be verified? In this life, I guess not. And in some ways that drives me crazy, because I’d prefer a here-and-now guarantee that erases all questions and avoids all discord. Instead, we’re left with plenty of disagreement and uncertainty in the worldview realm.

Yes, this can drive me crazy — but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised … because sometimes true love does that too.

So I suppose no worldview, faith or philosophy can be proved in a manner that removes all dispute. It appears that disagreements and doubts are an ongoing component of human experience — and healthy doubt can detect error, like a TSA airport scanner, in the pursuit of truth.

Perhaps no worldview can be proved beyond reasonable disagreement, but maybe the worldview that’s true can be known beyond reasonable doubt.

© Bruce William Deckert 2017

FAST Blast: Reflecting on worldviews, ‘reasonable disagreement’ and Messiah soccer

Related posts
• Intangibles at heart of stellar Messiah College soccer program
• Reflecting on sports, holiness and Messiah College soccer
• Musing about relative truth, exclusive claims, Messiah soccer

+++

MESSIAH COLLEGE SOCCER has garnered media attention galore, which isn’t exactly a surprise.

The men’s and women’s soccer programs at Messiah have combined for 24 Final Fours and 15 national titles, so you’d expect their on-field success to be reported by media outlets near and far.

One such outlet is ESPN.com/espnW, as noted in my previous post:
Musing about relative truth, exclusive claims and Messiah College soccer

Yet coaches and players alike emphasize that off-field intangibles truly set the program apart.

In an excellent ESPN.com story on Messiah women’s soccer, forward Marisa Weaver (who is graduating this May) explained the program’s essential intangible:

“What makes our team so good and so together is that we love each other,” Weaver said. “But we wouldn’t be able to love each other just from ourselves. You get annoyed with people, you say things you shouldn’t have said and all that kind of thing. It’s just kind of impossible to love someone else unless you have the love of Christ in you. I think that’s what is different.”

There is ample room for reasonable disagreement on the exclusivity of such sentiment, but it bonds those who share it.

+++

In my previous post, I addressed one aspect of the reporter’s philosophical comment that followed Marisa’s quote — namely, exclusivity.

Now let’s examine the reporter’s reference to ample room for reasonable disagreement. He is referring, of course, to Marisa’s affirmation that it’s “impossible to love someone else unless you have the love of Christ in you.”

Her assertion stems from the belief that Jesus of Nazareth — i.e., Jesus Christ — was and is God incarnate, who in love created the universe and human beings, and who therefore is the source of true love. Presuming that reality, it is literally impossible to love others unless you have the love of Christ in you.

And here’s the irony: Supposing the Christian worldview is true, Christ is the source of love for all human beings — even those who don’t believe in Him. In other words, all the love we experience from family and friends ultimately comes from God, and this love from God enables us to love others. Whether we realize it or not, God’s love is the model for our love and the resource that makes all love possible.

Clearly, not everyone agrees with that assessment of love — since there are as many philosophies and faiths as there are booths at a flea market.

Perhaps an extended analogy will help shed light.

Let’s say an eccentric and wealthy uncle sets up a bank account with $100,000 for each of his nieces and nephews.

By the way, the nieces and nephews have never met this eccentric uncle. He resides on another continent for reasons that are mostly beyond his control, and he lives essentially off the grid — so no phone calls or FaceTime.

When necessary, he communicates with his siblings via snail mail and an occasional email sent from some out-of-the-way café, which prevents his precise whereabouts from being traced.

Upon turning 21, each niece and nephew is given access to the bank account. The wealthy uncle, for reasons only he fully knows, asks his siblings to keep his identity secret as long as they can — in fact, some of his nieces and nephews don’t know he exists until they turn 21 and receive the $100,000.

Now, let’s suppose this uncle is your uncle, and mine too. When we hit 21, we’re told we have this relative who we never knew existed who has bequeathed a sweet bank account to us.

You might wonder if the $100,000 actually came from this long-lost uncle you’ve never met.

I might question whether this uncle is fictitious. Maybe my parents fabricated an uncle. Perhaps, I muse, my parents are flush with cash (unbeknownst to me) and they don’t want me to think the money is from them because they’re concerned it might make them appear gratuitous.

But on family birthdays and holidays, all of these cousins withdraw funds from their bequeathed bank accounts, and give gifts and furnish meals — as a way of showing love.

Whether or not the nieces and nephews believe the uncle is real, he is the resource for their means of showing such love to their families and others, including strangers via food pantries and the like.

+++

Let’s return to the espnW reporter’s comment: In the phrase ample room for reasonable disagreement, I take him to mean that reasonable people disagree about the source of love and the meaning of life.

Yes, that sentiment resonates. Dissent and uncertainty seem to attend these big-picture issues. Yet in the face of this agree-to-disagree circumstance, it seems to me that one factor looms as the most essential: Which take on the meaning of life is accurate? In other words, which worldview is true?

An acquaintance once asked me where my son and daughter went to college, and I answered: “Messiah College.”

Apparently unfamiliar with this Christian college in Pennsylvania — a first-rate academic institution with two powerhouse soccer programs — his response was: “Are they trying to save the world?”

I sensed a quasi-mocking skepticism in the query. But a follow-up question begs to be asked: Does the world need to be saved?

I surmise that most reasonable people agree on the answer, though some might rephrase the question. For example, to some people the following might be more palatable: Is something wrong with the world? While there is plenty of good in this world, I submit that only the most deluded and out-of-touch people would say, “Nothing is wrong with the world as it is.”

Actually, a few belief systems assert just that, and claim the wrong we see in the world is merely an illusion. The devotees of such beliefs might say those who believe otherwise are deluded and out-of-touch. This brings us back to the quintessential query mentioned several paragraphs ago: Which worldview/philosophy/faith is true?

The answer to that question is the worldview worth buying into — no matter how mistaken or deluded it may seem.

If you could travel by time machine to 18th-century America and tell the colonists that someday a long oceangoing voyage wouldn’t be necessary to get to the New World because an apparatus called an airplane would be able to fly over the sea, they might have inquired about the amount of wine you had imbibed.

Of course, you would be right — your far-seeing worldview would be true.

What of traditional Christian claims such as the resurrection from the dead, the new creation and a heaven-or-hell endgame? Pie in the sky, or airplane in the sky?

Here’s another bedrock principle of the Christian paradigm: God gives people the freedom to love Him (or not) and to disagree with Him.

Which brings us back to … reasonable disagreement. Since human beings differ regarding these elemental questions and issues, consensus will be elusive. So how can we arrive at the truth?

More on that question (and potential answers) next time…

+++

P.S. Full disclosure: I’m a Messiah soccer parent — my daughter Kayla completed her Messiah career this past fall. And I was a copy editor at ESPN.com when the espnW feature appeared.

© Bruce William Deckert 2017

FAST Blast: Musing about relative truth, exclusive claims and Messiah College soccer

Related posts
• Intangibles at heart of stellar Messiah College soccer program
• Reflecting on sports, holiness and Messiah College soccer

+++

THE MESSIAH COLLEGE SOCCER PROGRAM has been chronicled by a multitude of media outlets, including ESPN.com … and, yes, this blog!

(If only ESPN.com could boast the page views this blog enjoys — wait, maybe the reverse is the case. But I digress…)

Savvy sports fans and media mavens alike would agree that Messiah soccer has warranted the coverage. Messiah women’s soccer has been to 12 Final Fours and won five national championships, which is tied for the most titles in NCAA D-III women’s soccer history.

Messiah men’s soccer has also been to 12 Final Fours, winning 10 national championships — the most titles in NCAA men’s soccer history across Divisions I, II and III.

Messiah coaches and players will tell you that while they aim for on-field success, it isn’t the be-all and end-all of the program. They’re also aiming for something more intangible yet more enduring than their on-field achievements.

A first-rate ESPN.com/espnW feature on Messiah women’s soccer highlighted the distinctive signature of a program which endeavors to achieve success that’s defined by more than a win-loss record.

Full disclosure: I’m a Messiah soccer parent — my daughter Kayla completed her Messiah career this past fall. Plus, I was a copy editor at ESPN.com when this feature appeared.

The espnW feature quoted several players, including Marisa Weaver. Kayla and Marisa are part of a senior class that graduates from Messiah with a four-year record of 86-6-7, having reached back-to-back Final Fours and the 2016 national championship game.

By the way, the previous class was 88-4-8 — and when you have to go back only one year to find a record that surpasses 86-6-7, that tells you something about the quality of the program in the win-loss realm. But the wins and losses don’t tell the whole story … or perhaps the plentiful wins are the result of intangibles that aren’t evident to the casual observer.

Marisa outlined that reality for the ESPN.com reporter:

“What makes our team so good and so together is that we love each other,” Weaver said. “But we wouldn’t be able to love each other just from ourselves. You get annoyed with people, you say things you shouldn’t have said and all that kind of thing. It’s just kind of impossible to love someone else unless you have the love of Christ in you. I think that’s what is different.”

There is ample room for reasonable disagreement on the exclusivity of such sentiment, but it bonds those who share it.

+++

I appreciate the clarity of Marisa’s comment. And I can understand the reporter’s follow-up thought. Let’s take a closer look at the life-and-faith motifs that are interwoven with Messiah soccer and this media report.

The reporter offers a philosophical phrase that’s well-stated: There is ample room for reasonable disagreement on the exclusivity of such sentiment….

First, let’s examine exclusivity.

Exclusive claims are a hot topic in this postmodern world, which declares that no absolute truth exists — instead, truth is relative — and asserts that no science, philosophy or religion can explain life and existence for all human beings.

Yes, I realize the ESPN.com reporter didn’t refer to postmodernism directly. Yet since a distrust of exclusivity weaves like Kevlar thread through postmodern thought, the mention of this theme gets me musing.

I grew up in a distinctly postmodern world, and I grew up in the church — seemingly a paradoxical tension.

The church makes absolute truth claims and professes a traditional morality, while the culture at large embraces a more fluid take on reality and morality.

Perhaps differences between worldviews — Christian, postmodern and otherwise — are comparable to differences in scientific opinion.

For example, some scientists assert that one universe exists: i.e., a traditional cosmology. Other scientists maintain that multiple or parallel universes exist: i.e., the multiverse, a newer theory — or a quasi-theory, depending on your definition of the term theory.

These concepts of the cosmos are mutually exclusive. In other words, if there is one universe, that rules out the possibility of multiple universes (and vice versa). You know, Logic 101.

Which leads us to the contradiction of the postmodern protest against exclusive claims: When a postmodern thinker says, “There is no absolute truth because truth is relative,” we can see after minimal reflection that this statement is — you guessed it — exclusive. Such a statement is an exclusive claim because it excludes the possibility of absolute truth … while inconsistently affirming that something is absolutely true — namely, that there is no absolute truth!

Bottom line, the statements we human beings make tend to be exclusive by definition.

If you disagree, clearly you’re entitled to, and correct me if I’m wrong — you can post a comment below. Yet I can’t seem to escape the notion that exclusive/absolute claims are a nonnegotiable component of human experience. And it’s virtually impossible to avoid making them.

+++

So anyone is free to disagree with a Christian worldview which proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the ultimate source of love and truth.

However, when people object to the claims of the Christian faith on the grounds of exclusivity, they apparently are overlooking the multiple ways they make exclusive claims.

A proponent of New Age philosophy once told me, “It doesn’t matter what you believe — as long as you’re comfortable with it.” Such an approach, it appears, is cut from the same cloth as the truth-is-relative camp.

On the one hand, that comment sounds welcoming, warm and fuzzy. On the other hand, do you detect a pitfall in this thinking? I do too — to wit: What if you’re comfortable with something that doesn’t line up with what’s real?

Let’s look at some examples of exclusivity in everyday life and society — we may not think of these as “exclusive claims” … but again, with minimal reflection, we can see that they are:

• Directions — To travel by plane from New York City to London’s Heathrow Airport, a pilot utilizes specific latitude and longitude coordinates — exclusive to Heathrow — or the plane won’t end up in London.

• Finances — Your bank account says you have $10,000 in savings … because, in fact, you deposited $10,000 when you opened your account yesterday. (No, this math question is not on the SAT.) However, you want to withdraw $20,000. You’re comfortable with it, but the bank balks. Why? Because banking truth isn’t relative.

• Law — A prosecution witness says a murder suspect was in a shopping mall at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve, but a defense witness says the suspect was at a restaurant 10 miles away. These contrary reports are, safe to say, mutually exclusive.

• Medicine — A patient undergoes heart bypass surgery but learns afterward that the doctor bypassed the wrong artery. Whether or not the doctor was comfortable with the relative truth of his surgical work, the patient’s heart problem remains.

• Sports — The New England Patriots won Super Bowl LI in February, defeating the Atlanta Falcons in overtime via a historic 25-point comeback. Falcons fans may still be in shock, and surely wish their team won … but the game featured an exclusive outcome.

The advocates of a truth-is-relative approach might object to the above examples.

Perhaps they would say that truth is relative, not in everyday concrete matters, but in more mysterious matters. Or that exclusive claims are unavoidable in our day-to-day lives but should be discarded when considering ultimate reality.

Yet, even as I continue to wrestle with this topic, I wonder — how could truth be relative in the realm of ultimate reality when it’s the absolute opposite of relative in the rest of our experience?

Stay tuned — in my next post, we’ll examine the ESPN.com reporter’s reference to reasonable disagreement … and more.

© Bruce William Deckert 2017

Follow-up post
• Reflecting on worldviews, ‘reasonable disagreement’ and Messiah soccer

FAST Blast: Reflecting on sports, holiness and Messiah College soccer

Related posts
• Intangibles at heart of stellar Messiah College soccer program
• Musing about relative truth, exclusive claims, Messiah soccer

+++

FOR THE MOMENT, let’s view sports through the prism of the scientific method and examine the following statement: The Messiah College soccer program is successful.

Which multiple-choice option most accurately describes that statement:

A. Hypothesis
B. Theory
C. Accepted Fact

If your knowledge of Messiah College soccer is minimal or nil, you have no choice but to choose A — such is the scientific method. However, if you’re conversant with Messiah soccer and/or the Division III soccer landscape, you know the indisputable answer is C.

Indeed, Messiah is a small-college soccer powerhouse. To say the program is successful is clearly far more fact than theory — it’s akin to saying New Jersey is on the East Coast, or water is wet, or the grass is green on Messiah’s Shoemaker Field.

Here is the evidence, by the numbers, for the success of the Messiah women’s soccer program:

• 12 Final Fours
• 5 national championships
• 9 national championship games overall
• 17 straight NCAA tournaments
• 6 undefeated seasons
• Conference regular-season record, past 17 seasons: 113-0-3
• Record under coach Scott Frey: 362-20-20

Coach Frey has been at the helm for those 17 seasons, from 2000 to 2016. To my knowledge, his winning percentage at Messiah is the best in college soccer history among coaches with 10-plus years of experience — across NCAA Divisions I, II and III.

Those five national championships are tied (with UC San Diego) for the most in NCAA D-III women’s soccer history; the first championship game was played in 1986.

And here is the evidence, by the numbers, for the success of the Messiah men’s soccer program:

• 12 Final Fours
• 10 national championships
• 10 national championship games overall
• 19 NCAA tournaments in past 20 years

Those 10 national championships are the most in men’s college soccer history — across NCAA Divisions I, II and III — and the first D-III championship game was played in 1974.

Which program has the most national championships in college soccer history, across all divisions? The D-I North Carolina women, with 21.

By the way, you’ve likely noticed the 12-year delay between the first D-III men’s title game and the first women’s title game. Apparently, Title IX didn’t get an invite to that NCAA dance for a dozen years.

Note: The above info is based on statistics from the NCAA and Messiah websites — and since my daughter Kayla just completed her Messiah career, I naturally have more interest in the women’s program … so consider the additional women’s stats a minor coup for Title IX.

+++

Moreover, the Messiah men’s and women’s soccer programs share a singular distinction: The two teams have won national championships in the same year. No other college or university soccer program in the country can claim such synchronized titles — in NCAA Divisions I, II or III.

Accomplishing that unprecedented feat once, however, wasn’t enough for Messiah soccer. Twice wasn’t enough, either. Or thrice.

When you blaze a trail to the mountaintop and the view is magnificent, why not make the trek again … and again?

The Messiah men’s and women’s soccer programs have won national championships in the same year four times — in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012.

Widening the scope to all college sports reveals that only two other schools join Messiah in the Men’s-Women’s Same-Sport/Same-Year National Championship Club. The closest competition: Connecticut men’s and women’s basketball. Both programs captured Division I national titles in 2004 and 2014.

The other club member: In 1984 the University of Central Missouri, known then as Central Missouri State, won the men’s and women’s Division II basketball titles.

To review — and pay attention closely in case there’s a test — here’s the tally for dual national titles:

Messiah College, 4 — all other NCAA schools, 3

Note: If I’ve missed another college that has dual titles, please let me know — based on my knowledge and research, these three schools are the only members of this exceedingly exclusive club.

+++

Some of the terms employed in this post — singular, distinction, exclusive — dovetail with one of my earlier posts:
Who wants to be holy? Reflections on sports and holiness

The gist of that post is this premise: Root words indicate that to be holy means to be set apart and distinct, and we can glean lessons about holiness from the world of sports.

That concept applies exquisitely to Messiah soccer and the statistics associated with the men’s and women’s programs. Their success sets them apart — makes them, in the root-word sense, holy.

While Messiah’s soccer numbers are staggering, both programs quantify big-picture success in ways that can be measured only outside the lines. Naturally, as a Christian college, Messiah’s goals for holiness go beyond scoring goals and winning games.

Yet some might question: Why would anyone want to be holy?

This view may perceive holiness as boring or needlessly rule-based. Some critics perceive a holier-than-thou attitude in the church and cite that as a reason to dismiss the Christian faith.

But Jesus of Nazareth had a distaste for that type of holiness, too.

Remember the root words mentioned above: Holiness means being set apart and distinct. Another root word: wholeness. Yes, to be holy is to be whole.

This begs a different question: Why would anyone not want to be holy?

In other words, who wouldn’t want to realize the distinction of a record-setting athletic program (or fill in the blank with your enterprise of choice)? And who wouldn’t want to experience the wholeness symbolized by a well-trained athlete on a field of play?

So … here’s a further question: How can we acquire the holiness we desire?

Perhaps there are as many answers to that query as there are philosophies, religions and worldviews.

Messiah women’s soccer (or MWS) has a tradition of closing the season with a celebration banquet. Each senior speaks and articulates the program’s core values — for one, investing in relationships — and notes the astonishing impact those friendships have on the team’s success. They also speak of the One they believe is the source of all true friendship, and all true holiness: Jesus of Nazareth.

One of my daughter’s teammates says: “I know my life wouldn’t be what it is now without the caring hearts of my best friends who taught me, guided me, listened to me, shared with me, and above all showed me what the unconditional grace and love of Christ looks like.”

She continues, “MWS is so not about soccer. Sure, it brings us together, but our God is at the root of it all.”

My daughter’s comments about MWS coincide with those sentiments (also quoted in my previous post, but worth repeating here):

“I saw friendships that were marked by a willingness to care for the other in radical, sacrificial ways. Most importantly, what I found was the foundation from which all these actions stemmed — the desire to love God and love others. Although soccer is what brought our team together, that is not the foundation of our program. Our goal is to point back to God…”

These teammates and friends attest that the Creator of the universe is the foundation for the excellence that infuses Messiah College soccer — they see God’s reality not as a hypothesis or theory, but as an established fact.

Of course, not every college, Christian or secular, enjoys the success of Messiah’s soccer programs. It’s safe to say that believing in God doesn’t guarantee on-field success, or any other kind of success as defined by society.

Yet when an individual or a team struggles — as the Messiah women did early this past season before making a run to the national title game — these players and coaches also see God as the source of the perseverance needed to continue pursuing excellence as He defines it … and to not give up.

Do you long for wholeness and excellence — for holiness? Where do you believe that longing comes from?

And what is your hypothesis for how such holiness can be attained?

© Bruce William Deckert 2017

FAST Blast: Intangibles at heart of stellar Messiah College soccer program

’Tis the season.

Not for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc. That holiday season is history — until next December, anyway.

In the American sports world, ’tis the season for … well, you know: basketball, hockey and football — though for football, ’tis the postseason.

But wait — ’tis the season for the other football. In the United States it’s called soccer, of course, but whichever term you prefer, it is undeniably the world’s most popular sport. Leagues across Europe and the world are in the thick of their campaigns, from the Premier League (England) to Ligue 1 (France) to the Bundesliga (Germany) to Serie A (Italy) to La Liga (Spain).

Meanwhile, American soccer is in its offseason after championships were decided in December both professionally (Major League Soccer) and collegiately (three NCAA divisions plus other associations).

My focus is on one of those college divisions, NCAA D-III women’s soccer, and I’ll spotlight one Division III team: the Messiah College Falcons.

+++

Early last month, the Messiah women reached the national championship game — which ended in a pulse-pounding 1-1 tie after two overtimes — and then fell 5-4 in penalty kicks to Washington-St. Louis.

The Falcons went on a steamrolling run through the regular season and the NCAA tournament. After starting the season with a 2-2 record, the Messiah women won 20 straight games — including the tournament — and advanced to the Final Four by going on the road to defeat defending champ Williams.

FYI: My daughter Kayla just completed her senior season at Messiah, in case you were wondering whether I chose this team at random.

She was a central defender as a junior and senior, and a wingback/fullback as a freshman and sophomore. I would list her career accomplishments, but then I suspect I’d be diagnosed with Proud-Obnoxious-Father Syndrome.

Besides, my focus is on the program and the ideals it aims for — and often fulfills, according to those who know the program best. And who knows it best? The players, naturally.

At the end-of-season team banquets I’ve attended, a consistent theme has been voiced by graduating seniors (each speaks at the banquet): Coaches care about the players as people first and soccer players second.

These seniors refer to the program’s core values — such as putting team before individual, investing in relationships, pursuing excellence — and thank coaches for living lives that are worth emulating on and off the field.

Seniors speak of friendships forged with teammates — through sharing day-to-day life and the crucible of offseason training and the pure joy of zany team events such as Halloween costume competitions. Speaking of training: 20 straight 200-yard sprints, anyone?

Here’s a sample of what my daughter said in her speech:

“I think about the teammates who went far beyond the surface level and saw who I really am — the way girls intentionally pursue relationships with one another. I see a group of people who love to be together, plain and simple. I couldn’t be more grateful for my four years in this program. It was a dream of mine for a while [to play at Messiah], but the reality of being a Messiah women’s soccer player surpasses anything I could have imagined.”

By the way, the emphasis on cultivating healthy and strong relationships hasn’t come at the expense of success in the win-loss department — far from it. In fact, you can make a case that such an emphasis has been a key reason for the program’s amazing achievements.

Sure, too much water will hurt a garden — just as out-of-kilter relationships can damage a team — but the right amount of free-flowing water is, safe to say, essential for a garden’s well-being.

How successful is Messiah women’s soccer in the record book?

Led by coach Scott Frey, the program has won five national championships, the first in 2005 and the next four coming in a five-year span from 2008 to 2012. To my knowledge, his winning percentage at Messiah (in the .930 range) is the best in college soccer history across all divisions among coaches with 10-plus years of experience.

My daughter’s class finished with a four-year record of 86-6-7 — with plenty of help, of course, from other classes. If you’re keeping score at home, here are the season-by-season marks:

2016 — 22-3
2015 — 22-0-3
2014 — 22-0-3
2013 — 20-3-1

The impressive distinction of such numbers goes hand in hand with players’ testimonies about their growth outside the lines, thanks to the impact of coaches and teammates. It’s no wonder that one of my daughter’s classmates said in her speech that Messiah is “the greatest place in the country to play soccer” — a sentiment expressed by many student-athletes who have appreciated the program’s fusion of deep friendships and extraordinary soccer.

This remarkable blend dovetails with the college’s athletic mission:

The Department of Athletics at Messiah College seeks to develop Christian character while pursuing athletic excellence. In doing so, the Department fulfills Messiah College’s mission to educate men and women toward maturity of intellect, character, and Christian faith.

In addition to the team banquet, my daughter was among the players who spoke at the NCAA D-III Final Four banquet in December. While parents weren’t invited — the event was for the eight Final Four teams — I read her speech.

(If the phrase eight Final Four teams is jarring to your mathematical sensibilities, the solution is easier than you might imagine: The banquet was for the men’s and women’s Final Four. Now, back to your regularly scheduled post…)

Note how this excerpt of her speech is a real-life, real-time example of Messiah’s athletic department mission:

“I noticed a coaching staff who demanded our absolute best on the field, but who also invested in our character development. At practice, leading meant being the first person to get water, pick up cones and move goals…”

“I saw friendships that were marked by a willingness to care for the other in radical, sacrificial ways. Most importantly, what I found was the foundation from which all these actions stemmed — the desire to love God and love others. Although soccer is what brought our team together, that is not the foundation of our program. Our goal is to point back to God…”

Coach Frey has summed up Messiah women’s soccer this way: “We’re playing a sport we love, with teammates we love, for a God we love.”

+++

For those who believe in God — soccer fans or not — perhaps you’re ready to say “amen.”

For those who don’t believe in God — skeptics or otherwise — perhaps you’re prone to question or dismiss such talk.

I grew up in the church, and I’m aiming to persevere in the church, yet I have wrestled with faith questions for most of my life. Of course, the writers of Scripture express plenty of questions along with their affirmations of faith.

So while this blog post has arrived at a natural stopping place — and is lengthy enough already — I invite you to stay tuned for a follow-up post on some life-and-faith motifs that are interwoven with Messiah soccer.

P.S. To receive an email notice when there’s a new post, you can enter your email address on the top right of this blog. I average about one post per month; the max I’ll post is one per week.

© Bruce William Deckert 2017

Follow-up posts
• Reflecting on sports, holiness and Messiah College soccer
• Musing about relative truth, exclusive claims and Messiah College soccer