the son of america's great pastime.

in

70 years ago today, one of the greatest ball players of all time (and one hell of a man), Lou Gehrig, gave the following speech:





"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?

Sure I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy?

Sure I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift -- that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies -- that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter -- that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body -- it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed -- that's the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."





Today during the seventh inning stretch it will be read at ballparks all across the country to raise awareness for ALS.





I can't think of a better way to celebrate this country of our's than by celebrating one of the greatest men to ever call it home.





Happy Fourth of July!

who doesn't need a little inspiration on a friday?

in

so in searching the annals of your blogs for photos of your gorgeous selves to put alongside your responses about perfect bodies (this has proved very difficult) i found this at morgan's let me help you help me. and i had to pass it on.


it is an excerpt of the commencement speech given to this year's graduating class at the university of portland. given by Paul Hawken (author, environmentalist, and entrepreneur). 

the following are the bits that morgan found most exciting and i have to agree with her. however, you can find the whole speech here. 

 

"When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world."

 

"Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every

thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.

 

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every

moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss.

The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it."


holy moly.

and then of course there is this bit:


...can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this  speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are.


yup. i think are bodies are pretty damn "perfect" indeed. as are paul's words.

keys.

in

when i was little and my mom came to pick me up from carpool, i would recognize the sound of her keys before she ever got to me.


and if i got lost in the store, i would close my eyes. and listen. listen, very carefully. and i would hear that faint and familiar jingle and relieved, i would bound towards it. 

she didn't get it. to recognize the clatter of keys? what kind of strange child had she born?

but i got it. a constellation of keys exists in this world of ours. each with its own unique musicality. some more familiar than others.

the other night, standing in line at the drug store, i heard a familiar key clink and looked up to find myself staring at the back of a stranger. 

and that's when i began to wonder. is that how i will find him? will i recognize the sound of keys before i've even met him? the sound of a gateway to a home we might one day share?

so i've started listening. i haven't closed my eyes, though. i'm keeping them wide open and living my life. but the sixth sense of this strange-child and would-be-wife is piqued.