Been busy with work, our first vacation with the baby, and trying to squeeze in my workouts, so I haven’t posted for too long–though I do have a series of posts in the upcoming weeks I am very excited by. Here’s something that’s been on my mind lately: In 1960, the average male in the United States weighed 166 pounds. Today, the average American female weighs 168.5. As I am getting older, my obsession with being big and strong has diminished. I am trying to be lighter, leaner, and more nimble. In reading about this, I’ve been wrapping my head around the fact that in the average male weighed 166 (!) just a few years after my dad was born. 166 seems so light to me. In researching this, I stumbled across this amazing piece in Sports Illustrated by President-elect John F. Kennedy: The Soft American Beginning more than 2,500 years ago, from all quarters of the Greek world men thronged every four years to the sacred grove of Olympia, under the shadow of Mount Cronus, to compete in the most famous athletic contests of history—the Olympian games. During the contest a sacred truce was observed among all the states…Continue reading JFK calling Americans soft
A Rushed Anecdote
Today is the 30th anniversary of Rush Limbaugh’s syndication on the radio. Many voices are chiming in with their take on Rush as a person, his professional perseverance in his early days, and his politics. Beginning 17 years ago while driving a truck around delivering erosion control materials to job sites, Rush Limbaugh has been a mainstay in my life. I don’t listen as much as I used to, but Rush’s voice was always ringing in my most formative years. I’ve carried his lessons on success, stick-to-itiveness, and fighting for what you believe in. So, today I decided to publically share my Rush Limbaugh story for the first time. Before a particularly tough week of training in the field during the notoriously tough Marine Corps Infantry Officers Course, my friend Danny approached me and asked if I wanted to go to the Redskins game with him the following weekend. I thanked him and said yes. It’ll give us something to look forward to this next week, I thought. “How’d you like to watch the game from the owner’s suite?” he asked. Apparently Danny’s parents were friends with Dan Snyder. “Awesome, thanks man!” Danny paused, smirked, and continued. “Hey Rob, the…Continue reading A Rushed Anecdote
Never* hit the snooze button again
One easy thing to do to improve your life is to pretend the snooze feature on your alarm does not exist. Disregard it. Waking up is easy for me. With so much to do and so little time, the last thing I want to do when I wake up is go back to sleep. I’m so excited to start my day that at least once a week I wake up in the middle of the night and check the time to see if it’d be inappropriate to get up for the day. 3:30 a.m.? I might just get up and start my day. 11:45 p.m.? Too early. I’ll try to shut off my brain and lay there until I fall back asleep. The other six nights of the week, I fall asleep within two minutes of putting my head on the pillow and wake up early without a spending a second more awake. But it wasn’t always that way. As a younger guy, I’d hit snooze a few times to “ease myself awake.” It was a BS excuse, and I knew it. Getting up for the day back then was a challenge and required a hit of willpower. During Marine…Continue reading Never* hit the snooze button again
Prayer on a (bonus) Father’s Day
I am writing this at 5 a.m. on the day before my first Father’s Day as a dad. My daughter is swaddled up, sleeping on my desk after her 4 a.m. bottle. It’s raining outside. I am not a birthday guy. Never have been. Growing up, I always felt an odd sense of guilt on my birthdays. I didn’t like the spotlight. I didn’t want the attention. Our time on earth is limited, and a birthday marks another year gone. Even as a child I felt an overwhelming sense that we have so little time on earth and there’s so much to do. Birthdays are a reminder or our mortality. I’ve always been a bit skeptical of people who actually cared about or, worse yet, celebrated their birthdays. And yet, I am proud to say it: I am so excited for Father’s Day tomorrow. Not for a gift or to play golf. No, but to actually be a father on Father’s Day. My dad once said that he felt, growing up, that he was born to be a father. He didn’t mean it in a boastful way. He saw fatherhood as a vocation, not a check-in-the-box. I felt and feel the same way.…Continue reading Prayer on a (bonus) Father’s Day
Skin in the game
My wife and I finally left the hospital with our baby after she spent 21 days in the special care unit. Twenty-one days of being poked and prodded. Twenty-one days of a feeding tube. Twenty-one days of being hooked up to loud, beeping machines. And 21 days not at home. Twenty-one days of tears leaving the hospital. Twenty-one days of uncertainty and fear. And then suddenly we got to take her home. And the 21 days doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Carrying our baby out of that hospital in a car seat was one of the best two or three moments of my life. I felt freer than I ever have in my life while also weighed down with the solemn burden of fatherhood. I know some people spend their whole life talking about the “good old days” and reminiscing about a time when they were younger, but not me. All I can think about is the here and now and the future! My little girl’s future. My daughter will, inshahallah, live until the year 2100. 2100. It’s only 2018. Eighty-two years ago it was 1936. World War II hadn’t even happened yet. Today’s day in age it can be tempting to…Continue reading Skin in the game
Contradiction
Hmmm… Russel Berger’s great sin against secularism? For posterity’s sake, the Left in 2018: They forgot the asterisk on that bottom tweet–*unless your ideas or beliefs are too diverse as we define it, in which case . . . you’re fired!”
Surprise mom and dad
Our baby came early. Born at 32 weeks, my little Ada has to start her life in the special care unit. We are in the middle of it right now, so the feelings are raw. One moment we are tired. One moment my wife cries and I’m the strong one. The next moment I’m crying and my wife has to carry the load. But in each moment, her face predominates. Leaving her each night is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Dispatches from the most bike-friendly city in the U.S.
One: Some government unit changed half of the busy street outside my gym into a bike lane–blocked off with pylons so no car may use the lane. This took away parking on one side of the street. Just like that, parking grew much more difficult than it already was for the gymgoers. To accommodate the now-heavier traffic, the city decided to limit street parking on the other side of the street from 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. so rush hour traffic can use both lanes. Result? People are changing their behavior but not in the way city planners hoped. Instead of biking to the gym, people go less often and–when they do go–are much more inconvenienced. Sometimes I think twice about going to lift when it’s around rush hour; parking is uncertain and ridiculous. During a normal hourlong workout, hundreds and hundreds of cars pass by the gym–thousands, really. A dozen bikes pass by. I also rarely patronize other shops along bike routes in the city. There’s never parking, and you can’t help but ask yourself, how important is that cup of coffee?, when you have to park four city block away? Not very. Two: Cyclists–insisting they be allowed to…Continue reading Dispatches from the most bike-friendly city in the U.S.
April donation
Filled up three big garbage cans with garbage too. Getting rid of my possessions is awesome. Eleven bags’ worth of stuff is gone, and I get a tax write-off to boot. We vote with our pocketbooks. Who and what are you supporting? Note that my truck and the husky in the picture are not donations.
People can be amazing; what are you building?
Spring is upon us in Minnesota, and we see five months’ worth of get-outside-and-make-it-happen bubble up on the first warm weekend of the year. For me this means more walks (although less intense than my winter walks), bike rides, dinner outside, sitting on the porch, sprints for weight loss and muscle growth, cabin time, grilling, and church softball league. Last night on a bike ride with my–now very pregnant and ever-more beautiful–wife, I saw this chalk drawing on the sidewalk about a mile from our house. I was so impressed that I walked back this morning to get a picture. It’s not so much that the chalk drawing impressed me–although it did. Nor was this the only chalk drawing we saw–it wasn’t. No, what really impressed me is the simple fact that someone spent hours creating this knowing it would not last. Not only that, but this person made this wonderful art that by now (probably) thousands of folks have encountered and enjoyed while gaining no notoriety from it! There is no monetary benefit. No gained fame. No acclaim. Just art. Are you the type to build the sand castle knowing it won’t survive the inevitable night’s tide? Think about that for a moment. Reflect on…Continue reading People can be amazing; what are you building?