Perhaps it’s time to see someone about the condition. Or, at least turn in the man card. Trust me, it’s been questioned before. An admission, I’ve reached a point in life where, the Food Network makes this aging jock cry.
Yep. Happened just the other day. While leaning on the kitchen counter and reading the Denver Post, I was saddened to learn accounts of another hellish weather day for Oklahomans. More killer tornadoes. People dying in their cars trying to escape the latest terrible twister. The heart grieved.
About a nano second later, the Food Network triggered a cascade of tears. Celebrating 20 years, reaching more than 90 million homes and always on at the house - darling fiancee is ADDICTED to it - a woman was singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
It wasn’t just any woman. It was Trish Yearwood. The country music artist has a show on the network Trisha’s Southern Kitchen. The Georgia native who, according to Wikipedia, is best known for “ballads about vulnerable women,” was wrapping up the show singing the song.
I’m reading about tragedy in the Sooner state and begin to hear a beautiful voice sing the following lyrics: Somewhere over the rainbow, Way up high, There's a land that I heard of, once in a lullaby. Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue....”
It really made me feel for the victims and families and praying that someday “skies will be blue,” not stormy for them. Yearwood continued her wonderful rendition of The Wizard of Oz song: “And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. Someday I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me....”
By now the tears were flowing big time thinking of the folks who can only wish upon a star for blue skies and the clouds behind them. Whether in our nation’s 48th state, your life, my life and everything in between.
Life has a way of throwing a monkey wrench into our best laid plans doesn’t it? Those “What the heck is going on around here?” moments leaving us yearning and praying for respite to what ails us - home, work and elsewhere. The elusive but enviable spot, as the Over the Rainbow lyrics offer, “Where troubles melt like lemon drops?”
That’s where they’ll find us? We wish.
There are exceptions to every rule, but rarely do troubles melt like lemon drops, right? Nope. Often it seems they’re locked in dry ice. We’re frozen. Numb. In other words, we get kicked around a bit. Good buddy Billy Mac from Hackensack often says at these moments, “It’s okay to lie there a bleed a little. Then rise and march on.” Amen buddy.
In acknowledging, rarely do “Troubles melt like lemon drops,” let’s give special kudos to Colorado Rockies’ manager Walt Weiss. The rookie skipper focuses on three strategies in dealing with the unwanted junk life throws our way. In baseball and beyond.
Let’s take Weiss’ advice: Adjust. Improvise. Overcome.
Yep. The Rockies skipper has those three words emblazoned in large white letters outside his office deep in the bowels of Coors Field. We talk about Weiss and the Rockies often on the Afternoon Drive with Mac and Goodman talk show on Mile High Sports Radio.
Personally, I have been impressed with how the team plays under the former Rockie shortstop known throughout his life and baseball career as a top-notch player and person. The Rockies’ team mentality has been strengthened by the former All-Star player’s presence. Usually when the New York native is involved, success is found. The devoted husband and father to three athletic sons is a winner. Always has been.
Anybody entering, including himself, Weiss’ office is reminded vividly of the philosophy oozing from the 1988 American League Rookie of the Year’s DNA: Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.
It’s a darn good philosophy for each of us too. The road ahead will probably require constant course correction. Like the pilot of an airplane or captain of a ship, we must constantly adapt and adjust our personal navigation system to the ever-changing world in which we live.
Often, in adapting, we must get creative and improvise. I have been honored to work with a single father in developing his inspirational keynote address. The former CU football standout tells a fabulous story about his young daughter rolling down the window with her foot. Now that’s improvising!
The third and final wise word from Weiss challenges Rockies’ players, coaches and staff to overcome. To learn from, not become a victim of, the experiences on the baseball diamond and away from it. That’s one of the impressive things about Weiss. What he’s asking his players to embrace is what has fueled his success. In baseball and life.
Somewhere over the rainbow, despite life’s storms, let’s try and muster the courage to face adversity with a game plan rooted in adapting, improvising and overcoming. In all likelihood, our troubles won’t melt like lemons drops, but I sure like our chances of winning a fair share of the tussles.
I’ve got one right now. Forgiving self for allowing a show on The Food Network to make me cry.
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