The Year in Review (NFL Style)

The 2009 NFL season has just landed. Whew! For one, I'm glad it's over. I think Snickers got the idea for its popular commercial from my aging Seachickens. But enough of the sour grapes, let's look at the picks and see how it all turned out. Just in case you need a refresher of what the original picks were, here you go. Now to the observations:

1. First, my pre-season picks turned out to be rather prescient, especially after they seemed so ill-begotten at the midpoint of the season. Tennessee roared back after starting 0-6 and finished a respectable 8-8, making my 11-5 prognostication not look so preposterous. Denver imploded after going 6-0 to finish 8-8, making my 4-12 also understandable.
2. Spot-on predictions: Oakland, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, New England, Minnesota and Detroit.
3. Way-off-base forecasts: Seattle, Green Bay, New Orleans, Dallas, the New York Jets and, in a way, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
4. I got three out of the eight division winners correct: Minnesota, Indianapolis and San Diego.
5. I got six of the eight division losers correct: Cleveland, Jacksonville, Buffalo, St. Louis, Detroit, Tampa Bay and Washington.
6. My playoff predictions were mostly sorry. I had six out of the twelve playoff teams right. No Wild-Card winners right, even though San Diego did advance to the Divisional round. Three of the eight Divisonal round teams correct. But from then on, I was as knowledgeable as one of these people.
7. If we want to bring in my mid-season audible, there were some interesting things to note from those picks: both hosts of the conference championships were correct as were both Super Bowl contenders. I faltered in picking Indy over Naw'lens, though.

All in all, it was a fun year. Not for my picks. Not for the Seahawks. But, hey, my fantasy team finished second as a #7 seed. And there's always next year (especially since my 'Hawks totally revamped management and have two, count 'em, two, high draft picks--Yipee!). Now we'll have to see who wins the Tim "I Generate Revenue w/o Even Playing" Tebow Sweepstakes.

On Pre-Birth Fatherhood

I’ve been trying hard to really soak in and meditate on the gravity of having a little child, my offspring—someone to raise as a human being. I’ve felt a little disappointed in how inadequately I’ve been soaking and meditating. I just haven’t felt like I’ve made that satisfying contemplative connection you get when you ponder something for a long time and begin to grasp something deep and powerful. At any rate, I’ve wanted to devote more focus and energy to the expectation of my sweet Aolani.

There was, however, one moment when I was filled (to my liking) with the kind of focus and love for my daughter that I was seeking. It was the moment I realized that I could lose her. You don’t realize how much you have until you lose it, as the old adage goes. (Don’t be alarmed, Aolani is fine. Everything is normal, thanks be to God.)

The moment really struck when Aidan had a bad sinus infection. We thought we might have to resort to medication—medication that could affect Aolani adversely. The thoughts of what might happen to my little girl, even if it was minute, were disconcerting. Then my thoughts went from there to what if my little girl died, be it from medication or whatever. Suddenly, every little moment I had with her in the womb instantly became more precious. Every moment I dreamed of having with her out of the womb became more highly-anticipated.

I told myself cooking for her would now be memorable, because you never know when her last meal from daddy might be. Watching her move underneath her mommy's belly became weighty and significant. My mind raced to the future where Aolani and I could talk about movies, life or God. Those moments might disappear. Nothing could be taken for granted now. Second to a wife, a child is the most treasured earthly gift God can bestow. Everything had to be appreciated to the best of my ability. I had to live in the moment.

Nothing is guaranteed. Neither she nor I will be here forever. This is, I suppose, one of the curses of living in America. We consume ourselves with things while living comfortably, all the while neglecting the preciousness of life. Third-world denizens don't really suffer from that malady. I need forgiveness for lack of gratitude.

Avatar Reality Check

The biggest grossing film of all-time deserves some air time on this blog. Avatar has made an impact culturally-speaking and for that it merits discussion. I just saw it this past week -- not very with it, am I? -- and was quite awed. The technology was certainly impressive, from the 3-D experience to the computer graphics of a new world. I knew it was good when I was tempted to get the man in front of me to sit down, only to realize that it was a man in the movie who was in my way. This happened several times!

I was also struck with the imagination it took to think up such a world and story. It was definitely captivating. You think Writer and Director James Cameron has a knack for that? The concept of being an avatar, living in something else's body, and then falling in love with something like that outer shell, is interesting. The idea of a people richly in tune with its planet and plant-life will also appeal to horticulturists as my mother-in-law can attest.

But alas, that is where the originality and brilliance of the story stops. To me, the anti-George Bush, anti-Iraq War, anti-military, anti-oil company, anti-interventionist message of the film was just too much. And boy, did they hammer it home. Pandora the planet and the Nav'i were clearly symbolic for Iraq and the Iraqi people. They even used the line, "shock and awe," when referring to the military tactics planned against the Nav'i. Talk about subtle.

I truly don't believe that the vast majority of American soldiers are unsympathetic, trigger-happy meatheads bent on destroying cultures and ethnic groups over a natural resource as the film might have us believe.

Greed does exist in corporate America, a lot of it, but I don't believe that oil company executives are senseless, idiotic, singularly-driven people without souls. The line from the executive Selfridge, "Oh just keep going, they'll move out of the way," as he eats his doughnut and almost bulldozes Nav'i people, was pretty far-fetched. I find it hard to believe the executives of ExxonMobil or Shell, most of who probably have families they care about, would act like that.

The Iraq War has been difficult and very costly on many levels. But I don't believe it was waged foolhardily or for a resource. I don't believe George Bush had in mind to disrupt the Iraqi environment, infrastructure and way of life just because Iraqis were sitting on something valuable to the bottom-line of stockholders, as Avatar would have us infer.

Gao Zhisheng

Attention needs to be drawn to something. There are cases like this all over the world, and I dare not say this one is more important than any other, but this one seems especially imperative for this world in this time. For one thing, the person in this case has undergone unimaginable, absolutely unimaginable, torture for quite some time. For another reason, he is a high-profile case with lots of attention already, and drawing more attention to his plight will hopefully bring awareness to the plight of millions more.

The man is Gao Zhisheng. He is a human rights lawyer from China. He was once an ardent communist, but since surrendering his life to Jesus he has taken up the cause of defending the persecuted, Christians and others, in his native China. The communist Chinese government hates this. But through a series of events he has shone light on their oppression on an international scale and is now a high-priority target of their enmity. To read of these events and to get an idea for the unimaginable torture go to www.freegao.com (please watch the five-minute video).

One year ago, February 4, 2009, Gao was abducted and his whereabouts have since been a mystery. There were rumors that he had perished. Needless to say, his family is devastated in ways I can't begin to grasp. His daughter is even under medical watch in a New York hospital. They desperately need help. Despite the devastating rumors, ChinaAid recently released this statement:

"ChinaAid believes that based on the minister's comments and other inside
reports, Gao Zhisheng is still alive, but suffering incredible torture. We will
not give up on Gao until he is guaranteed his basic human rights with dignity
before the law."

There is still hope! And there is a lot that normal people can do. Please, go to www.freegao.com and learn of the ways to get involved. Involvement does not require much of anything. It could just be signing the petition to be sent to Chinese authorities, calling your U.S. Representative or whatever you choose to do. You can even call the Chinese Embassy. Most of all Gao simply needs prayer.

"Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the
mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily." - Hebrews 13:3

For some reason, and I just can't explain it, but, there is something powerful when the Body of Christ acts as one body and has compassion on its suffering members.