Brookfield Basics

This Friday is Goundhog Day so I thought this would be a topical column.

I am a bit of an insomniac at times. While this condition has its obvious drawbacks it is not without some benefits. Some of these are that I get caught up on all kinds of work, or occasionally find something good to watch on cable TV at odd hours of the night/morning.

This happened recently as I spent an enjoyable two hours watching Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. If you want to know the acid test of whether something is funny, here it is: If you are watching or reading something while all alone in the middle of the night and you laugh out loud – it’s funny. This movie passed that test for me.

For those who don’t know the story, it is the tale of a charmingly rougish and utterly self-involved Pittsburgh TV weatherman (Murray), and his beautiful, cerebral, and just as utterly out of reach producer (Andie MacDowell). The two of them are dispatched to Punxsutawney to cover the annual happening there known as Groundhog Day, an assignment Murray views with about as much anticipation as a colonoscopy. The basis of the story is that the same day keeps repeating itself, initiated by the radio-alarm clock in Murray’s room which greets him each morning with the song “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher, as the rolodex-like numerals on the radio dial flip over to 6 AM.

The movie progresses from Murray being utterly lost and befuddled, believing he is caught in some strange, time-warped fugue state, to shrewdly exploiting his situation by accumulating knowledge about his producer, so as to better woo and ultimately seduce her. The situations the script puts him in, and the banter he engages in with various local residents are superb. And Murray matches this with his unparalleled combination of facial expressions and world-weary bemusement. No one can raise an eyebrow in mocking protestation, feign hurtful indignation, or display such contemptuous, mocking disdain in a mere glance like Murray. He is more than a comedian; he is an actor with range and ability.

But about halfway through the movie the story transitions from a playful, urbane comedy to a mini-morality play along the lines of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Murray is cast as the modern-day Scrooge, hopelessly lost in a world of self-absorption, ego, and the endless search for advantage gained at the expense of others. But as he spends more and more time in the company of the beautiful and virtuous MacDowell, her inner light begins to banish his darkness, and a metamorphosis takes place in his soul and his character. The key scene in the movie is when he successfully gets her to come up to his room (UREKA!), but then instead of taking undue advantage, he just lies on the bed with her and engages in conversation. Ultimately he covers her with a quilt and bares his soul in an outpouring of honest and pure sentiment, only to discover she had fallen asleep, leaving his soliloquy unheard and known only to himself.

Despite this transition to more serious fare the movie never loses its light, whimsical touch. The story line is masterfully conceived, the dialogue artfully written, the casting is inspired, and the acting is the equal of them all. This happy convergence results in a humorous romantic comedy, with some excellent lessons for us along the way. Now how many movies have you seen in the last ten years you can say that about?

Groundhog Day was conceived and produced by Harold Ramis, without question one of the least known and under-appreciated writer-producers of the last 25 years. His talent is proof that movies can be made without great gratuitous gobs of gore, violence or sex, and still hold our attention and enlarge our souls. His raw materials are ideas, scripts, actors, and his masterful directing touch, all employed to create outcomes that so few in Hollywood can now achieve, the ability to ENTERTAIN us, as opposed to shocking and numbing us.

If you haven’t seen Groundhog Day – rent it. If you have but it’s been a long time, rent it again. You won’t regret it.

And please - don't drive angry!!

I am currently coaching a team of second and third grade boys in a program called Upward Basketball; a youth league sponsored and conducted by a number of Churches in the Brookfield and surrounding area.

I am trying to help the boys develop a greater level of skill at the game of basketball while teaching them a few things along the way, like accepting victory with humility, defeat with grace, receiving joy from their play, and hopefully, helping them one or two steps down the road of knowledge about their Christian heritage and faith.

But they are teaching me many things as well, and I have been reflecting on some of them after Saturday’s game.

They taught me that a fallen opponent is someone to be helped up and comforted, not ignored and raced by on the way to a score. Their opponents are clearly identified by a different color jersey, but ours are sometimes harder to see. But they are there, aren’t they? And when we are “on the court” with them, we need to try and act towards them as the boys on our team acted.

They don’t care a fig about the shot they just missed, but they are relentlessly zealous and eager about preparing for the next one. They are teaching me to worry less about what is past, and to “fix my eyes” on what is ahead.

They reminded me of what Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson taught us all twenty years ago; that there is as much joy and value in making a nice assist as there is in scoring the goal or the basket. We have chances to make “assists” every day, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant they may be.

But most of all, they are teaching me to live in the moment and work in that moment with clarity and passion. The joy they take in the execution of simple things is complete; it is pure; it is rewarding.

I know, I know - it is easier for 7-8 year old boys to do this than it is for adults. They do not have the full plate of responsibilities or the knowledge of darker things that we do. But their world has frustrations and fears too, even if they may be smaller than ours are. Despite this, they manage to set these aside, and approach their tasks with an emotion that we rarely see and only hear about in beer commercials – GUSTO!!

I will look for ways to display some gusto as I go about my daily schedule, no matter how mundane or routine they may seem.

Thanks boys for teaching an old dog some old tricks.

AND GO PANTHERS!!

Darrent Williams was shot and killed on New Year's Eve outside of a swank Denver nightclub.

Darrent Williams was a twenty-four year old cornerback for the NFL's Denver Broncos, and was by all accounts a rising star and a millionaire in process.

I will open this article with a grasp of the obvious by saying we can count it a tragedy anytime a person of such promise and youth is savagely murdered. Events like this leave one groping for the sense of things, and sends each of us down different paths to look for answers. But it is not the "why" of such things that I want to explore in this article. It is the "eulogizing" that occurred upon the young man's death that I find striking.

All of the comments I heard about Mr. Williams came from the coaching staff, players, and other employees of the team. I heard comments like, "he was the most alive person I knew", and "his smile lit up every room he walked into", and "he was so upbeat all the time". I heard or read dozens of comments, and every one of them was similar to these in tone and content.

Now this is all well and good, and I am sure the remarks are accurate. But I was struck by the fact that no one offered any comments that related to his CHARACTER. It was as if such traits of PERSONALITY were evidence that he was, by definition, a man of character. No one talked about his integrity, or his steadfastness, or his attitude of service towards others, or his honesty. No one spoke about the traits that go towards defining CHARACTER. There was only this endless recitation of his positive PERSONALITY traits.

No one talked about the fact that he had fathered two children (one at the age of 17 and the second at the age of 21) and had essentially abandoned both of them in terms of his responsibilities as a father. No one wondered why he was not with his kids on New Year's Eve, but was instead cruising the tony night spots of Denver in a custom-built stretch Hummer.

I want to be clear on this sad and important topic. The fact that he fathered two kids at his young age and without the benefit of marriage does not by definition mean he lacked character. I am more concerned by the fact he left his kids, but the bottom line is I don't know if he was a man of character or not.

What I find compelling is that no one chose to speak about these more important matters when they remembered and eulogized their fallen comrade. They just kept referring back to superficial and shallow things like "his smile" and his "enthusiasm". These are good things to be sure, but they are hardly the stuff of character.

We have come to a place where we are surrounded by the conveniences and allure of everything that 21st Century technology can provide. We are inundated with an endless parade of images and sound bites that are full of glitz, but utterly empty. We inhabit a society where attractive personality characteristics are confused with and substituted for character. They are NOT the same thing.


Is this where you want to live?

If not - let's consider our role in changing it.

If so - welcome to the age of personality.

Few things amuse me more than when the icons and talking heads of our mainstream media (MSM) bemoan the fact that most of America no longer views them as being honest or objective. Oh how they twist in self-righteous angst over this matter. It is inconceivable to these lofy-minded nabobs, who only have our best interests at heart, that they are now viewed largely with mistrust and suspicion.

Well the reason so many of us view them in this light is because they have given us so much reason to do so. And I think there is a recent news event that PROVES this.

Three weeks ago Sandy Berger stood up in Federal Court and said these three words: "Guilty your Honor". Sandy Berger was President Bill Clinton's National Security Advisor. Now please understand that I am not a Republican, nor is this about bashing Bill Clinton or his legacy. It is about the actions and behavior of our media.

Here is what Mr. Berger, by his own admission, did. One is compelled to believe him if for no other reason than no one would possibly make this up!

While serving as NSA to President Clinton, he used his security clearance to gain entrance to the National Archives with the intended purpose of stealing classified documents. Berger's motivation was that these documents contained information damaging to him relative to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He smuggled the papers out of the building by stuffing them in his socks!! Then, with all of the officious and smug airs that only a rotund Washington DC power broker can muster, he indignantly denied this charge for years.

So let's recap. A man who sat at the innermost circles of power and decision making admits to stealing classified Federal documents by smuggling them off of government property in his socks!! Now after years of perjury, he admits to not only the theft, but to the fact that he subsequently destroyed the documents, thus destroying evidence of his own performance in a matter now seared into our national consciousness.

Now let's think for a moment. Can you imagine, can you possibly imagine the bonfire of outrage that would be erupting across the pages of our metropolitan newspapers and the desks of our network TV-anchors if this had happened in a Republican Administration, or in the board room of a major American Corporation??!! I can visualize Katie Couric swooning on set, the victim of a self-imposed tsunami of indignation. Walter Cronkite would peer languidly out from his ivory-towered enclave at the New York Yacht Club, and point to this as another sign of "right wing conspiracy and despotism". Giant Gum-Ball (ah sorry - I meant Bryant Gumble) would rail on about American corruption and decadence. And that great bastion of American muckraking, The New York Times, would look to hire Mr. Berger, as his real-life story is even better than what their long defrauded Pulitzer Prize winning reporters have now admitted to "making up".

Do I exaggerate? The imagery may be over-heated but the substance of this is true, and I believe we all KNOW it's true. It is no longer reasonable in my view to debate whether the MSM is biased. It is only reasonable to debate the impact of this betrayal of their once proud profession.

So the next time you hear someone from the MSM bemoaning the growth of "alternative news sources", tell them they have no one but themselves to blame. What they really bemoan of course is the fact that they no longer control the "message", and that they are no longer the arbiters and purveyors of thought in America.

And that is certainly something to be grateful for in this new year of 2007.