Pep Talk: "If We Look Close Enough"

“That was a horrible night,” joked the handsome dude who works and lives in New York City. He’s my son, Kyle. He works on the writing team for NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Myers.”  Please tolerate an old man exalting the hardworking 26-year-old. It was recently announced the network renewed the show till 2021. Bravo!

He and his beautiful girlfriend were recently visiting the Mile High City.  I brought up the source of consternation. About a decade ago, my late father, older brother, featured teenage son and yours truly were crammed into a hotel room in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Cornhusker Inn was packed with fans on Thanksgiving night in preparation for the next day’s battle between the visiting Buffs and the hometown Huskers. At the time, I was a sportscaster at Denver’s CBS4 and assigned to follow the Colorado Buffaloes wherever they roamed. I loved every minute of it.

It had become a family tradition for the Kansas City-based McIntosh sports’ nuts to make the modest drive to Nebraska’s state capitol city the day after Thanksgiving. There to unite with Kyle and yours truly. It was a family foursome’s job to cheer on the Buffs in the sea of red that is Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium. On football days, with almost 90,000 in attendance, it’s the third-largest city in our nation’s 37th state, admitted in 1867.

Memory begins to fade with age, but I’ll never forget waking up on game day and having Kyle complain of a restless night. “Dad, I didn’t sleep worth a darn,” he groaned. “It sounded and smelled like a bunch of farm animals in here!”

I guess that’s what happens when hunkering down with a Grandpa past 70, an Uncle pushing 55 and an old man nearing the half-century mark. We make noises while sleeping. Few are melodious and some singe nostrils. Oh well. It’s the price paid for an all-expense paid trip - lodging, meals and ticket - to the big game. This was back in the early 2000‘s when CU head coach Gary Barnett’s Buffs were winning often. At the time, the program’s spirit oozed, “The games to remember are played in November.”

I’ll quit taking a pleasant trip down memory lane and get back to the story. Fast forward to 2016. Son is visiting from New York City. Family has gathered for dinner, having fun and his old man brought up the story of his sleepless night. Most important, the lesson Kyle’s father took from it.

I had no clue of the adverse noise or aroma permeating Kyle’s domain. I’m deaf in one ear and prone - must negate audible distractions - to sleep on the good one. Like a baby, I had completely snorted and snoozed through the tortuous overnight.

What a blessing!

It reminds me of something heard recently: “Beware of going back to what you once were, when life wants you to be something you’ve never been.” Is it just me, or do we sometimes focus too much on the negative aspects of this roller coaster we call life? I’m lucky. Deaf in one ear from a freak head injury? I’ll keep it. I can sleep anywhere. Anytime.

This week, try like heck to find some magic from life’s misfortune! Often, it’s there if we look close enough.

Pep Talk: "Pinpoint Control"

“When I have something to say,” whispered a beloved man, “People have to be quiet to hear it.”

Those powerful words came from a man with a fresh scar running from below his left ear downward across his neck and ending below his Adam’s apple, the aftermath of recent surgery to remove a large tumor in a valiant battle against thyroid cancer. Gone is a jugular vein - we have more than one - and his voice for now, but not his sense of humor.

“The kids are joking that it looks like a shark attack bite.”

The prognosis is less than optimistic. A Friday morning Bible study buddy, who I have grown to love like a brother, has Stage 4 cancer. It has spread beyond his thyroid and moved into the vascular system. An upcoming PET scan will determine strategies for moving forward. I so admire the husband and father of six for the spirit and courage he brings to this battle.

It was only fitting that the focus of our gathering of knuckleheads this particular morning was on what we can control in life. There was much banter around the table from 11 dudes in attendance. Finally, we boiled it down to pretty much this: All we really control is our attitude and actions.

Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux was used as an example. He’s the first pitcher in major league history to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards (1992-95) in recognition as the best pitcher in the game. Maddux was known as the “Professor” for his skinny build and scholarly attitude.

Often after a game, when asked about his performance, Maddux would say something like, “It was good for 73 of the 78.” Now 49, the San Angelo, Texas native was referring to the fact that 73 of the 78 pitches came off his hand the way he had planned.

The 18-time Gold Glove winning pitcher realized that once the ball left his fingertips, fate was in charge. All he could control was how the pitch was delivered. After that action, weather conditions, alertness of the hitter, skills of the catcher, judgment of the umpire and abilities of teammates in the field were going to dictate the outcome.

After the rawhide sphere left his highly trained right hand, all control was gone. Maddux won 355 games (8th all time) in his long and storied career. He’s the only pitcher in major league history to win more than 300 games, have more than 3,000 strikeouts and less than 1,000 walks.

What do we control? Our attitudes and our actions, that’s about it. Most thought Maddux was too slight of build to make it to the majors. Doug Wittenberg has cancer and an uncertain future. We have our challenges, too.

This week, let’s learn from Maddux and Wittenberg. Whether demonstrating it with our hand, whisper or hearts, when it comes to our attitude and actions, let’s display pinpoint control.

Pep Talk: "Mahula, Thanks For The Reminder"

“I was standing here in 1990 in disbelief,” said the woman. “I never thought I’d live to see the day we were free.”

An attractive tour guide’s heartfelt words warmed my marrow on a brisk, wind-swept morning as we stood outside the Presidential Palace in Prague, Czech Republic. Along with darling wife and good friends Kim and Jim Gottschalk, we were wrapping up a tour of the beautiful European capitol city in a country that knows a thing or two about adversity.

“The 20th century was not the best for us,” laughed Mahula, our guide and native Prague daughter. “World War II bombed much of the city and then the Communists took control. It was a bad 50 years.”

As we stood in a grand plaza separating Czech government buildings from Saint Vitus Cathedral, a marvelous and grand structure almost 1,000 years old, I tried to imagine the moment. It was 1990, communism had failed and the Czech Republic’s first post-revolutionary president, Vaclav Havel, stood on a second-floor balcony and addressed hundreds of thousands of liberated souls. Our excellent tour guide was one of them.

We stood in silence, gusty winds chilling our bodies, but no match for the warmth felt for a woman and nation that had persevered. For whatever reason, that brief moment in time, with no words said, sent a powerful reminder to the feeble brain of your knucklehead scribe: Don’t ever give up on our future.

Throughout the three-hour tour of Prague the mother of three and I had talked about life under the close eye and restrictive hand of Soviet Union politics. “My family lost everything when the Communists took over after the war.” Everything became property of the state, including businesses, schools, churches and Mahula’s family grocery store. “My grandfather was given a salary to run the store but lost title to the property.”

Prague now bustles with tourists. It wasn’t that way before the 1989 revolt. I highly recommend a visit. The city and country’s history and the Baroque, Gothic and Classical architecture is amazing. The Vitava River runs through the middle of a city of about a million folks. The nighttime lighting is spectacular, especially the illuminated Prague Castle. Construction started in the 9th century. It sits high on the same hill where we were standing while reflecting upon that historical moment in Czech and world history.

Life not going exactly as planned right now? Does it feel as if someone else is dictating matters? That you’ve lost the ability to control your destiny? Unfortunately, it happens too often, right? Relationships crumble, loved ones perish, jobs are lost or a plethora of other calamities crash into our comfortable world and disrupt order.

A simple but truthful phrase comes to mind: “This too shall pass.”

If the going gets tough this week and it seems like someone or something is threatening  your future and your vision of a better tomorrow, remember the Czech people. Communism controlled their lives for almost half a century but nothing could quench their spirit.

We would be wise to emulate them. Never surrender dreams. Mahula, thanks for the wonderful reminder.