Good Afternoon & Happy Sunday! Here’s to the first day of March! Where did February go???
Lots to celebrate today…our beloved Gonzaga Men’s & Women’s Basketball teams finished their regular seasons in fine fashion yesterday. Now it’s on to the West Coast Conference tournaments and then to March Madness. Let’s hope that they both go “all the way”! Wouldn’t that be something! GO ZAGS!!!
Speaking of celebrations, here’s to our friend, Danny, who celebrates his 44th birthday today; to friend Stefanie, who celebrated her birthday yesterday (February 29th of all days!); to friend Hwa Choi, mother and wife extraordinaire (and lovely woman inside and out) and to friend and former business associate and worksite health promotion advocate/professional extraordinaire, Kathy, who celebrate their birthdays tomorrow, March 2nd! It’s also actor, director & producer extraordinaire, Ron Howard of “Mayberry RFD” & “Apollo 11” fame, who is 66 today; to singer/actor & civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, turns 93 today; to rock singer Roger Daltrey, who is 76 today; and to actress Catherine Bach of “Dukes Of Hazard” fame, who turns 65 today. Happy Birthday to all of you!
Today also marks the beginning of the Peace Corps in 1961. I’ll never forget watching President John F. Kennedy deliver is Inaugural Address when he stated “Ask not what your country can do for you…ask what you can do for your country” and his announcement about initiating a Peace Corps that would be dedicated to peaceful assistance to countries around the world…promoting the idea of “service beyond self.” We need to recapture that spirit and the kind of leadership that inspires that kind of service, don’t you think?
I had the pleasure of meeting a couple at church this morning who came to Spokane and settled in Medical Lake from eastern Ukraine, the scene of armed conflict between Ukraine and the Soviet Union. He’s a bus driver and she’s a medical assistant and they are so glad to be here rather than there. They have a number of family members in eastern Ukraine. It’s something we should all be praying about…that peace comes to that region of the world soon. Even though we have difficulties in the U.S., they pale in comparison to what people are living through in a number of places throughout the world. We are still the beacon of hope for the world…let’s don’t blow it by embracing failed policies/political & economic systems of the past that have proven themselves to be a failure. This lovely couple at church expressed misgivings about seeing what is taking place in the U.S. right now, as they have been here for almost 15 years now and have seen what failed political & economic systems can do to a society.
Judy & I participated in another Barre Code session at The Barre Code in North Spokane (just south of the Wandermere Business District, across from the Pine Acres Golf Center). It was another great session of stretching and body conditioning that really helps an older fellow like me who isn’t the most flexible guy in the world. The sessions of “Barre” and “Barre Restore” have really helped me become more flexible and I always feel better for having participated in sessions 2-3 times a week. I highly recommend The Barre Code for male & female friends….you can even attend the sessions as couples! It’s a very welcoming place and the instructors are all first-class & very helpful in showing how to do the exercises properly. There’s a great vibe there! You can check it out by going to www.thebarrecode.com/spokane and/or googling them at “The Barre Code Spokane.” You’ll be glad you did.
I had the pleasure of coming across the 1969 Topps Football Card for David (“Deacon”) Jones of Los Angeles Rams fame. He was on of the “Fearsome Foursome” for the Rams in the 1960s. Those players were widely considered to be the best such unit in the history of the NFL. In my humble opinion, he will go down in sports history as one of the greatest defensive ends of all-time, if not THE greatest. It is said that Deacon Jones revolutionized the position of defensive end. He was in eight Pro Bowl games; was a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year (1967 & 1968) and was recently named to the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. Needless to say, he’s also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame! According to his 1969 football card, “This hard tackler is a natural enemy of opposing quarterbacks.” “Deacon” Jones was born in 1938 in Eatonville, Florida into humble beginnings (he and his family of 10 lived in a four bedroom home); played high school football at Hungerford High School in Eatonville; went on to play college football at Mississippi Valley State University and was the 14th all-around draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams. He specialized in quarterback “sacks”, a term he coined. He was nicknamed “the Secretary of Defense.” The Los Angeles Times called Jones the “most valuable Ram of all time,” and former Rams head coach George Allen called him the “greatest defensive end of modern football.” As a 14 year old, he witnessed a carload of white teenagers laughingly hit an elderly black woman with a watermelon. The woman died days later from the injury, and there never was a police investigation. Jones later said that “unlike many black people then, I was determined not to be what society said I was…” “Thank God I had the ability to play a violent game like football. It game me an outlet for the anger in my heart.” Jones originally started his college career with South Carolina State, but it revoked his scholarship after they learned that he participated in a protest during the Civil Rights Movement. However, one of teh assistant coaches at South Carolina State was leaving to coach at Mississippi Vocational, and told Jones and some of the other African-American players that he could get them scholarships at the new school. While Jones was playing at Mississippi Vocational, he and his African-American teammates had to sleep in cots in the opposing team’s gym because motels would not take them on numerous occasions. “Pro Football Weekly” reported that Jones accumulated 173 1/2 sacks over his career, which would be third on the all-time sack list! After football, Deacon Jones worked as a television actor and appeared in numerous TV programs since the 1970s, among them “The Odd Couple”, “The Brady Bunch”, “Bewitched”, “Wonder Woman” and the film “Heaven Can Wait.” He also played a role in the hit show “ALF,” where he played a father figure to Alf. Jones worked for many companies, including Miller Brewing Company, Haggar Clothing, Pacific Coast Medical Enterprises and Epson America and was the chairman of AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in their national hypertension awareness program. He also created the Deacon Jones Foundation, an organization he founded in 1997 “to assist young people and the communities in which they live with a comprehensive program that included education, mentoring, corporate internship and community service. He also was instrumental in the movement to bring the Rams back to Los Angeles from St. Louis. Jones is ranked number 13 on “The Sporting News” list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. On June 3, 2013, Jones died at age 74 of natural causes after suffering from lung cancer and heart disease at his home in Anaheim Hills, California. Here’s to Deacon Jones and the legacy he leaves behind!
Here is the word definition for the day:
Fatuous (Fa-chew-us): “Silly and pointless”…”Lacking intelligence.”
Here is the thought for the day…it comes from singer/songwriter Lauren Daigle. I become familiar with her music listening to Sirius radio in my wife’s car…The station on Sirius is called “The Blend” and features mostly contemporary songs…it’s unusual that songs with the lyrics that Lauren writes finds there way on secular music stations these days…quite remarkable really. I found her lyrics to “Rescue” inspiring and moving. I hope you find some comfort in them…
“You are not hidden…there’s never been a moment
You were forgotten…
You are not hopeless…though you have been broken
Your innocence stolen.
I hear you whisper…underneath your breath
I hear your SOS, your SOS…
I will send out an army to find you…in the middle of the darkest night
It’s true…I will rescue you.
There is no distance…that cannot be covered
Over and over…you’re not defenseless
I’ll be your shelter…I’ll be your armor
I hear you whisper underneath your breath…
I hear your SOS, you SOS…
I will send out an army to find you…in the middle of the darkest night
It’s true, I will rescue you.
I will never stop marching to reach you…in the middle of the hardest fight
It’s true…I will rescue you.”
—Lauren Daigle, “Rescue” (2019)
Lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)