New Weapon

I do not pretend to know much about wrestling, but the take down in this video was incredible. Click on the picture and watch Ellis Coleman perform the 'flying squirrel'.

The Push

As school starts, I am reminded of this beautiful little story by David McNally.

"The eagle gently coaxed her offspring toward the edge of the nest. Her heart quivered with conflicting emotions as she felt their resistance to her persistent nudging.

"Why does the thrill of soaring have to begin with the fear of falling?" she thought. This ageless question still remained unanswered for her.


As in the tradition of the species, her nest was located high upon the shelf of a sheer rock face.

Below there was nothing but air to support the wings of each child.



"Is it possible that this time it will not work?" she thought. Despite her fears the eagle knew it was time. Her parental mission was all but complete.

There remained one final task...the push. The eagle drew courage from an innate wisdom. Until her children discovered their wings, there was no purpose to their lives.

Until they learned how to soar, they would fail to understand the privilege of having been born an eagle. The push was the greatest gift she had to offer. It was her supreme act of love.

And so, one by one, she pushed them and...

THEY FLEW."

An Officer Gets Married

Johnny Black talked about when he heard my good friend Tom Waits got married.

Johnny Black (1981): "There's a favourite scene in gangster movies where the private dick is standing at the bar with the bad guy and the bartender slips him a note with his double brandy. "Look out kid, he's got a gun," it says. I had a similar experience when the phone rang an hour before I left my house and Waits' press officer nonchalantly told me, "You know he just got married?". "TOM WAITS? MARRIED?". "Yes. Last month, to a script analyst at 20th Century Fox." Waits' version of how it happened is more appealing. "Kathleen was living in a convent, studying to be a nun. I met her when they let her out for a party on New Year's Eve. She left the Lord for me." (Source: "Tom Waits: Waits And Double Measures". Smash Hits magazine by Johnny Black. March 18, 1981)

Army Supplies

I like to walk out of a restaurant with enough gas to open a Mobil station."



— Tom Waits

Diamonds and Stones

I live in peaks and valleys. My life is sort of like my golf game,bogeys with birdies and pars thrown in. Yet golf has taught me to handle my ups and downs, it has taught me to be the master of my emotions. With that said, here is how my friend Waits told me he handles his bad days at the Chili Parlor.

"This is about all the bad days in the world. I used to have some little bad days, and I kept them in a little box. And one day, I threw them out into the yard. "Oh, it's just a couple little innocent bad days." Well, we had a big rain. I don't know what it was growing in but I think we used to put eggshells out there and coffee grounds, too. Don't plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me. Choke those little bad days. Choke 'em down to nothin'. They're your days. Choke 'em!"

— Tom Waits

Gorilla War Fare

My students say to me once in a while “Mr. Gillespie, you’re weird.” It always brings a smile to my face and reminds me of a story Tom Waits tells his own children;


"Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?" they asked me the other day. I told them this story: In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, "Look at me...I'm tall, and I'm straight, and I'm handsome. Look at you...you're all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you." And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, "Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest." So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day."

— Tom Waits

Patriotic

As I sit and watch the women in the FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament, it reminded me of what a great honor it is to represent our country in international sports competition. I watched the British Open for a while this morning and it had a flag of the country each player was from.

Patriotism can be a fleeting emotion or it can be special. I will never forget the first time I heard the national anthem abroad as we prepared to play a German team in Russia, talk about emotional and moving. I cannot imagine what it would be like to represent our country in the Olympics.

Any athlete that has a chance to represent our country in international competition should do so proudly.