groundwork

For all of you Calvin and Hobbes fans...

Football was just a career path...

I was personally sad to read about the recent retirement of Coach Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts.  He has always impressed me with his calm demeanor, skilled leadership, and his seemingly decent character.

The fact is there are few sport figures or leaders who could be considered excellent role models. Coach Dungy seemed to be one attempted to set a fine example on and off the field.

In yesterday's article on his retirement, I found addition information that supported my impressions of him.  Dungy is one of those exceptional individuals who seems to possess a keen moral compass to keep his life priorities in line. 

A few key quotes from the article Dungy steps down:

Tony Dungy always considered football just a career path.

Not his life's mission.

Yesterday, Dungy began the transition from coach to full-time dad and devoted volunteer by announcing his retirement after seven years leading the Indianapolis Colts.

I admire a person who understands the present reality.  Dungy looked at his work as just a career path which was not his purpose or mission of his life.  The Coach is quoted later in the text of the article concerning his genuine interest in his family and in the needs of others.

What's next for Dungy is unclear. He has been involved for years in prison ministries, with Family First and as part of All-Pro Dads.

"Where my heart is, is really with our young men right now," Dungy said. "We have so many guys that didn't grow up like me, didn't have their dad there and that's something I'm very, very interested in."

In a world seemingly devoid of positive examples, Tony Dungy sets a standard that I find to be encouraging and enlightening.  The NFL will miss his solid example of character on the sidelines. On the other hand, he seems to break out of our normal selfish mindset in order to focus on the needs of others.

I, for one, can respect and admire Dungy for aiming for a higher purpose in life than football.

Parents and Teens View the Internet

  I have found the Pew Internet & American Life Project to be an informative site about the Internet.  The organization provides surveys and data regarding the role of the web in American lives.

According to their website, "the Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of data and analysis of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world."

The people at Pew have released an interesting new report entitled Parent and Teen Internet Use.  The report contains helpful statistics for those of us who have teens at home - or who work with teens on a regular basis.  The fact is that most of the young people around us are connected to the web.  The Internet remains one of their main modes of communication.  There are websites such as Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, and numerous forums that serve as the connection to their community. 

The extract from the Parent and Teen Internet Use report contains the following information:

Parents today are less likely to say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the internet has been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the amount of parents who do not think the internet has had an effect on their children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online -- at least 17% more than average adults.

Parents check up on and regulate their teens' media use, not just in terms of the internet, but with television and video games as well. However, those rules lean slightly more towards the content of the media rather than the time spent with the media device.

In looking at parents and teenagers together we found that teens are likely to view technology devices more positively than their parents. Parents and teens tend to own a similar number of technology devices (2-3), but the type of devices differ.

19 and counting...

This is a special time of year for my family.  It was nineteen years ago that Tina agreed to become my lovely bride...and best friend.  I am amazed that it has been nineteen years.  The time does not seem like has it has been that long for us.  There are many days that we feel like newlyweds.  In my eyes, Tina is as youthful as she was when we first met nearly two decades ago.

Marriage is not an easy task.  It requires the best of each of the parties involved in the covenant agreement.  The everyday challenges that the couple will face will test the strength and character of the relationship.  We have had a few trials and difficulties during our nineteen years.  However, we have experienced some incredible blessings together that has outweighed the difficulties.  I can say that asking Tina for her hand in marriage has been one of the best decisions that I have made in my life.

Friedrich Nietzsche once stated that "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."  I have found this to be a true statement.  The marriages that I admire seem to share this warm characteristic of friendship as part of their core foundation.  I can say that my wife has become my closet friend. 

It has been a great nineteen years. And I pray and hope for many more.  The past few years have been quite an exhilarating roller-coaster ride - and I know that there is more twists and turns around the corner. 

I can't wait.