by Jennie McGhan
Okay, so I was looking at a salad the other day, thinking of the items I needed to remove from it and what items that I would savor.
I love eating a Southwest Salad from one of the fast food restaurants near the freeway. The salad has corn, black beans, cherry tomatoes, red onion, pepperjack cheese and grilled chicken in it.
Each of the items is neatly placed in its own section atop the variety of lettuces used by the restaurant.
I always remove the cherry tomatoes. I either don’t want them at all or will eat just a few of them before pouring the unique salad dressing and Frank’s hot sauce on the rest of the ingredients.
It isn’t that I don’t like cherry tomatoes. I actually do. I used to eat them by the handful. However, as I have grown older, I just don’t consume as many because my tastes and cravings have changed.
Well, it dawned on me that life, for me, is much like that salad.
I have a variety of tasks and experiences that I truly savor and some that I sometimes enjoy. There are other tasks and experiences, which I would much rather forget altogether.
I like to mix the ingredients of my life up after covering it with prayer on a daily basis (the dressing).
Some days I will pick and choose which item of the day I want to take in first and foremost. Other days, I can multi-task and take in more than one issue at a time.
Sometimes I feel as though I might just be the salad, all mixed up and tossed about.
And the hot sauce in my salad is that spicy part of life that either kicks me in the rear or perks things up.
But, everything about the salad that I consume and the salad I call life provides me with nutrition.
Afterall, God doesn’t ever give me more than I can handle, and He certainly wants me to stay fit, growing from my experiences, regardless of how mundane or overwhelming they may be.
Each item in the salad I consume is food that helps me to stay fit physically, or it would not be included in the meal.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Display of poor sportsmanship burns me
by Jennie McGhan
This week I had the experience of traveling to another swimming pool with my son for a swim meet and observed something that unnerved me.
The Grandview Neptunes is a small team. They are accustomed to swimming in a 40-yard pool but do very well in the 50-meter pools when faced with the competition.
This week, I witnessed something I have never seen at any of the more than 10 meets I have been to this year.
I looked into the pool during a relay event and saw two boys from the opposing team stop in the middle of their event to slap each other a high-five.
These two boys were far ahead of all the Neptunes.
It bothered me because I wondered what message these boys were sending to their opponents.
Hey! Look at us! We’re so good, we can stop in the middle of our event and still smoke you?
Whatever the message was, I did not, and still cannot, understand the purpose of this behavior.
The purpose of the local swim meets is to create a positive environment in which the children of our communities can participate in a fun, safe activity.
I did not view this as a positive. I can’t think this was positive in any way.
Yet, those watching and cheering for the opposing team, including the parents, could be heard clapping and cheering when these two boys performed this act of poor sportsmanship.
If indeed this was not intended as a display of braggadocio, perhaps the coaches and parents of the boys should think about how it might be interpreted. From where I was standing, the action of the two swimmers turned what should have been a positive experience into a night where our youngsters not only lost the meet, but had their noses rubbed in it.
If the tables were turned, I would never condone such conduct from my child.
This week I had the experience of traveling to another swimming pool with my son for a swim meet and observed something that unnerved me.
The Grandview Neptunes is a small team. They are accustomed to swimming in a 40-yard pool but do very well in the 50-meter pools when faced with the competition.
This week, I witnessed something I have never seen at any of the more than 10 meets I have been to this year.
I looked into the pool during a relay event and saw two boys from the opposing team stop in the middle of their event to slap each other a high-five.
These two boys were far ahead of all the Neptunes.
It bothered me because I wondered what message these boys were sending to their opponents.
Hey! Look at us! We’re so good, we can stop in the middle of our event and still smoke you?
Whatever the message was, I did not, and still cannot, understand the purpose of this behavior.
The purpose of the local swim meets is to create a positive environment in which the children of our communities can participate in a fun, safe activity.
I did not view this as a positive. I can’t think this was positive in any way.
Yet, those watching and cheering for the opposing team, including the parents, could be heard clapping and cheering when these two boys performed this act of poor sportsmanship.
If indeed this was not intended as a display of braggadocio, perhaps the coaches and parents of the boys should think about how it might be interpreted. From where I was standing, the action of the two swimmers turned what should have been a positive experience into a night where our youngsters not only lost the meet, but had their noses rubbed in it.
If the tables were turned, I would never condone such conduct from my child.
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