Check Diversity at the Door and Look for Shared values First

Shared Values

I guess I just don't see things the same as a lot of people.  I remember those group exercises at work where you were asked to go over questions to determine if you were more like this animal or that animal--or some other metaphor that would determine whether you were a leader, a follower, and this or that. Often when I took those tests my results were mixed. I was seldom a rabbit or a dog, but maybe half rabbit and half dog. It got to be frustrating because I stood out in these training sessions and with my employer you really didn't want to standout. 

Although my test results were always mixed, I have written before that I am not big on diversity. I know that sounds like heresy today, but what I mean is I respect differences in people, but I am pulled towards people of different (diverse) backgrounds who share common values with me. 

Someone who is some kind of witch may value dark spirits and sing songs to the devil. I am not attracted to that, although it is diverse. I used to know some foreign students who hated certain races that represented their neighbors back home. I also knew some foreign students who believed every American was out to steal their money.  I wasn't fond of that diversity either. I remember a person of a certain European extraction who worked for my old company and was in town for a training session. He had decided that he didn't want any part of religion because he didn't want it to weigh his behavior down. I heard his view the day after a late after-meeting cocktail party where he was trying "pick up" one of my colleagues. He demonstrated to all of us that a little religious conviction might have saved him from making a fool of himself. No, I find more and more evidence that valuing diversity for diversity's sake is not a real good quality. 

My son worked with foreign students and still does. He used to bring some of them home for visits. We had a Chinese graduate student with us for several days. Her background, religion, culture, --you name it was far different than ours. But she was here 10 years ago and we are still talking about her. But again, it wasn't the differences that endeared her to us, it was her values and compassion that transcended everything else. She had a lot of the qualities that we valued and she had her own way of expressing them. She had such a wonderful appreciation of my wife and for those days it was like she was another daughter. 

I have this sense that it your own values are in order, you can check diversity at the door and first figure out whether the people in question have their values in order as well. I don't think that should be a problem. 

Sporting Chance Press Work in 2020: Sportsmanship by Patrick McCaskey

 In 2020,  Americans fought hard times. It was an uphill climb and is still going on this month as we are seeing plans to start administering vaccines for the general public to defeat the Coronavirus. It was a pleasure to publish four books at Sporting Chance Press this year and those efforts kept me close to home. 

Our first book this year was Sportsmanship, our fifth book in the Sports and Faith Series. Patrick McCaskey, Vice President of the Chicago Bears, lives a life that is one of sports and faith. Working with the Chicago Bears Football Club, programs that honor exemplary players and coaches, charitable events and programs that give back to the community, and much more are all part of Pat's existence. I can't think of anyone better to write about sports and faith than Pat. 

Besides stories of players, coaches, and contests, Sportsmanship includes a literary portion that features a section on the author's favorite authors, a collection of his Biblical inspires poems, and a collection of speeches he has given over the years. Certainly, those who have seem McCaskey in person these past years will find these works a valuable keepsake.

Who is author Pat McCaskey? McCaskey is a grandson of Papa Bear George Halas, a brother of Chicago Bears Chairman George McCaskey, and son of the guiding spirit of the Bears today, Virginia McCaskey.  McCaskey has been working for the Bears for over 45 years and he is the Chairman of Sports Faith International and Catholic Radio WSFI. 

The Miracle Food Multiplication, Matthew 14:13-21

 

The Miracle Food Multiplication, Matthew 14:13-21

Jesus was quite concerned about the crowd.

He cured the sick and He fed the hungry.

Jesus Christ met the needs of the people.

He was a capable and gracious host.

 

Jesus prefigured Holy Communion.

The Eucharist is an institution.

 

Jesus received great cooperation.

Israel became a well-fed nation.

The Disciples made the distribution.

Multiplication was the solution.

 

Christ said eternal life is a banquet.

Earthly banquets could be heaven previews.

We can do that by serving loaves and fishes.

The men volunteer to do the dishes.

Copyright 2020, Sporting Chance Press

Appearing in:  Poems About the Gospel

Specifications: 

• Paperback : 176 pages
• ISBN-10 : 173458632X
• ISBN-13 : 978-1734586329
• Item Weight : 10.1 ounces
• Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.44 x 8.5 inches
• Publisher : Sporting Chance Press, Inc. (November 10, 2020)
• Price: $20 
• Available on Amazon. 

Bill Gates Reads a Lot of Books

Bill Gates is famous for a lot of things. One of those that publishers like is that Gates is a book reader. Few people are book readers, although it is not unusual for successful people to spend time with books. Bill's tastes run along the lines of fairly technical books. But by reading books, he does Americans a favor because we certainly like to follow our celebrities. 

My public library once had a visual promotion that consisted of large posters of people in our town reading books--these were recognizable people like police officers, the mayor, and others along with come regular library patrons. I give them an A+ for the effort. 

These days we also follow people who are in videos that have gone viral. Rather than reference someone's definition of "gone viral," I just think of it as a video that we are told has gone viral by some television show or media news source. There is the recent video of a man named Nathan Apodaca who is skateboarding while drinking Ocean Spray Cran-raspberry Juice and lip sinking the Fleetwood Mac song Dreams. The TV picked up on this and certainly by now the video is hugely viral. Not only has the video sold some juice, the Fleetwood Mac song was back on the charts. 

You have to wonder about advertising expense is this environment. Sometimes the best ads are 

F R E E! 

I'll keep working my blogs and Facebook pages and hope that something happens. 

Sporting Chance Press published 4 Books this year: 

Baseball's Winning Ways

Papa Bear and the Chicago Bears' Winning Ways

Poems About the Gospel 

Sportsmanship

I've been in publishing/books since I was 16 years old in 1969. I'd love to see America fall in love with books again regardless of who leads the way! 

 

Child Rearing: No Easy Task

This picture of my grandfather reminds me that raising children is not easy. My grandparents had five children and added another from the neighborhood. The neighborhood boy was the youngest, a much loved son, and it was said he brought much good fortune to the family. Although in time he was just as rough as the rest of the lads. 

My Irish granny was 4-foot-10 and my father, the oldest, was a 13-pounder at birth. My grandfather had his horse and buggy delivery business that eventually led him to the Teamsters. He was one of those no drinking, no smoking, no swearing Irishmen. My grandfather spend most of his time trying to earn a living and my grandmother did most of the child-raising. It was never easy for them, but they had their faith. 

Those of us who had several kids often learned after having a second child to breathe a little easier and not take everything so seriously.  As much as we like to berate parents who are out there seemingly asking others to raise their kids, there are many parents today focused on one or two kids and probably spending too much time analyzing things. Obviously there are degrees of over-parenting and under-parenting. I think one truth about parenting is that regardless of how much you love your child and how much attention you give them, there can still be problems--maybe not serious problems, but problems none the less.

I was driving down the street this week and I saw a Mom hovering over her kid who was out at the bus stop apparently waiting for the bus. She was standing there with a bowl of cereal, shoveling it into the mouth of her child presumably to make sure he was well fed  for the morning. I can only assume that it was a tough morning for them and time had slipped away and Mom was doing her best to see that the child was well nourished for the morning. 

I have to think the lesson here is that you are going to have disaster days and you won't be able to make things perfect for your child.  Some mornings the child may actually go to school hungry until lunch. For old-school Catholics we had days of fasting where sometime we didn't eat anything until late morning after Mass. Kids survived. At the same time, a little suffering on the part of  your child will not hurt, it will condition your child for real life. Think of the kids today who have allergies--some suggest that it is because as young babies their mothers had them living with no contaminants--at least that's one theory.

A priest that I met talked at a recent mission about the age old problem of women who marry needy, emotionally damaged men. First the woman sacrifices herself to serving her needy husband and then she often over-parents her children. Often the needy man is addicted to something. This old trick of nursing the man of course rarely works because the husband is allowed to continue his damaging habits and behavior and the same bad business is passed on the kids. From the priest's perspective, the problem is that those involved have never developed healthy relationships with God that allow them to be independent and not dependent on things that don't work. The more healthy we are in our relationship with God, the less likely we are to take part of some addiction. Sounds kind of simple, but today we have millions and millions of American parents who see faith as something modern parents can do without. Many of today's parents are too sophisticated to seek faith. Without God, without a higher power, many of their children will become addicted to drugs and alcohol (which happen to be big money-makers these days for our government and some industries).

Addiction is a complicated business and I have had many relatives in my family suffer from it. But if I was starting out today with little kids, I'd put church on my list of things to do for them--just as I did when my family began many years ago--only this time I'd try to do it better.

I was by no means a perfect parent, but I also see parents who can't seem to recognize their own weaknesses in their children.  Wise parents often know that if something about one of your kids is really driving you nuts, it probably has its source from you or your spouse. As parents, it makes sense to discuss this kind of thing with each other and try to recall things that helped get over those problems when you were young.  Maintain your confidence and take a deep breath and look at how it was resolved. If it is something that you believe comes from your wife's or husband's side, don't get too cocky, help solve the problem not point the blame at your spouse.

I have a friend who tells me that his kids problems stem from his wife's family.  I know his family pretty well and I am not sure he is right.  I think regardless of where the problem comes, it is your problem, too.

I've mentioned before in a blog that raising boys today is not easy. On the one hand many parents want to raise boys without risk. They want to pick "safe sports" and make sure their son avoids injury and risk.  I am not sure that is possible unless you want to raise what we called in the old days a little sissy. And unfortunately, even a sissy can get hurt.

I remember when I was a kid, I was knocked off a bike and got stitches.  I was run over by a bike and got more stitches.  A friend of mine was clowning around and threw a lead pipe in my direction--even more stitches. Another friend threw a rock (not a stone) even more stitches. And perhaps the most ironic injury, but perhaps the worst, was falling down on the back of my head on the ice ON THE WAY TO CHURCH. I suffered a concussion on that one. Could I have avoided those injuries, not really.

In high school things didn't get any easier. I went out for a boxing tournament and got another concussion.

All these injuries and no football injuries? Not quite, when I played football I was a defensive lineman and two of the opposition in practice decided they had enough of me getting past an opposing blocker. On one play, one player dove at my knee and while I was dealing with that, a second one from the offensive backfield charged at me and speared me in the chin with his helmet. Another concussion.

I was just an average athlete, but injuries seem to occur to boys when they are just hanging out with each other.  I am not sure you can avoid them. I would never tell a Mom that their son should do this or that, or not do this and that--that's a Mom's call.

When I was a kid, we had a neighbor boy who died as a result of flipping on the back of a car in the winter.  This was a common activity and I had never heard of anyone getting injured before this. My cousin died as a result of an electrical accident--he was in fifth grade.  Another neighborhood boy did something more reckless and died. And yet another kid from the neighborhood died in a baseball game. We also had a friend's little brother who died of cancer. I can tell you that each and every Mom in those cases would have done something different if there was a way for them to mitigate those risks. In most cases a mom may have no clue about what a child might do.

In our day, parents would have said something like boys are a risky proposition. I think they are still are and in modern times, it doesn't get much easier.

One thing my granny had was faith. And I think that was also the thing that helped her get through it all. 

sportingchancepress.com

 

My Irish Mom and My Book

My Book: The Brown and White

My mother had been born in Scotland of Irish parents who had left Ireland with their families (Donegal and Dublin) to seek work in the shipbuilding area of Scotland around Glasgow (Clyde Bank). Mom's parents died and then she moved to the United States as a child to be raised by her brother. She came over just about the time of the Great Depression. I am not sure if life would have been easier in Clyde Bank or Chicago where she settled, but when WWII came about, mom's relatives in Clyde Bank had to survive the Blitz. 

Mom lived to be almost 100 years old and she was never an old lady. Life with mom was an experience. In fact my early life was such an experience that I wrote about it.  My book, The Brown and White, is my best effort to retell some of those experiences, but it was set up as a work of fiction. It was also written over several decades.  It speaks of Chicago city life in the late 1960s and living through a lot of change--but always around family, friends, and good humor. 

Mom passed away two years ago and I wanted to write this small piece to mention the The Brown and White.  

Revisiting the Challenges of Having Adult Children

Kids Are Always Seeking Help

Raising kids is sometimes routine, but other times quite difficult. We often need to put our kids needs ahead of our own--Although not all the time. Kids who have sacrificing parents can sometimes take it for granted and not learn themselves about the importance of sacrificing for others. 

I wrote a short piece a while back on how as parents it sometimes requires we put our own pressing priorities aside and listen to our kids when it is just not convenient to listen to them. We might have meetings at work that have set our schedule back and we need to get work done at home. Or we might need to run out somewhere and see someone on important business. We might have the game of the week on--and it might be a good one that we've looked forward to all week.  It might even be something like mashing the potatoes for dinner or taking a phone call from a friend, but there are times when we know our kids need our attention and they need it NOW. You can't schedule parenting and people who believe a little time can be enough if it's quality time, I'm not sure if I buy that argument. 

When our kids start their own families, it often requires more sacrifice on our parts, but in a different way. Our grown-up kids have the same responsibilities that we had as parents and time can be scarce for them. It might mean we get that "how are you, Dad" call when they are multi-tasking, say taking a walk or trying to quietly do the dishes. It's easy to feel a little slighted when this kind of thing happens. 

Some parents of adult children are very generous with their time. But I do think, just how that works can be dependant upon the parents themselves. Some parents who are grandparents have a talent for watching young kids and enjoy it. Others found it challenging to be parents of young kids and even more challenging to spend extended time with their grandchildren.  I suppose for most people, things get worked out, but at the same time we should consider the personality and qualities of the people. 

I think at some point we do our best and be as honest as we can be. If you have a 40-year old son or daughter that never learned to show any appreciation there may  be consequences. Perhaps that child wants you to watch their child or children for them frequently.  

Sometimes I wish I could call an aunt of mine or one of my grandmas and get their take on things. Back in the day, it just seemed like there was more certainty and expectations were laid out. In today's world, it just seems like some of the best people that I know have more questions than answers, but generally put it all on their shoulders. 

Some grandparents were older when they had their children. Remember the "you can have it all" movement--a promising career fulfilled that required postponing having children? If you postponed having kids and then your kids postponed having kids, you might find yourselves grandparents for the first time when you are in your 70s or older.  You might look pretty good for a retired granny or grandpa, but watching a little roadrunner can take a lot out of you. That gigantic Starbucks coffee can help for the first hour, but the fall-off in energy can be almost debilitating. Some work out a tag-team approach, when granny is ready to collapse--hand the child off to grandpa! 

I suppose in the end, one of the wisests of relatives might tell me that life is messy and you have to make the decisions for yourself.  

Most women I know just keep on keeping on, making every sacrifice for their kids and their kids' kids. The grandads seem to do a lot of driving, going to sporting events, etc., but often they don't change a lot of diapers, do the extra wash, or cook the dinners. On the other hand, there's a lot of take-out these days and plenty of activities that old pops can take the kids to keep them occupied. 

Distance of course is the wild card.  When you kids live away, you are not likely to be much help except for short periods of time and visits. Whatever you situation, it all comes out in the wash, I guess.  It does require a certain civility to make it all work. 

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I am a book publisher who publishes books on sports and faith at sportingchancepress.com

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is our fifth Sports and Faith Series book written by Patrick McCaskey. In publishing,  you have deadlines and you have deadlines. We will be publishing this book sometime in later this month or early  February. 

Sportsmanship is the most ambitious book in Patrick McCaskey’s popular Sports and Faith Series. First, readers are treated to a wonderful Chicago Bears Calendar of historical events that celebrate one piece of Bears’ history for each day of the year. Facts surrounding many Bears’ players and their achievements are found here reflecting the hundred year history of the team.

Next, individual chapters feature interesting stories, sports segments, personal reminiscences, faith experiences, and the author’s humorous musings. Reflecting the practice of classic sports journalist memoirs, McCaskey has frequently written about his favorite athletes and coaches. In Sportsmanship, the author adds a new twist to this practice by including a chapter on favorite writers who have inspired him.  Perhaps a surprise for some readers will be the author’s chapter on biblical poems based on the four Gospels.  Towards the end of the volume are McCaskey’s speeches that have been used at social and civil events, motivational presentations to churches and schools, and all types of occasions relating to his passion, the Chicago Bears.

As a Bears’ Vice President who is immersed in community outreach and personal charitable pursuits, McCaskey writes about many exceptional people that he has known along the way. Writing and speaking for many decades, the author is an athlete in his own right whose tastes in literature have influenced his career. McCaskey has always followed his grandfather George Halas’s advice to maintain a positive outlook.  At the same time, readers will recognize his own enthusiasm for respecting those around him and taking time to smile and enjoy himself in his efforts.