Work and Play

I saw an old picture of myself from Facebook. 

You know the ones. They pop up on your scroll and ask you if you want to share. Never-mind that you already shared some years ago and friends commented. It was obviously well received by them or FB wouldn’t suggest that you punish your friends and family again. I say it was an “old” photo but what is “old” really? A friend took the shot on a tour of the Shanghai bay while we rode around clicking everything in sight from freighters stacked with shipping containers to far away views of the city sky line. It wasn’t picturesque in the way that seeing the Rocky Mountains is picturesque. Nor was it quaint and lovely like a bed and breakfast in a New England town. It was smoggy and gross, even the weather seemed to have it out for us that day. The sun never appeared. Of course if it did we would have seen the oily barges floating by in glisteny detail. The sun always makes the smog covered city a little worse. It brightens up corners but mostly creates a soupy mess. 

Here is the strange thing, I don’t mind gritty industrial landscapes and soot covered equipment. Like most people I’d opt for a more relaxing trip filled with beaches and sunshine or fishing spots in sparse cabins. For vacations I always want beauty and presentation. We adore mountains and lakes because of the natural wonder in God’s creation. Nothing says ‘awesome God’ like Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon. China has a lot of gorgeous lakes and mountains too. Why then would anyone see the beauty (if that’s the word) in grimy industrial landscapes and busy ports? Here’s a hint, it’s in the process.

I used to do this demonstration during my brief teaching adventure. I held up a picture of an aerial view of New York City during the day with the sun shining on the buildings and another black and white photo of an early twentieth century textile factory floor. My idea was the beautiful city represented a positive development, prosperous and inviting; the black and white photo represented a negative development, ugly and shameful. A lot of the factory workers from the photo were kids with no shoes working the looms, dirty faces and rough looks. I hoped to sort the capitalists from the progressives, to get a feel for their notions about human nature. I asked the kids in my classroom which image best represented capitalism. No one understood what I was getting at. 

If no one gets your examples you’re doing them wrong. Kids aren't thinking about economics or history, they just want lunch.

 American History is mostly taught by progressives with a negative view toward capitalism. They see young kids making pennies a day and working 12 hours. They rightly worry about working ages and conditions but ignore the benefits to society of the work itself. They don’t see the finished work, the architecture and design. We don’t get modern cities without the industrial revolution. We don’t get the conveniences without the grime and grit. There is a trend in building, hard work then play. We usually sort out working conditions and ages along the way. Work is dirty and difficult but concerned with providing for the next generation. Play is that next generation, living healthy and comfortable.

If you want poor countries to become rich countries it’s work and then play.

If it means jobs as opposed to government checks for subsisting most will take the dirty air for a while. This isn’t giving China a pass either. They are very much a Communist country with an awful record on the environment. But it has managed to set certain parts of the economy lose. In that way it felt a bit like a roaring free market to an outsider. Obviously foreigners disagree on a lot regarding China but most agree that from 2003 to 2010 the economy roared. At least it did until the most powerful modern president, Xi Jinping, started gobbling up titles like steamed buns. It wasn’t just him though.

 China wasn’t quite the investment it used to be after the housing crash in the U.S. around 2008. American corporations began complaining much louder about the intellectual property theft and the hostile environment for making money. You can always count on corporate entities to do the right thing when the profits get thin.

The comparisons to American industry in the late 19^th century and China’s just 20 years ago is overwrought. American freedom and laissez faire capitalism built the strongest economy in the world; China opened up just enough and put some of their statist thinking on the shelf. But the hope for China in recent years was that it would develop like the US had, cleaner energy, better working conditions, greater freedoms and better quality of life. This may have always been a sucker’s bet, a belief for the rube NGOs to cling to while the business made whatever money they could suck out of the place.

 Sadly it looks like China was never going to open up enough to change the politics of place. The transition for authoritarian rule to democratic norms worked for South Korea and Taiwan, why not China?

When I think back to that tour boat pic I remember how I imagined the country looked 20 years before and what it might look like if I came back again in 20 years. Ideally the shipping lanes would still be open, cranes loading freighters and tugs pushing them out to sea. The real test is in the countryside and the smaller cities though. How might folks be living there? Would they be able to invest money in a growing economy and criticize the government? How about church, would they be able to attend a Protestant church legally? Would there be a noticeable middle class? How about the work/play ratio, are the kids of the factory generation living a little better?

With the benefit of hindsight I doubt I considered those issues back then. I was probably like my students staring blankly at the two visions of capitalism, thinking intently about it and wondering “how much longer till lunch?”

Naturally Right

 

I took this meme from Reddit because it’s funny. I think it provides us with a window into the way American citizens incorrectly view the founding. This is the Constitutional Convention, it has to be or the joke doesn’t work. Did America's founders sit down and discuss how much freedom to permit to the newly formed states, people? Who did they try to protect, the citizens or the government?

America is fundamentally different because it recognized the rights of individuals and restricted the government's ability to hamper them. The idea that the founders 'decided' to allow guns gets it completely backward. The right to own guns and speak freely are inherent rights, or inalienable. In other words they can't be taken away. Why? because they are God given (natural) and an essential part of what makes people human. If God created humans with certain inherent freedoms than who can really take them? Can you steal a person’s character or just suppress it?

I remember reading a newspaper opinion years ago that took a dim view of the ultra rich in America. I think the point of it was that ‘we shouldn't be overly excited when someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett gives money to charity. The gifts are appreciated but the largess of the rich is because of this country’s willingness to provide opportunities for them. ‘We' as a society allowed them to make the money through friendly laws and easy regulation. Nonsense. It’s true they had the good fortune to apply themselves in a country that respects diligence. They also might have had a better start through education or skill, Gates had both. None of that is because “We” the planners allowed it.

 It's an attitude that puts the authority into the hands of a government (planners) and not the 'consent of the governed'. It's like the saying the government allowed you to become rich, when the truth is our laws support the ability of citizens to pursue happiness. Just because countries everywhere got this wrong doesn't mean we should too. It’s important to see the Constitution as a complete break from that philosophy of kings and tyrants. It makes the individual the centerpiece, the rational being seeking liberty. The Constitution was meant to put restrictions on government and allow natural processes to flourish. Natural processes included freely worshiping God or not, setting up a business or working for one, buying and selling property.  

Individuals get hung up on things like guns because of the danger they pose in the hands of criminals. But they miss the essential part of the Second Amendment which is not that the founders 'allowed us to have guns'. This is insulting. They recognized that restrictions on a person's life and property were not within their purview. It was none of their damn business and they knew it. So they put hefty restrictions on the government around certain things, speech and firearms are just some of the most important.

We can argue all day about what limits are appropriate on speech and weapons. Courts have mostly held very lose restrictions on speech and thankfully, guns laws are getting looser all the time. Most people don't believe you should be allowed to keep a Mark 19 grenade launcher in your garage mounted on an old F150. Although it's tough for me to think of a better way to spend a Saturday than driving through open land firing at targets. Cities have restrictions that rural communities would never have. It makes sense to a degree but if it infringes on an individual's basic freedom it has to go. The Second Amendment is not without restrictions though and courts constantly hear new arguments.

You aren’t allowed to keep a howitzer in your driveway. This is primarily an order of magnitude problem. Firearms don't pose this enormous downside. It's why we restrict fully automatic weapons with some exceptions. A lot of my libertarian friends think drugs fall into the same category and should come with no restrictions. I don't, but that's a discussion for another day. I understand the logic, but drugs to me are the howitzer that kills thousands even if most people can get high and function like an adult. 

None of this is to say that our laws are perfect or beneficial to everyone. But the principle that the founders (Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton) were concerned with what to grant the new citizens is plainly wrong. They always began by restricting the government first.

I know the meme is just a joke. It's a funny way to show how different our country is from others. We love guns. We love to talk. We never shut up actually. But we live in an age when so much is planned and orchestrated that it's important to remember the core principle of the founding, individual liberty through natural rights.    

New Goals New Attitudes

I ran today.

Sundays are my most consistent and also favorite day. I’ve been spoiled by the low 40 degree weather these last few weeks. I write more about the weather than any other part of running because it determines so much. Rain ruins any chance of hoofing it outdoors. Spring is coming up and Oklahoma is rain and wind central. So far so good. Above 40 degrees and I go with shorts and a long sleeve tee. Below 40 and it’s cold gear tights and two shirts. Below 30 and it’s gloves and a headband. I won’t run below 20. I rarely have to, especially this year. Mild temps and early sun equal a great jog.

 I’m not bragging here but my consistency at sticking to my (very loose) plan of 15 to 20 miles a week is right on schedule. Actually I can’t remember the last time I didn’t get in the running goal I set. Would a stricter goal be like pouring water on the hot embers of my jogging passion? I don’t know but I’m meeting my goal now even though it’s light on detail. My speed has also improved so I can’t complain about that either.

I will make an effort this year to join either a running club or meet with local runners at the college track for some training. I don’t know what to expect but I understand they organize the running along pace guidelines, like ability groups. Yeah! trophies for everyone! Most people join to improve their times or get ready for an upcoming race. I haven’t signed up for any yet but I’ll keep my schedule open.

I started thinking about putting together a plan that gets me out of my routine. I can’t decide if this is a good idea or not. I’ve never been one for sticking to time or distance charts. I’m the same way at the gym. I don’t use plans that detail reps or weight totals or types of exercises. I’m afraid it would force me into a reluctant program that I just discarded later on. Maybe I won’t meet all the requirements and stop short. That lack of follow through depresses additional workouts and makes you wonder if you should keep going at all. I imagine a lot of new runners experience this. It’s the same reason New Year’s resolutions are all shot through with excuses by the second week.

 How many years did I try to quit smoking and give up because of a rough day at work?

Eventually you just get tired of fighting the battle in your head. After you give in again you start to wonder if the goal was ever possible in the first place. Or, if maybe you aren’t the kind of person who can get free and move forward. String a few of these years together and a picture of failure emerges, of inconsistency, of slavery. Only God can change the image we have of ourselves, if we let Him. Every lit a candle into one of those hollowed out holders? In a dark room the cut out from the holder puts an image on the wall. Some are heart shaped or Christmas themed, some have holes or patterned cut outs. All are made to reflect the light inside. Our hollowed out shell reflects the light inside when God takes over. He fills us with light and worth and purpose.

Until our image changes we will always struggle to improve. Self-discipline and positive thinking do some good, but big changes come with an eternal perspective. It’s never easy though even with a mindset rooted in grace. We put our efforts in God’s hands and hope for the best.

On second thought maybe I’ll set some new running goals.  

 “No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us”. (Romans 8:37)  

Ideal Bowling

I went bowling the other night.

Midweek get-togethers with friends are a nice way to break up a work week. Bowling is a challenge for me. It’s difficult just picking up spares but feels like it should be much easier. On the first roll I knock down about half the pins. The second is even more embarrassing. It doesn’t matter how they’re lined up either. Pins on opposite sides of the lane are nearly impossible to hit. Most people can get one but without a bouncing the pin off the back and striking the other one, forget it. Have you ever seen anyone actually do that? Nail a perfect 7, 10 split?

When I have three pins staring at me all lined up down the center I’ll miss to one side or the other. If the pins are clustered on one edge I’ll just miss by rolling past the side or clunking it in the gutter. My favorite is when two pins are standing up with a bowling ball size gap between them. I make a selection on which one to hit and miss both pins going right between them.

It makes me think of the boat chase scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

“Are you crazy don’t go between them!”

“Go between them are you crazy?!”  

No matter how wide the miss I always manage to stare at the cleanup gate like I’ve just seen an elephant knock them over with his trunk. It’s partly confusion and partly surprise, Why? How? Bowling is no different from every other activity. In order to get good you have to spend time at it. On a good year I’ll go twice, so I won’t be getting better anytime soon. Bowling, pool and darts are just games you play at the bar or at birthday parties or on a snow day from school. Obviously some people compete in them like any other sport, but for most of us these are occasional events. We can only …ahem, spare so many hours every year. Mostly I just think WAAAAY too much about the larger implications; hence this blog.

That I get too frustrated with my ability is a given; why I get so frustrated is a mystery. I’m not the kind of person that needs to be good at everything all the time. I’m as competitive as most guys but I think I have a standard idea in my head of what the performance level should look like. Let’s call it “Ideal 1”. It’s an artificial level that exists in my head representing my expected game. Ideal 1 doesn’t measure my actual ability, it’s pure fiction. It isn’t rooted in past efforts or realistic notions. How I arrived at this level is anyone’s guess.

You’ll understand this feeling if you’ve ever watched the US Open and thought “I should be able to do that”. Of course you don’t mean “I should be able to do that” at the same level and Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.” You just mean I could volley the ball back and forth over the net, no problem. But it is a problem. A very big problem. What you should ask yourself in reply to the silly assertion is “Based on what, should I be able to do that?”

 Anything short of Ideal 1 is failure, which is tough on the psyche. It’s not a competitive thing as much as an expectation; again, for a game which I don’t play often and have almost no knowledge of. I don’t expect to get over 200 and if the highest score of the group is 175 and at 145, I’m OK with that. But those sub 100 games are embarrassing even if the top scores are only a few points above that. Ideal 1 doesn’t come with an exact score number which is convenient because then I’d have to name it.    

What is that mechanism in my thinking that makes me imagine a world where lofty expectations are the norm, based on nothing?

There is good news however. It seems to lessen with age. I’ll bet it never goes away completely though. I can make fun of myself a little more now.

Life is basically a collection of moments like my ill imagined bowling expertise. We think we have some notion of how it goes until we start to play, start to work, start to raise kids and start to save and invest money. Suddenly it all starts to seem unfair and we wonder why we aren’t better at this? ‘I’ve watched others do it and it doesn’t seem that tough’ is a kind of unspoken rule. I didn’t expect the setbacks or the debt. I didn’t expect the illness or the lack of opportunity. I thought education would ensure a better buffer.

But everyone who stays at it improves, with effort and with learning. That may be the only truly observable lesson. Stay in the game, even when you struggle with the wobbly pins.

Signs Signs Everywhere Signs

 

Who was it that said "If you aren’t cheating you aren’t trying"? Alex Cora, AJ Hinch?

 Well the Astros tried hard, and took sign stealing to an industrial scale level. Manager AJ Hinch was suspended for a year by the commissioner, as was the General Manager Jeff Luhnow. Promptly after that Astros owner Jim Crane fired them both. The league also tacked on a 5 million penalty to the team for violating policy, which they can afford now after dumping both Hinch and Luhnow.

If you’re not up to speed on this scandal here it goes. Since at least 2017 the Astros used a sophisticated form of sign stealing from opposing pitchers in their home games. Sign stealing is familiar to everyone who’s ever played little league. If you’re a runner on second you look at the sign the catcher gives the pitcher and you try to relay that sign to your teammate at the plate. If the catcher puts one finger down it’s a fastball (usually) and two fingers mean an off-speed pitch like a curve or change-up. You can communicate to your batter a signal like tipping your cap or clapping. Teams look for it though and try to come up with different signals to confuse. No one considers this cheating.

But let’s say one of the parents behind the fence in center field uses a high resolution video camera and zooms in on the catcher. The parent recording the game communicates to the batter by shouting or waving his hands. Most people rightly see this as cheating. Not just because of the magnitude but because the other team isn’t aware it’s happening. This is almost exactly what the Astros did. What they were doing, and it looks like the Red Sox as well, was industrial scale cheating. I’m sure they weren’t the only ones but they needed to be made an example of.

Rumors floated around the league after the 2017 season so other teams got wise to the Minute Maid Park (Houston) advantage. The Nationals, who just won the last series, used a complicated set of signs for all their games in Houston.

Pitcher Mark Fiers, who was with the Astros in 2017, broke the story to the Athletic in November last year. Minute Maid Park has a camera set up to record the game for instant replay purposes. This has been the case for all teams since 2014. Somehow the team was able to send the live feed to a dugout monitor where the players would watch and bang on a trash can for off-speed pitches and sit quietly for fastballs. If anyone was going to have major problems with sign stealing it would be a pitcher. Not to mention, doing something this brazen is bound to fall apart after your players start going to other teams. The Astros of course won the World Series in 2017. How much is due to their clever ‘replay gate’?

If it didn’t help, no one would bother. This is the biggest problem with cheating, you tarnish your reputation for something you may well have earned without it.

 It doesn’t matter that they had the best pitching staff that year, by a long shot. It doesn’t matter than Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Corea, and Alex Bregman all had incredible years. Altuve even won the MVP award that year.

A lot of teams the Astros went through that year are rightfully salty today. C.C. Sabatha (Yankees) wants the win vacated as does David Freese (Dodgers). Kevin Youkilis  (Yankees) is disappointed that the penalties weren’t steeper. Trevor Bauer (Reds) trolled the Astros with video clips of AJ Hinch mocking the idea that the team was cheating. 

I don’t know how to feel about the punishment the MLB did hand down. In addition to the 5 million dollar fine slapped on the organization they also lose their first and second round picks for the next two years. It might not seem like much, but the real damage is not in payroll or future talent or vacated wins, it’s in the perception we have of players who cheated. Not to mention an organization that allowed it. 

Baseball’s commissioner Rob Mannford decided to not punish the players individually. It’s too difficult to determine to what extent each player benefited or went along with it to not upset the others. That’s a reasonable explanation for me but I can’t imagine it goes over well with players on other teams that got beat. If social media is any indicator of how other players feel about the Astros, it will be a while before this episode is forgotten.

One Shot One Thrill

Sam Mendes created an entire movie as one shot. It’s dramatic and focused, suspenseful and intense. By telling one story over the course of a full day, back stories and side narratives get eliminated. We follow the characters from start to finish with nothing in between.1917 is less about the war as it is set during the war. Very few scenes contain 'explainers' where generals discuss troop movements or point to maps and tell the audience where divisions are located. It’s a break from most war movies that seek to explore the historic costs of war, and the underlying political fault lines. 1917 wants to immerse you in the war, for a full day.

We are shown the mission at the beginning for the sake of plot; a British regiment deep behind German lines is facing imminent slaughter. Two soldiers are chosen to deliver a message to halt an attack before it’s too late. Other than that, most details about setting and maneuver are stripped away. We see and feel the way the soldiers do, a little lost and overwhelmed. This is a simple movie exploring the challenges of mission and the weight of responsibility. It doesn’t rehash political ideas about the war or the danger of nationalism. In this way the movie says less about World War I, or any war, than it does about determination, sacrifice and brotherhood--everything critical for carrying out mission in impossible situations. 

I’m not sure how much Sam Mendes (the director) believes this is a story about individual growth, but those characteristics are present. We see the reluctance to take the mission, the unlikely chance for success and the challenges that threaten to derail the whole thing.

“There goes First Principles, trying to stuff conservative ideals into movies again”.     

I don’t know a lot about camera work but this film is beautifully shot. We follow the soldiers as they traipse through empty trenches and open fields. We run with them to avoid bombs that light up the sky. The camera gets uncomfortably close as they kill and get shot at; it floats down the rapids after a jump into the river to avoid German gunfire. We feel as exhausted and nervous as the soldiers. The message the soldier carries is time sensitive, adding to our discomfort. We see dead bodies and rats scurrying through the muddy trenches and climbing over each other.

If Saving Private Ryan tried to answer the question “What is a life worth?” 1917 tries to answer the question “How does responsibility change a person?” In particular, responsibility that’s put-on, demanded of, critical for others. From a movie point of view, war is as good a theater to explore these questions as anything. It’s unrelenting, mistakes are deadly and there is no time for regret. We keep moving through the mess, determined. Lives depend on it after all.

I read an interview with the director, Sam Medes, who talked about shooting the opening scene from Spectre (James Bond film) in one shot. Because that sequence is one shot and completely memorable, he wondered what an entire movie shot this way might look like. 1917 is the result and the shots really pull you in. The word he kept using was “immersive”. He wanted an immersive feel for the audience.

It’s a granular and emotional story with just the scantest reminders that this takes place during World War I. 1917 is interested in the human part of mission and the mettle required to focus and finish.1917 shows how difficult situations create extraordinary courage.

This will win an Oscar. It has to.

Jogging Routines

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted an update on running. 

Mostly I’ve settled into a routine that feels like autopilot so the news is pretty much the same. I go 15 to 20 miles per week over the course of 3 days (sometimes 2). I run outdoors on Sunday because traffic is light and because I like to get 9 or so miles in. Sunday is still my most consistent day and also my long day. The pace has improved on the margins but only a little. I guess as long as my primary goal is distance, time will remain a secondary concern. I like where I’m at, just under 10:00 minutes per mile and occasionally under 9:50 per mile. That isn’t exactly lightning speed but it feels comfortable for now.

Comfort might be the problem though. I imagine jogging in the winter the way athletes imagine their off-season, as a time for maintenance. They hit the weights and do cardio, but the real grind happens during the regular season. The practices are intense, the schedule is packed and the stakes are high. I’m hardly an athlete in the off-season, but the lack of a specific goal keeps me comfortable with my routine. I want to be ready to get into a half marathon at pretty much any time of year. The races are still a ways off but I never should need a 2 month program to get back into shape. I do plan on doing a few more this year. I only did two last year and one was a disastrous trail run.

 “Never again!” he shouts as the mountain air fills his lungs and he trips over a hiking log, gasping like a rioter through a cloud of tear gas.

The weather has been spectacular, especially when you consider this is usually the coldest time of year and it hasn’t dropped below 30 in over a month. The wind is the wind. If it’s too strong I don’t go, but up till now it hasn’t held me back. I’m under no illusions that winter will continue to be so mild throughout the rest of the year. We did just hit January after all. But I’ve been through some mild winters before in Oklahoma. We seem to get them every 3 to 5 years. It might not drop below 30 again.

I started out early (6:30 am) on Sundays during the summer because the heat gets unbearable in the morning. I stuck with it in the fall despite the cooler mornings. It just made sense to get the run in early and it still does. Since I go to gym early during the week I decided to stick with the early run on Sunday as well.

I’ve been fortunate not to have terrible injuries. I don’t push anything too hard anymore. On countless occasions I’ve injured shoulders, joints and muscles while lifting weights and trying to set personal records. After a few of those you lose your competitive drive and try to work out smarter. For bad injuries you can miss months at a time, no exercise and no alternative. So I improve at a slow pace. That’s OK with me. Jogging isn't sprinting.