Drawing From the Well Within

Knowing what is right is like deep water in the heart;

a wise person draws from the well within.

Proverbs 20:5

You are not disabled by the disabilities you have,

you are abled by the abilities you have.

Oscar Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius is a South African sprint runner - nicknamed Blade Runner, and known as the fastest runner on no legs.  Oscar was born in 1986 without a fibula in either leg.  When he was 11 months old, his legs were amputated below the knees.  He was introduced to running in 2004, and the rest is history.  This summer, he is competing in the London Olympics - the first double amputee to ever participate in the regular Games.  

As Oscar began to race competitively and win, there were those who argued that his blade prosthetics gave him an advantage over regular runners with ankles and feet.  In 2008, the International Association of Atheletics Federations (IAAF) declared him to have such an advantage, and ruled his particular prostheses ineligible for competition.  He appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.  After a two-day hearing, the IAAF decision was overturned, effective immediately.  Oscar said, "My focus throughout this appeal has been to ensure that disabled athletes be given the chance to compete and compete fairly, with able-bodied athletes."  He continued his quest to qualify for the Olympics, and this year South Africa included him on the team for London.  After the announcement, Pistorius said: "Today is truly one of the proudest days of my life. To have been selected to represent Team South Africa at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay is a real honour and I am so pleased that years of hard work, determination and sacrifice have all come together."

Yesterday Oscar qualified for the semi-finals of the men's 400 meter sprint, finishing second in his heat. Tomorrow he will race in Semi-Final Heat #2.  He has consistently refused to allow his disabilities to define him, and now he is well on his way to re-defining the parameters of track and field competition. 

Where's Your Kids?

Discipline your children while you still have the chance;

indulging them destroys them.

Proverbs 19:18

There are two young boys who live around the corner from me.  I'm not very good at guessing ages, but they both got on the school bus last year, so I am going to guess that the youngest will be a first grader and the oldest will be in 3rd or 4th grade.  I think they are brothers, but I'm not sure.  They live with at least one adult woman, perhaps two, but she does not look like she could be the mother of these boys, although it is certainly possible.  The younger boy has an angelic face; the older boy has a devil-dare look in his eye.  They fight and scrap and carp at each other as brothers are want to do.   

As soon as the sun is up, they are up and outdoors, riding a 3-wheeler bike or zipping about on a scooter or skateboard.  No one in the house appears to care where the boys are or what they are doing. Consequently, they spend the majority of their time playing in the street.  This wouldn't bother me so much if either of these kids paid any attention to what is going on around them, but they don't, and there have already been too many near-misses with cars that come roaring around the corner.

I have tried to reason with these kids, but to no avail.  It's not that they don't understand me.  I know perfectly well that they both get the gist when I talk to them about staying out of the street.  But their attention spans are short, and I'm not Mom (just the neighbor), and before I know it, they are playing Dodge the Automobile again.  I would really like to go to their home, knock on the front door, and  yell at whoever answers about the wisdom of letting children play unsupervised, especially in the street.  But I have a strong feeling that it would not do any good.  There is a disconnect somehow between these boys and their caretakers.  Someone is not minding the store, and I certainly hope they do not pay the high price that would result if one of the boys was struck by a vehicle.

Cheap Candy? No Thanks!

Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;

do you really want junk like that in your belly?

Proverbs 18:8

 

When I am languishing in a long line at the checkout counter of the grocery store, there is little to catch my attention except for the huge magazine rack that is located just before the conveyor belt.  US magazine, People magazine, OK! magazine, Star magazine, and the ever-present tabloids such as the National Enquirer blare out their headlines for all to see:  Why Katie Left! The Kardashian Connection! Who's Fat Now? Macaulay Culkin - Six months to live!!  These publications bill themselves as purveyors of "celebrity news," but a perusal of the contents shows them to be nothing but gossip rags.

Who actually knows exactly why Katie Holmes left Tom Cruise?  Katie, obviously, and probably her parents, but other than that - precious few people are in the inner circle - in the "know."  The publications will talk to (and print) anyone who claims a kinship with the pair, but all they will learn is gossip.  True, unvarnished facts are not going to be available to the mere curious or obsessed.

And obsessed we are, in this celebrity-driven culture.  So we hunger for all those juicy details, and the gossip rags keep gathering their "information" and pouring out the printed page.  Silly us not to realize that if the magazines cannot find actual information, they will simply manufacture some.  Why let truth or fact stand in the way of making a quick buck (lots of quick bucks, actually).

I, for one, do not need all of the lurid details of other people's lives clogging up the avenues of my brain and ramping up my emotional control center.  My father used to say, "What you don't know won't hurt you."  I don't necessarily agree with that statement in all things, but when it comes to celebrity gossip, it is right on the money.