Record Crowd - Syracuse University Basketball

I have been following Syracuse University basketball since the days of "Louie & Bouie" (Louis Orr & Roosevelt Bouie) - in 1976 when the pair helped to put the team on the national map (along with legendary coach Jim Boeheim).

Syracuse basketball is something that has been a part of my life as far as I can remember. And because I love basketball (college basketball in particular) it is still a big deal for me to see "my team" doing so well.

I really enjoy watching my favorite teams play... and the 2003 NCAA tournament championship run by the Orange was the biggest highlight of many years of cheering on the team from upstate New York.

After losing some key players from last year's team the expectations were not very high for this year's squad. Very few people, other than Coach Boeheim, knew how good players like Wesley Johnson and Scoop Jardine would be once given the chance to make a significant contribution.

The team has climbed in the Top 25 Rankings throughout the year, and with loses by Kentucky and Kansas yesterday, their huge win over #7 Villanova before an on-campus record crowd of 34,616 last night is predicted to move them to the #1 spot in the polls for the first time in team history (other than following the 2003 Championship game).

March Madness should be fun this year for SU fans!

I know that in the overall scheme of things sports don't carry a lot of weight, but when you grow up as an athlete (a mediocre one at best) and a sports fan it just becomes a part of who you are.

If only the Buffalo Bills could provide some brief moments of success...

Living Between Status Updates

The subtitle of this blog is " processing life, not from segmented parts, but as a whole". It really should read "trying to process life, not from segmented parts, but as a whole".

This is a challenge for me. And my guess is that it is for you too.

With the continual pressure we face from so many external and internal forces, it can be really easy to compartmentalize our lives. And we can tend to evaluate "how we're doing" in each of those compartments" in a way that makes us feel very good about certain aspects of our lives and not so good about others.

I'm not so sure that's healthy.

I knew a guy years ago who would walk up to me (and many others) and simply ask, "How's your spiritual life on a scale of 1 to 10?". The tendency was to respond to that question based on Bible reading, time spent in prayer and meditation, and church attendance.

I am not sure something someone's spiritual life (or life in general for that matter) could even be rated on a 1 to 10 scale. I am not sure it's healthy to rate ourselves in separate areas of our lives on any scale. I think it's best to look at our lives as a whole... and to be honest with God, ourselves and those around us about how we are really doing.

For so many of us, we live in a world where our Facebook and Twitter status project to others what is going on in our lives and how we are doing. I've been asking myself lately, "Does my status on Facebook and Twitter reflect the reality of my life? Do I share "What's on my mind" when I am having a bad day or when I am struggling as openly as I share some of the great things or "newsworthy" things that are going on in my life?"

I think it's important for us to ask ourselves if our status updates reflect what our lives are really like in the time between those updates.

I utilize Facebook and Twitter to communicate things that are going on with our organization, Lemonade International, but I also share what's happening in my personal life. And if you were with me for every moment of my life you would realize that it's not all good stuff. There are struggles, fears, sins, insecurities, mini bouts with depression, and feelings of loneliness that go right along with the joys of life, the milestones, the victories, and the things to celebrate.

I have been realizing (but not necessarily always acting on this realization) that we can unintentionally project to others that life is always going well for us, and I get concerned that this could have a negative effect on others - especially if some of them look to us as leaders of some sort. We can leave people wishing they had our "great lives" instead of their mundane, boring, uneventful, lives that are filled with challenges. Or we can unknowingly encourage them to live vicariously through us (or through the unrealistic picture we paint of our lives).

In this new era of social media, I don't want my life to appear to be a quote book of life's greatest moments or thoughts, but an honest reflection of the reality of life - a whole life honestly lived before God and others. If I can't experience this in a healthy, holistic way I'm not so sure I'll be sticking with Facebook and Twitter over the long haul.

In the meantime, bear with me as I work on this...

Do you feel like your status updates create a realistic picture of what your life is like between those updates?

Miyah in La Limonada

Miyah spent almost a week with Cherie and I in Guatemala last week. It was her first time out of the country since we brought her home from Nepal in May of 2006 - when she was 8 months old.

She loved it!

She was definitely exhausted each day... and thankfully we had some down time in Panajachel (on the shore of beautiful Lake Atitlan) over the weekend before we came home.

This is one of my favorite photos from our time in La Limonada. We celebrated Vitalino's 83rd birthday and Miyah enjoyed some cake with him. We were in his home for about an hour and a half and she didn't want to leave his side.