Continual Repentance

From The Valley of Vision...

"I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day’s work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace."

A Difference Maker Indeed

This summer I had the fortune to coach our high school's varsity and junior varisty squads. The last week of the season before the summer play-offs we played Brookfield Academy. BA had/has a 6'4" senior guard who just recently gave an oral commitment to play Div 1 basketball at North Dakota. The article about his announcement had the following tidbit,

“Troy played one league game for us this summer and he was the difference maker in that game,” Brookfield Academy coach Dave Von Rueden said. “He showed a maturity level that I think is the ingredient he needs to lead him on the road to success.”

That one game he played was against us and when his coach says he was "the difference maker" he wasn't just blowing hot air. Huff dunked on us 5 times in addition to lighting us up from the outside and slicing and dicing his way to the basket almost at will. That was kind of Coach Von Rueden to not mention us by name.

More from Winning Sounds Like This...

"...the pure passion... the joy of competing and sweating and learning to do things you couldn't do the day before. "

One reason sports are great...

"You never know when kids are going to stun you with their composure and resilience and leap to a place they've never gotten close to. When it happens and all the hours and drills and caring have taken root and yield this kind of return, there is no better feeling. None."

One reason coaching is great...

"I am in a quiet world. That's where I live. That's what I like. The world of noise is for hearing people."

Though I would really miss music, it might be nice to live in a quiet world.

"'Keep cool', [the coach] said. 'The best revenge is to smile and keep playing your game.'"

Fantastic quote!

"I'm making deposits now so I can draw on it later, when I've still got legs and my opponent doesn't."

Great quote for early season training.

"[When the opponent stops playing] It's a reliable indicator that there's a stoppage... but it's not foolproof. Some years ago, the Gallaudet men were playing against a hearing team that faked a stoppage in play, relaxing their bodies. When the Bison men did likewise, the opponents threw the ball downcourt for an easy layup. The official saw what happened and assessed the hearing team with a technical."

Crazy.

"To [the coaches], it's one of the magical qualities about sports. There is always a chance for redemption, to get it right, up until the last game of the season. That hope is what drives a team to keep working, to fight through its frustration."

Another reason sports are great...

"It's that old preconception at work again, the world equating intelligence with the ability to speak."
Just like Qui-Gon Jinn said to Jar Jar Binks, "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent."

"Desire creates the power."

Another good coaching quote to file away.

"The players on the Galludet women's basketball team have no desire to hear, and no use for people who want to fix them. They aren't in denial about the pain they've experienced because of their deafness. They don't dispute that there are issues related to being closed out of the world of sound, gaps in their knowledge and development that are as inevitable as lobbying in Washington [the home of Galludet]; that's how it is when you can't overhear anything, can't hear sirens or standing ovations, can't pick up a thousand little pieces of aural information from the world around you. They move forward with their lives anyway."

Wow.

My Big White Family

When I was teaching in Chicago, on my first field trip some of my students spotted the other white teacher from another school and immediately asked, "Mr. Arvold- that your cousin?"

My reply was, "Yep."

Thus my favorite game to play with students was invented. From that day forward, most famous white people became my relatives. My favorites to name-drop are Marshall, Grayson and Millie. Of course the kids know them as Eminem, The Professor and Hannah Montana, but I tell the kids that my grandma doesn't let my cousins use their "stage" names at her summer bar-B-Q. Usually, I can keep most of my students convinced that I am not lying for the better part of a school year (or more).

So today in my office, I was telling some kids about my uncle (Rod Parsley). One kid - who's heard the routine before - says, "Dang, everbody you're cousin!" Then there was a pause, and another kids says, "Matthew Perry your cousin."

"Ah...no," I reply.

From Winning Sounds Like This: A Season with the Women's Basketball Team at Gallaudet, The World's Only University for the Deaf...

"Gyms have never lost their allure for me...the sight of the honey-colored floor and the orange rims and the shellacked smell of the wood made me feel good...The lights slowly [fizzling] on. I [feel] like the current [is] surging through me."

I don't think I could have said it better...

"Not a single player expressed any interest in hearing. As close as I got to a dissenting opinion was from Nanette, who said she was curious about what birds and music sounded like. Nanette said she'd like to try it for an afternoon, then go back to being deaf."

This book is is the first I have read about the lives of Deaf people- just thought this was very interesting. I would really miss music if I lost my hearing.

"[The coach] kept reminding players, 'Everything changes. There are no guarantees. You don't know what kind of player you will be in six months. You don't know who will get hurt, who will be healthy, who will get better and who won't. The team we are today is not necessarily the team we will be next season."

Good coaching quote I think I will steal for this upcoming season.

"It is a few minutes past four on a November afternoon, the sky is the color of slate..."

The color of slate...

"'[The players] tell me something, and in my heart I believe it,' [Coach] Kitty said, 'I want to believe it. Sometimes there's this huge gap between what they say and do and that hurts me...Sometimes I wonder why I even bother coaching.' Her body recoiled after she said the words, stiffening from their hardness. She doesn't wonder at all about coaching; she loves it, loves the bond with the players, the intimacy, and the growth. That's the best part, by far, seeing a young woman grow, not so much by learning how to shoot a left-handed hook shot or execute a crossover dribble, but by acquiring a more enduring set of skills: learning about perseverance and accountability, finding the courage to look at her own behavior instead of criticizing somebody else."

This is why you coach...

"...mostly the world of sound [to the deaf] is like somebody's wedding you pass by in your car: There's no reason to pay much attention because it has nothing to do with you."

Another great sentence...

"It has always struck [Coach] Kitty as ironic that the very qualities she finds maddening about Ronda Jo are the same qualities that make her admire her so much as a person..."

I found this to be true these past three seasons in the city. I cannot ask my best competitors to turn off that aspect of their personality when they leave the court.

"...the emergence of Christianity [did not provide] any respite [from ill formed views of the deaf]. While the Old Testament of the Bible depicts the deaf as part of God's creation, the New Testament casts them as souls who have been overtaken by an evil spirit. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 10, verse 17, reads: 'So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.' The upshot for literal Bible readers was that deaf people were incapable of salvation."

Sad commentary - if it is/was true...