Real Joe

Our culture admires Roger Clemens for his work ethic and drive, along with his pitching skill. But he seems to have mistaken ideas about what’s important.

There also may be a time element to Clemens’s pursuit. He has said he would like to win 300 before the pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre retires after this season. Clemens also has four sons 5 to 15 years old, and he may soon want to spend more time with them.

He may get to 300 victories, but what will his legacy with his sons be? I have no idea what kind of father he is, but if he is in fact consumed with getting to 300 , he’s running the risk of saying to them “My place in history is more important than you and your needs as kids.” And the reverberations from that could last several generations.

I worked and rode motorcycles too much when my kids were little. And even now, sometimes, I wonder if I’m spending too much time on my entrepreneurial activities and not enough with my daughter, helping her with her homework, teaching her stuff that she’s not likely to learn in school. Time to start using those Franklin-Covey Weekly Compass cards again, I guess.

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The psychosis of Andrea Yates: a two-person problem
More opinions that align with my contention that Andrea Yates was not just suffering from a mental illness:

• She Got Life, He Was Live

• Letter to the editor in the NY Times Magazine
  
• Russell Yates is also accountable for this tragedy
  
• Rusty Yates is Culpable, Too
  
• Culpability in Yates Case Is a Family Affair

Peggy Noonan wrote in her column last week about the Pope’s statement on the sex abuse scandals:

So, the pontiff said that the priests who have abused and seduced teenage boys and adolescents had given in to the most grievous forms of “the mystery of evil.” He did not call the guilty priests only disturbed or in need of therapy; he said they had done evil and betrayed God’s gift to them, the gift of the priesthood.

Like all psychological problems, sexual abuse is complex but to say that the offending priests have given in to the “mystery of evil” indicates that the Pope thinks the Church isn’t part of the systemic nature of the problem. He needs to say something to the effect that “We, as a church, are part of this problem and we must act quickly and decisively to rectify it. Here’s our plan.” But maybe when you’re supposedly infallible on the big stuff, it’s hard to acknowledge that you’ve botched things on other matters.

New York City’s Cardinal Egan doesn’t get it, either. In yesterday’s sermon, he vowed that “This evil will be stamped out with all the fervor of the Lord and the Lord’s people” as if he’s not contributed to the problem.

These guys really DO remind me of the Enron execs.

Lindsey, yeah, maybe at our lowest brute level, we men do need women around to dominate and use for our sexual pleasures. But the dance of the sexes is complementary, which means we’re evolving right along with you. A step behind? Maybe, but I think Darwin would say it would have to be a small one. So lead the way, ladies! But don’t make us acknowledge your leadership. We’re not quite ready to handle that.

Ron, I’m not so sure that the intelligent design crowd wants to promote religion in the schools per se. I think they just want to have biology taught in a way that doesn’t negate or undermine their beliefs. Think of the uproar that would occur if public schools begin teaching that God doesn’t exist, since there’s no generally acceptable scientific proof. Even the most far-left liberals would likely have a tough time with that.

Dana, thanks for the history lesson on celibacy. I didn’t know this. Can anyone else verify it?

“And I’m soooo glad my Clergy’s allowed to get laid! It makes them much nicer to deal with. ) “

LOL.

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As you can see, I’m testing out the insertion of small advertisting blurbs in the middle of the blog entries once per day. These aren’t banner ads, but rather links to Powell’s Books and Amazon where Real Joe has affiliate/partner accounts. We earn 10-15% of whatever you buy when you click from here.

I’m interested in your feedback on this. Paying subscribers have access to the Real Joe Private Blog where these ads don’t appear.

I added the 2002 edition of What Color is Your Parachute? to the Real Joe Bookstore today. Seven freakin’ million and counting. Number 128 on the Amazon list this afternoon. Jeesh. Mr. Bolles tells me he’s celebrating his 75th birthday this week. And he continues to add features to his web site, JobHuntersBible.com.

I’ve also added the option to purchase books from Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon via their Powells.com site.

I don’t know how widespread the distribution of Spike Lee’s documentary, Jim Brown: All American will be, but I’d like to see it after reading this review in today’s NYTimes: Jim Brown as Football Legend, Sex Symbol and Husband. At its most provocative, the movie explores the masculine mystique and the myth of the black stud.

One line in Kent Nerburn’s reply to the writing students particularly caught my eye: Learn now to do no harm to each other — to never treat each other with cruelty, whether verbal, emotional, or physical. It’s a lesson well worth learning.

These Sebastopol, CA middle schoolers are trying to do just that: stamping out name-calling by hosting No-Name Week. It’s a worthy effort, especially in schools with 300 kids or less. But in our national insanity for economies of scale in K-12 education, we put kids in warehouses of a thousand kids or more. No Name Week implemented in big schools will likely be another feel-good program that ultimately will not only do anything to prevent another Columbine. But it won’t do much to prevent the endless emotional scarring that goes on day in and day in out in these buildings.

Kent Nerburn, author of Letters to My Son (in the Real Joe Store), has a new student letters to parents page on his web site.

Recently, I received a selection of letters written by high school students as a response to their reading of Letters to My Son. I thought you all might find them interesting and valuable. They are followed by the response I wrote to them as a group.

Two of my four kids wrote me similar letters back when they were in high school. I still carry them around with me in my planner. Maybe I should ask the other two to write. I’m not sure what I’d say, though. “Write me a letter telling me what you think of me as a dad and the job I’m doing as a parent. But also what you think of me as a man.” Would that work? Would it be too weird? I need to think and talk about this more before I do anything. Any ideas? Send ‘em or add a comment.

NPR’s ATC reported yesterday that the Pew Research Center for People and the Press released its second annual poll on the role of religion in public titled, Americans Struggle with Religion’s Role at Home and Abroad. Some interesting tidbits:

• A 65% majority believes that religion plays a significant role in most wars and conflicts in the world

• An overwhelming majority (75%) say that many religions can lead to eternal life
  
• The public is split about equally over whether belief in God is necessary for one to be a moral person (50% say such belief is not needed, 47% disagree).
  
• Even though most Americans (67%) consider the United States a “Christian nation,” an 84% majority believes that a person can be a good American even if he or she does not have religious faith.
  
• Atheists get very low ratings (34% favorable/54% unfavorable) and “people who are not religious” are given better but still modest evaluations (51% favorable/30% unfavorable).

Lots to like and lots to criticize here, but overall, I came away with the feeling that there are plenty of Americans who are pretty level-headed and tolerant when it comes to religion. Which indicates to me that there’s a decent-sized receptive audience for what I’m trying to do with Real Joe.