Perfect Employee

In this week's Sports Illustrated, there is an article on Jets Fullback Tony Richardson. Richardson is a 17 year veteran who people keep waiting to retire but he continues to out play the younger players (called Terminators) each season. Here is what SI says about him.

He's not especially big—barely 6'1" and a steady 238 pounds year after year—not especially fast, not especially elusive. What he offers, what he has always offered, are those things football coaches call "intangibles," though the truth is that the skills are really quite tangible. He runs all-out every time. He catches the ball well. He speaks up and says the right things at meetings, visits the teammate having a tough time, watches other players to see how he can help. Yes, help even those Terminators who come for his job. Also, perhaps more than anything else, Richardson accepts the violence of the position.


That describes the perfect employee to me. He works hard every day. He does the little things well. He speaks up at meetings, mentors a peer that is struggling and looks to see how he can help out a co-worker. The perfect employee even helps the younger staff that could possibly take their job! The perfect employee accepts the crap that goes with the job!
 
We have spent the last decade writing books and reading books about servant leadership and here we find the quality we hold such a high regard for playing fullback in the NFL. Not the CEO of HP, BP or BofA, but the Jets. J.E.T.S.Jets-Jets-Jets!
 
Can you believe this quote? Richardson says, "it just means more to me to help someone else achieve glory. There's something about it that feels right to me." That statement is almost too good to be true.
 
"I don't think I've ever been around a player," his old coach Dick Vermeil said, "who worked harder to be a better man."
 
I can't find myself pulling for the Jets, but I do have a new favorite player!

August Thoughts

• “Are you ready for some football?” said in my favorite Hank Williams voice.

• Can’t wait for those Golden Helmets and those Carolina Blues to hit the field!

• I think a great new business venture would be text books on a Kindle. I know companies are doing that. The problem is that the college book store business will drastically change and how do they make “Kindle” profitable for publishers and universities.

• By the way, I don’t own a Kindle. Wish I did though.

• Modern Family is the best show on TV!

• Andre Dawson being inducted in to the Baseball Hall of Fame was a big day for me. I wore my Expos hat and shirt all day.

• I got a new car in April with a hands free/Bluetooth phone. My son says since I have stopped texting while I drive that I need hands free text. Do they have that?

• From an INC magazine article. “What would a world without offices look like? Well Dilbert wouldn’t be funny and there would be no such thing as rush hour traffic. If 40% of the workforce worked from home, (which it probably could) 100 hours per person saved on not commuting, 1500 lives saved to no car accidents, and 200 billion saved in real estate expenses and electrical bills.” Don’t laugh at your friend the next time they say they spent all day at work in their PJs.

• I grow dirt. I just have a few beds that I compost, I till and I rake. No plants just dirt. I like to dig up the worms. Nothing prettier than freshly tilled dirt!

• My father in-law used to joke while walking through Lowes, “this would be a great place for hardware store.” Have you noticed that their service has improved lately? I am going to start watching their stock again!

• I am seeing more and more friends cancel phone service and just use their cell phones exclusively.

• Jason Bourne and Michael Westin (Burn Notice on USA Network) could save the world!

• Funniest thing I have heard about Tiger Woods was at this year’s Masters. A plane flying over pulled a sign that read, “Tiger: Did you mean Bootyism?”

• The Annual Redneck Convention in Hillsville, VA is just around the corner!

• My new favorite quote from Phil Mickelson, “A great shot is when you pull it off. A smart shot is when you don’t have the guts to try it.”

• I have often used with Y members or staff the term “Spirit of the Rule.” We can’t have a society where we write every conceivable probability in rules and regulations. We would need to walk around with lawyers and that would only be fun for lawyers!

• Dustin Johnson got hosed by the PGA! Spirit of the Rule dudes!

Who Understands Tragedy?

Why? I can see how easy it is to cry out, "Why have you forsaken me?"

Who understands when the unexplainable happens? I have walked around numb for about 4 days now trying to figure out how and why tragedy strikes. One of two things happen during tragedy, you either run from God or to him. Yesterday during my workout I turned to Him and let my ipod play Bebo Norman, Nicole Mullen, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin, Kyle Matthews, Steven Curtis Chapman and Brandon Heath.

I remembered that my Redeemer Lives and that Amazing Grace was so sweet. That Jesus is the great light of my world in times of darkness. That I am the hands and feet of Jesus to other people during these dark days. There is tremendous power in prayer. Your heart has to skip a beat when you know that so many people are praying for you and also when you know you are part of the thousands praying for someone else. This is a definite goosebump moment.

God is great and if you could see what I see then you will not run from God you will sprint to him.

Even though my heart is broken my spirit is filled!
I’ll meet you there
Inside the tomb
Beside the cross
Beneath the star

Repeat post - BRAWL at THE BEACH

It will not be long before the school bells start ringing again and it signals the end of another hectic summer. The summer of 2010 will be highlighted just like every summer for the past 16 summers; It is the annual Johnson family (my in-laws) beach trip.

Let me describe the week for you. 5 families, 18 people, and 1 house. More numerical trivia defines the week as 1 kitchen, 4 bathrooms, 4 in-laws, and 1 TV. There is another TV in brother in-law Brian’s bedroom but he retires to that room at 6pm every night so that TV was off limits. 10 adults and 8 children, a few of the adults could be classified as children but that is another story. There are 7 females and 11 males. Now refer back to that 1 TV thing and factor in only one remote.

Not that the average temperature on the beach is usually in excess of 100 degrees and that our A/C does all it can to cool the house below 75 has anything to do with it, but the week is always HOT! I used to print family tee shirts called The Brawl at the Beach, but my wife said that slogan painted a bad picture of our family and she wanted something more positive. I liked to call it The Brawl at the Beach because every summer for the last fifteen years this beach trip has been accentuated by an argument between spouses, a parent and child, or siblings. Every year, like clock work, someone was fighting by Wednesday.

You could call my family’s car the Vegas car because the 5 hour drive to the beach is spent speculating and placing odds on whom would be fighting first and what they would be fighting about. Oh yea, did I share that there are four in laws on this trip, and I am one of them? Well I am preparing to spend a week at the beach with the in-laws or better put, as THE IN-LAW. And this week is the best week of the year for me and my wife and kids.

I think what attracted me most to my wife was her family. My family communicates best over the phone and now by email. This family likes to hang out. That is “hang out with each other!” My family struggles to be civil to each other yet this family’s heartbeat is getting on each other’s nerves. It seems that they would rather argue together than be happy alone. I think there is a bible verse that says that in Proverbs! My family last took a beach trip or any vacation for that matter in 1973 and that was a true brawl at the beach.

But anyway this in-law revelry is so appealing to me that I am enthralled by the week like they have me in some brain washed hypnotic state. In a nutshell the beach trip is encompassed by husband-wife spats, bratty kids (except mine), smart-alec comments (that is me), hurt feelings, little relaxation, high stress, last nerves being trampled on and sheer and utter joy! It is always the best week of my year. I like to complain about it but that is part of the allure. Kind of like being female, you know they’re not happy unless they are complaining. (That is the sarcasm that often gets me in trouble.) But I enjoy complaining about having to go to the beach and I enjoy complaining after I come back, but secretly this is the week and the family that I always dreamed of.

Now don’t get me wrong about my side of the family, we just have a different way of showing our love. We must live several hours from each other where the in-laws all live on the family ponderosa. My family tries to have meals together during special holidays where the in-laws try and eat together as much as they can.


By the end of week, I hope my wife and kids appreciate me half as much as I do them. Often I just sit and stare at them across the room, while they sleep, or as they play. It is hard to ignore the wonderfulness of my wife and kids during the 7 days on the “Ark.” I want my kids to see the joy in being together as a family. And I want them to see that it ain’t always picture perfect. It ain’t always clean, nice, sweet, and even likeable. But it IS about family and about love. Don’t worry about the warts or black sheep in the family, but really focus on the loving glow that engulfs us all.


I think that Proverbs verse says “I’d rather eat salad with my in-laws than steak with the neighbors.” And I wouldn’t trade 1 Brawl at the Beach for 100 Disney Trips.


The sad truth is because of aging kids and more hectic schedules, this may be the last Brawl at the Beach. My hope is that it’s less than 53 weeks before we do it all over again and I am counting the weeks. Just don’t tell my mother in law.