King Quote 10:59 PM

In the twilight of their careers (if there ever was such a thing), Stockton and Malone's coming-down-mountain Jazz met the trekking-up-the-hill Sacramento Kings in several epic battles. The comparative color schemes contrasted with the on-court style - chest-passing Stockton against no-looking turnover "White Chocolate" Jason Williams; "Crybaby" (my nickname) Chris Webber vs. Stoic Karl Malone; White and Pasty Greg Ostertag vs. "The Terrorist" (FBI search warning!) Vlade Divac. Divac in particular had mastered drawing the offensive foul and looking like every bad guy in every single 80s military themed movie. "Pack a Day" Divac always looked like he had just wired explosives to a bus and demanded 5 million dollars.

But underneath the permanent five o'clock shadow, Divac is a class act. With regards to never winning a championship (like Stockton and Malone), Divac said this.

"People here [in America] are making a big deal about ring or no ring. I was playing against the Lakers and I remember someone [in the crowd] shouted, 'How many rings you got?' I told him one. He looked at me [funny], so I said, 'I got one in '89 when I got married, I got a ring from my wife.' That's the most important thing."

My next child will still not be named "Vlade."

Insightful 4:48 PM

A Washington Post reporter likes to ask athletes metaphysical questions. He introduced his latest column with this.

"There's been a lot of talk this week among a certain segment of our readers on whether it's acceptable for a sportswriter to hate sports. Hyperbole aside, I'd say most of us have those moments of "Wow, I thought I was going to change the world and instead I'm watching a 16-55 NBA team descend to 16-56 while little kids dance to 'Mony Mony' on the big screen and grown men fight for freebie t-shirts fired by a dude in a full-body blue Spandex suit."

Even though I love my job, there are particularly difficult days where I think the ministerial equivalent of this.

The Questions 10:12 PM

"Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentments? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions!" -Henri Nouwen

Quality Quotes 10:52 PM

From Eric Musselman's blog. As in, former coach of the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings. Yes, I did send him an e-mail telling him how awesome his blog is, and yes, he did respond. Not quite Jerry Sloan (who, coincidentally, does not have a blog), but close!

According to Pablo Picasso, one of the world's great painters, his mother told him, "If you become a solider, you'll be a general. If you become a monk, you'll end up as Pope." He continued: "Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."

Marinating 11:03 AM

"How baffling you are, oh Church, and yet how I love you!

How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you!

I should like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence.
You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand sanctity.

I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false, and I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful. How often

I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms.

No I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, although not completely.

And where should I go?"

- Carlo Carretto, The God Who Comes

On Confirmation 9:02 PM

Preparing to lead my second confirmation class, came upon this quote from Rufinus on the reason why the Apostles' creed was not written down:

"The reason why the creed is not written down on paper or parchment, but is retained in the believers' hearts, is to ensure that is has been learned from the tradition handed down from the Apostles, and not from written texts, which occasionally fall into the hands of unbelievers."