Bryan Strawser

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Archives for February 2004

Indiana Basketball

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March is approaching rapidly, which means that the Indiana High School State Basketball Championship will be ramping up and teams will slowly wind through the process to make the “Final Four” and play before a crowd of more than 48,000 people at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

Yes, you heard me. 48,000 people.

This is Indiana – we take our basketball seriously.

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The photo above isn’t unusual in my home state. From around the age of six, I had a basketball goal in our driveway – and I shot baskets almost every day.

I turned out to be a pretty horrible basketball player and didn’t play competively after the 8th grade – I was more interested in being in the band that played at basketball games – and so in my own way, I contributed to the drama that is Indiana High School Basketball.

My town had only 2400 residents – I guarantee you that on the night of a home game – all 2400 of them were packed in that 1940’s era Gymnasium at the corner of 5th and Railroad Streets to watch Covington play whatever opponent dared to come into our most holy of temples.

You haven’t seen intensity in a sport until you’ve seen Indiana High School Basketball.

The picture above, by the way, comes from Milan, Indiana – the team that went to the finals in the 1950’s and defeated Muncie Central. It’s the story immortalized in the movie Hoosiers.

And somewhere, in Indiana, right now, in the snow and mud, there’s a group of kids doing exactly what you see above. Shooting hoops and dreaming of taking that court at the RCA Dome to win it all.

My Team

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My team at the real job is made up of more than sixty-eight managers and hourly employees throughout the greater Boston area.

They are among the greatest group of people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

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The picture above shows five of them enjoying a moment of downtime at the Boys and Girls Club of Middlesex County, Massachusetts – we’re in the midst of a heated basketball game with a bunch of kids.

The diversity of my team – and of Boston – is reflected in that picture.

These five – along with the fifteen or so othes that were there that night – gave up their own Wednesday night to spend time with those much less fortunate than us. We’ve continued to keep the faith with the promise that we made to these kids back in November. We’ll be there.

My team takes the time – not only because our company is strongly commited to this mission – but because of the people that they are.

I’m privileged to be a part of their team.

Silent Lucidity

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Hush now, don’t you cry
Wipe away the teardrop from your eye
You’re lying safe in bed
It was all a bad dream
Spinning in your head
Your mind tricked you to feel the pain
Of someone close to you leaving the game of life
So here it is, another chance
Wide awake you face the day
Your dream is over… or has it just begun?

There’s a place I like to hide
A doorway that I run through in the night
Relax child, you were there
But only didn’t realize it and you were scared
It’s a place where you will learn
To face your fears, retrace the years
And ride the whims of your mind
Commanding in another world
Suddenly you hear and see
This magic new dimension

I- will be watching over you
I- am gonna help you see it through
I- will protect you in the night
I- am smiling next to you, in Silent Lucidity

If you open your mind for me
You won’t rely on open eyes to see
The walls you built within
Come tumbling down, and a new world will begin
Living twice at once you learn
You’re safe from the pain in the dream domain
A soul set free to fly
A round trip journey in your head
Master of illusion, can you realize
Your dream’s alive, you can be the guide but…

– Queensryche

Intertwining Roads

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I�ve always viewed life as a serious of intertwining roads, crossing back and forth with each other � sometimes as overpasses, sometimes as intersections, and sometimes as high speed on ramps.

The choices that we make in life force us to take exits, detours, and paths that lead to dead end streets. Eventually, we wind our way back and continue down the road that we have chosen. Sometimes we find ourselves back upon familiar territory � facing decisions that we have made before. And sometimes we make different decisions.

A woman I once dated would speak at times of parallel universes � that somewhere out there, all of her choices had split things into different worlds. One world where you made the other choice and lived on � another world, the present, where you lived on with the choice that you had made. At times, your dreams or other moments would give you a glimpse into that world that never was � all because of a choice that you had made.

A chance thought a few days ago led me to play some music and my mind wandered off into one of those moments where I saw my past in a different way � life had come across one of those intertwined roads that leads you back to a intersection that you had seen once before � this time, I took the other path, and saw a future/past that is quite different than what I live today. Some discussions followed with others from my distant past and that made things all the more vivid.

One of my favorite authors is Richard Bach � he posed a question once in one of his books:


I died to become the person that I am today.

Was it worth it?

I firmly believe that the choices I have made in my life that have led me to where I am today � to the person that I am today � were the choices that I was intended to take.

Don�t get me wrong, I�m incredibly happy with who I am and my station in life. I have few regrets.

But I�ll always wonder if it was worth it.

28 Questions

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The Washington Post has 28 questions for John Kerry, written by George Will.

My favorite:

You say the rich do not pay enough taxes. In 1979 the top 1 percent of earners paid 19.75 percent of income taxes. Today they pay 36.3 percent. How much is enough?

Hew to your Politics

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Once again, Neptunus Lex spells it out far better than I ever could.

I’ve been in my country’s service, man and boy, for nearly 26 years now. I stood watch and sailed the seas and flew the heights with death flying on my wing when the two great superpowers locked wills and fought by proxy in a contest between personal freedom and democratic choice versus dehumanizing socialist utopianism. I’ve lost far too many friend along the way, both during the cold war and after, to hear someone try to tell me that I’ve been duped by plutocrats and oligarchs.

I have two faiths: Faith in God, and faith in America. But these two faiths occupy separate spheres in my psyche, and I resent like hell when someone tries to use the pulpit or the church to proselytize for a political view not supported by scripture. That’s not what I go there for.

Next, my faith in this country means that I’m fully aware that we make mistakes – we are not always right, and even when right we are not always elegant about explaining ourselves. We crash into the furniture sometimes. While being fully aware of all these things, I am still convinced that their is no greater power for secular good than what we represent, that we are the last, best hope for mankind against the darkness in men’s souls that is always lurking, always waiting for a chance, always testing for weakness. And I’m OK with questioning authority, and I’m fine with politicians paying the price at the polls for flawed judgment or duplicity.

But don’t you dare try to tell me that there’s some straight line vector from Naziism to American democracy, not when my father and his generation spent so much blood and treasure fighting it. No, I won’t even buy a theoretical parralel.

And don’t you dare try to tell me that politicians here don’t pay the price for their malfeasance because we’re not really a democratic country.

Don’t you dare try to tell me that the only path to real democracy is to reject my political views and hew to yours.

Don’t you dare.

I’ve dealt with a couple individuals recently on some forums that I participate on that insist that my political views make me nothing short of a fascist nazi and that I should admit the error of my ways. Lex’s answer is far better than anything than I could come up with.

Hat tip to you, Commander.

Censorship and the Gulf War

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Via Neptunus Lex, one of my more favorite bloggers, you must read this Letter written by a blogger’s daughter after being censored by her fellow college students for being in support of the Gulf War.

And one wonder’s why the left irritates me. Read on.