“Come to the edge, he said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them and they flew.”
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
COACH BOB JOHNSON
Honoring a Great Servant Leader
Please join me and many others for a day of honoring the 27 years of blood, sweat, tears and service of basketball coach/teacher Bob Johnson. This Saturday, Jan. 19 at Em
ory and Henry College:
2PM--Tip-off of men's basketball game
Halftime--Special Presentation
Following the game--Reception
4PM--Tip-off women's game
6PM--Reception for Bob Johnson at Townhouse Grill in Chilhowie
Come and show your support and thanks for a true servant leader and a great friend of Fred Selfe.
Please join me and many others for a day of honoring the 27 years of blood, sweat, tears and service of basketball coach/teacher Bob Johnson. This Saturday, Jan. 19 at Em
ory and Henry College:2PM--Tip-off of men's basketball game
Halftime--Special Presentation
Following the game--Reception
4PM--Tip-off women's game
6PM--Reception for Bob Johnson at Townhouse Grill in Chilhowie
Come and show your support and thanks for a true servant leader and a great friend of Fred Selfe.
Monday, December 24, 2007
CHRISTMAS TIME
Wishing you and your family and wonderous and merry Christmas! Please remember the true reason for the season and give what you can to help others. Keep others in your prayers--including your enemies--for they need it more than anyone.
On a personal note: Please keep Coach Bob Johnson in your prayers. He is undergoing cancer therapy at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. Coach J recently resigned as head basketball coach at Emory and Henry after more than 27 years to move to Houston and he and his family need/deserve our support during these trying times. According to the college sports blog: "Bob Johnson has built a national reputation for his coaching, having taken five teams to the NCAA playoffs, two of which finished in the Sweet 16. In April 2007, the National Association of Basketball Coaches awarded him the Division III Service Award, which was presented at the NCAA Final Four tournament. Johnson finishes his E&H coaching career with 370 wins and 334 losses. He was honored three times as Old Dominion Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and three times as the NCAA South Region Coach of the Year."
I wish you all the best in 2008 and look forward to seeing and hearing more about your growth and good deeds!
Dale
On a personal note: Please keep Coach Bob Johnson in your prayers. He is undergoing cancer therapy at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. Coach J recently resigned as head basketball coach at Emory and Henry after more than 27 years to move to Houston and he and his family need/deserve our support during these trying times. According to the college sports blog: "Bob Johnson has built a national reputation for his coaching, having taken five teams to the NCAA playoffs, two of which finished in the Sweet 16. In April 2007, the National Association of Basketball Coaches awarded him the Division III Service Award, which was presented at the NCAA Final Four tournament. Johnson finishes his E&H coaching career with 370 wins and 334 losses. He was honored three times as Old Dominion Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and three times as the NCAA South Region Coach of the Year."
I wish you all the best in 2008 and look forward to seeing and hearing more about your growth and good deeds!
Dale
Monday, October 1, 2007
QUICK THOUGHT TO START THE WEEK
Bird Watching
I spent Sunday afternoon at the very southern tip of Fort Fisher. I parked my car at the end of the road (literally) and sat looking across the Cape Fear Sound. I was intending to go for a run and maybe study some ideas for packaging a client's product but the sun, blue sky and quiet lapping water had warmed my soul and, perhaps, made me so introspective I just wanted to sit and let my mind go for a bit.
I sat with the forty-foot-tall mound of sand marking the last redoubt (aptly named Mound Redoubt) (thanks to roaddog from Illinois for correcting me. "That would have been Battery Buchanon you were at if you were down by the rocks, south of the ferry.The Mound battery was further to the north and a part of the main fort.." Thanks for reading and thanks for the help in making the post better;-) in the old fort at my back looking across the acres of marsh that spread out along the eastern edge of the land leading it out to the breakwater ridges of sand and scrub guarding the sound from the Atlantic Ocean. As I jotted down
some notes on a recent multimedia project a shadow darkened my padfolio and I looked up to see a great white bird gliding over. I recognized it as a Great Egret; about 3-4 feet high and with a 4-5 feet wingspan. It circled the marsh for a few minutes then parachuted to the ground.
The bird touched down about 75 feet away and, after a few position adjustments, straightened its back and stared back at me. There we were: the bird looking at me thinking 'what is that thing and why is it looking at me?' Me looking back making up that scenario of the bird thinking about me. For some reason, perhaps I was tired of watching and wincing at the woman out in the water learning to windsurf and falling face first into the chest deep water each time she tugged the plastic sail up from the water, I watched the bird for half an hour.
There was a simple elegance about it. Once it had gotten used to me, it stood looking patiently out over the reeds on two long, spindly black legs. It didn't move for the entire thirty minutes. Then, without any warning, it jabbed it's long yellow beak down into the reeds and came up with a silver. struggling fish. It shook the fish once, then tossed it up and swallowed it. Then it went back to standing and staring. Very efficient, and obviously, very effective.
Again, I felt introspective. A life insurance salesperson would say that life is a long process for most. They could even show a life expectancy chart to prove it. When we want something, we usually run around trying to make it happen. How much of that running helps us achieve or get what we want? The Great Egret flew around finding the best ground, landed, then patiently stood watching until the fish came by, then WHAM! it struck with precision. Lunch, or a late afternoon snack or third meal...or whatever egrets call their eating times.
The egret proves that planning is important, patience is vital and striking quickly makes all the difference in a beak full of mud or a great lunch. This week try being the egret: plan carefully (make sure you've chosen the very best hunting ground) then wait for the right opportunity and strike quickly and with precision.
I spent Sunday afternoon at the very southern tip of Fort Fisher. I parked my car at the end of the road (literally) and sat looking across the Cape Fear Sound. I was intending to go for a run and maybe study some ideas for packaging a client's product but the sun, blue sky and quiet lapping water had warmed my soul and, perhaps, made me so introspective I just wanted to sit and let my mind go for a bit.
I sat with the forty-foot-tall mound of sand marking the last redoubt (aptly named Mound Redoubt) (thanks to roaddog from Illinois for correcting me. "That would have been Battery Buchanon you were at if you were down by the rocks, south of the ferry.The Mound battery was further to the north and a part of the main fort.." Thanks for reading and thanks for the help in making the post better;-) in the old fort at my back looking across the acres of marsh that spread out along the eastern edge of the land leading it out to the breakwater ridges of sand and scrub guarding the sound from the Atlantic Ocean. As I jotted down
some notes on a recent multimedia project a shadow darkened my padfolio and I looked up to see a great white bird gliding over. I recognized it as a Great Egret; about 3-4 feet high and with a 4-5 feet wingspan. It circled the marsh for a few minutes then parachuted to the ground. The bird touched down about 75 feet away and, after a few position adjustments, straightened its back and stared back at me. There we were: the bird looking at me thinking 'what is that thing and why is it looking at me?' Me looking back making up that scenario of the bird thinking about me. For some reason, perhaps I was tired of watching and wincing at the woman out in the water learning to windsurf and falling face first into the chest deep water each time she tugged the plastic sail up from the water, I watched the bird for half an hour.
There was a simple elegance about it. Once it had gotten used to me, it stood looking patiently out over the reeds on two long, spindly black legs. It didn't move for the entire thirty minutes. Then, without any warning, it jabbed it's long yellow beak down into the reeds and came up with a silver. struggling fish. It shook the fish once, then tossed it up and swallowed it. Then it went back to standing and staring. Very efficient, and obviously, very effective.
Again, I felt introspective. A life insurance salesperson would say that life is a long process for most. They could even show a life expectancy chart to prove it. When we want something, we usually run around trying to make it happen. How much of that running helps us achieve or get what we want? The Great Egret flew around finding the best ground, landed, then patiently stood watching until the fish came by, then WHAM! it struck with precision. Lunch, or a late afternoon snack or third meal...or whatever egrets call their eating times.
The egret proves that planning is important, patience is vital and striking quickly makes all the difference in a beak full of mud or a great lunch. This week try being the egret: plan carefully (make sure you've chosen the very best hunting ground) then wait for the right opportunity and strike quickly and with precision.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
IF YOU BUILD IT, HE WILL COME
HELP BUILD COURAGE, CHARACTER, LEGACY AND A BETTER FUTURE. DO A GREAT BIG, SMALL THING AND HELP BUILD FRED SELFE STADIUM!
Fred Selfe Sports Complex, Emory and Henry College
This classic, small college design includes a ProTurf field, new attractive field house, home stands with press box, visitor's stands, and a fence that blends with the surrounding buildings. It's a wonderful new design--not too overstated and not too understated. It's simple, strong, clean, and does the job. It's Emory and Henry and a field of which Coach Fred Selfe would be extremely proud. Of course, he would fight like hell to keep his name off it, but he would beam with pride each time the Wasps swarmed onto its field.
Help us make the field a reality and break ground in early 2008.
How often do you get the chance to play a role in shaping thousands of young minds and lives? The tab for the complex is a very doable $4.5 million. You can write a check, and find others who will do the same. There are a number of naming opportunities--rooms, lockers, buildings, etc.--and your family, company or organization can show that you really care about the Fred Selfe's of the world who work, sacrifice and serve to save our culture from a certain downhill slide; people who serve with no thought of awards or spotlights or even a thank you. You can show you care about those people by helping us build this important foundation.
Do a Great Big Small Thing and build Fred Selfe Stadium.
If you'd like to help please email me directly: dalemcglothlin@ec.rr.com
Saturday, August 25, 2007
LOOK UP! LOOK UP!
The Clouds are Lifting, the Sun is Breaking Through. We are Coming out of the Darkness into the Light
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair."
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Charlie Chapin’s 1940 satire of Nazi Germany, The Great Dictator, is a brilliant film. Besides being his first “talkie” it’s also an amazingly prophetic work about the aims of Nazism and the plight of Jews in Europe. In it, a Jewish barber is mistaken for the dictator, Adenoid Hynkel. In my humble observation, the true brilliance of this film is found in the Chaplin’s final speech by the “barber.” Considering it was written in 1940, it has some extremely relevant observations and equally applicable advice in these chaotic times. The following
is the speech:
I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair."The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die liberty will never perish.
Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural.
Soldiers: Don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: “The kingdom of God is within man.” Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.
Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural.
Soldiers: Don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: “The kingdom of God is within man.” Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world: A kind, new world where men will rise above their greed, their hate, and their brutality.
The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up! Look up!
Monday, August 13, 2007
TEAM HOYT
This was shared by my beautiful friend Maria from Cullman, Alabama and is one of the greatest stories of love, inspiration, kindness and selflessness I have ever encountered. I will bet you cannot watch this story without shedding a tear...not of sadness, but of joy. Please pass this along to everyone you know.
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