Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
As another year of fantasy football begins, I’m spending time preparing my draft order. I play in a keeper league and my three keepers are:
Tony Romo (QB)
Greg Jennings (WR)
Brandon Marshall (WR)
Unavailable players are: Ronnie Brown, Ray Rice, Anquan Boldin, Philip Rivers, Dwayne Bowe, Michael Bush, Ryan Grant, Roddy White, Steve Smith (CAR), Maurice Jones-Drew, Rashard Mendenhall, Shonne Green, Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Joseph Addai, LeSean McCoy, Aaron Rodgers, Randy Moss, Cedric Benson, Andre Johnson, Steven Jackson, DeAngelo Williams, Calvin Johnson (DET), Larry Fitzgerald, Dallas Clark, Chris Johnson (TEN), Frank Gore, Tom Brady
Positions I need filled are running back, a couple more wide receiver spots, a tight end, kicker and defense. So of all the available talent out there, who would you recommend I pick first? Second? Third? I’ve done some research myself, but I’m curious about the small crowd of people who follow fantasy football managers and read blogs. If that’s you, tell me what you think! Should my first pick (9th out of 12 in the first round) be a running back, another wide receiver, or a different position?
My beagle Piper likes to chase rabbits. I like to watch her chase rabbits. Sometimes I like to chase her. She likes to be chased. And this chasing is fun for us when it is fun for us. When I get home in the afternoon we may enjoy a good run around the yard. Not so much early in the morning. Mostly later in the afternoon is when these chases go down. I’m chasing her not to catch her, just to be playful, all because the back yard is fenced in and I have little to no concern of her running away.FLASHback!Piper and I had been together for about a month, mid December to mid January. I learned very quickly that I needed a fence because I didn’t like going outside with her every time she needed to. And I bet she sure as heck didn’t like me staring at her while she had her personal time out there. But I felt it was a must. The second I took my eyes off her, she’d be gone in the woods like a wild maniac beagle! So most of the time spent together was me saying, “Piper do this, Piper don’t eat that.”Claustraphobia was setting in and I knew I needed space. See, most people think fenced-in backyards are for the dog! Wrong. This fence was for me. We both benefit from it, though; I have some me time, which you know from volume 2 is very important, and she can roam around relatively unsupervised.As I designed the layout of the fence, I decided it would be fun to include a woodsy area for Piper. An area behind my house that has some undergrowth, a few trees, etc. so she could explore. Much more exciting than grass only.
FLASHforward TO CURRENT TIME! In our 439th installment of “Chase me! Come on, chase me!” a lengthy holdout transpired. I was trying to coax Piper inside the house so I could leave for work. She must’ve thought “come here” meant “go there” because she kept running to her hiding place, The Forest of You Can’t Get Me (a.k.a. the woodsy area). I ran in, she ran out. I ran out, she ran back in. A chess match of chasing. And I stink at chess. She was clearly winning. I don’t know if it was a full moon or what, but she was faster, quicker, feistier and had impressive tactical manuevers that defeated every attempt I made at catching her. Finally appealing to her curiosity, I pretended I wanted to show her something. Pointing down to the ground, I said, “Piper, look here! What is it!?” When she got close enough, bam! I corraled her in. Check mate! Then she wiggled out of my kung-fu grip and we did it all again.
I was late for work.
Piper as a puppy. Such an awesome dog!
This is volume 3 of a series titled, “I Own You. I Own You. A Look Into Who Owns Who, the Master and Puppy.” Check back often for the next in this ongoing series!
Last week I saw a rerun of Friends. At one point, Chandler was asked to do some handy work, and he said to wait while he goes to get his wife’s tools. I was struck immediately with the thought, “Is this the American man now?” That episode probably aired ten years ago, of course, so I understand it’s a bit outdated. But I wonder if there are more Chandler Bing’s out there now. Men who are not tough.
I remember when men on tv were ones I could look up to, men with character that were chivalrous and strong: MacGyver, Cliff Huxtable, Uncle Jessie, possibly Danny Tanner (although he wasn’t very tough except in the episode where he dressed like a rockstar to play at D.J.’s fundraiser), Mr. T, the father on Boy Meets World, Tom Selleck, James Garner and Tony Danza (Who’s the Boss?).
But over the course of a couple of decades they’ve turned into Charlie Sheen (Two and A Half Men), the guys on Big Bang Theory, Barney Stinson, the Situation, and professional athletes that get in trouble for domestic violence. It seems like men in the spotlight now are either over the top, or way under the top. Womanizers, or pansies. We’re persuaded to tolerate those kinds of guys and that tolerance creates more of those kinds of guys. We mock the jerks on The Bachelor, and yet we tune in every week to watch. I guess I’m just tired of seeing the pansification of men in America. I’m tired of contributing to it.
Bring back the men that open doors for women, that don’t call or text after 10pm. Men that can budget money. Guys that play football on the weekends and go to church, too. Men that are less concerned if their fingernails are clipped and more concerned about securing leaks in the house. Men that rough house with their kids, nieces or nephews but will not tolerate outsiders who do the same. Men that care less about matching their shoes with their belt, and more about making a woman feel pretty and wanted. Men that get down on one knee to ask their girlfriend to marry them not inspite of it being old-fashioned but because it’s old-fashioned. Men that would give their life to protect the ones they love. They drive trucks. They have a dog. They may even cuss a little when they get fired up. They eat horse radish because it puts hair on their chest. It’s ok to have calloused hands. It’s ok to believe in something and disagree with someone who believes differently. Tolerance is for the birds. Buck up and be a man. Respect women. Cook burgers and steak. Grill chicken and eat all of it that night. Eat broccoli because it’s healthy, but it’s ok if you don’t enjoy it. Eat a salad and take care of your body. Excercise and get strong. Compete. Compete fairly. Own tools and use them. Be old-fashioned. Don’t be a Chandler. Be a Fred Wilder. He plays the drums. He travels weekly. He’s been married for over forty years to one lady, my mom. He still enjoys washing his car and hers on the weekend. He was in the Coast Guard for twenty-seven years and served in Desert Storm. So he’s tough, but he also likes Hallmark Channel movies. He’s got a truck and a beagle. He has four grown kids that he makes an effort to see or talk to regularly.
He’s an example of what men should be. Well, he and MacGyver.
It just takes some time,
Little girl, you’re in the middle of the ride.
Everything, everything will be just fine.
Everything, everything will be alright, alright.
“The Middle” -Jimmy Eat World
During a discussion a few days ago this question arose, “What is faith?” The answers varied but most included the themes of trust, belief, and God. It’s true, when the word “faith” is spoken, it’s most often in the context of spiritual behavior. But in it’s simplest form, the word means confidence or trust in a person or thing. You have faith in the chair you sit in at work. You have faith when someone calls you that your phone will ring. Those are examples rooted in proven results. You believe your phone will ring because that’s what it’s done in the past when someone called. That’s a learned faith. There’s a second kind, blind faith. I like to think of blind faith this way: trust without experimentation. Without any testing or experiences to rely on, you still choose to believe.
During the conversation, the word “unnatural” kept coming to my mind. People that accomplish big things do so by having faith in the work they put in, faith in the operating system, faith in their ability, faith in something. But to have faith in anything is counter-intuitive. It’s not natural because we, as humans, typically don’t trust first. We experiment first. We stick our toes in to weigh if the experience will hurt us or help us. We want the best for ourselves, and having faith in something else means giving up our own comfort, or more accurately, giving up the control over our own comfort. Faith is self-denying, or else it’s not faith. And to deny yourself is not natural.
As a child, you have faith your parents will feed you because why? They’ve fed you before. In religion, whether you’re raised to believe in God, that there is no God, or anywhere in between, it could be said that all belief systems have this in common: faith is trusting something you can’t prove. When a person is asked to prove God is real, they could very easily turn the question around and ask you to prove He’s not. I’m sure both sides of that argument could produce strong evidence on why God is or isn’t real and it takes faith to believe either side. I believe God created the earth, the universe, and everything in it. I can’t prove it. But it’s easier for me to believe that than to believe little tiny particles crashed together millions of years ago and now as a result mankind (products of that crash) created something as mysteriously wonderful and technically advanced as the Motorola Drrrroooooiiiiiid. Let’s face it, Droid phones are phenoms like we’ve never seen. iPhones don’t even have a physical keyboard or free built-in navigation. I’m just saying.
People claim the earth is millions of years old. I have no doubt that carbon dating and various tests are probably accurate. But could it be true that God created the earth to look like it was millions of years old? Afterall, He created Adam as an adult male. Any test you did on him would tell you he’s an adult who’d been alive for decades, yet it may have been only days since God created him.
Adam and Eve in the garden
Those with faith in what the Bible says believe that while they are sinners, they are saved from Hell. Martin Luther expressed this quite well in his phrase: Simul justus et peccator. At the same time just and sinner. The faith that they are forgiven and justified even though they are sinners. To turn around and live that as if you’re life depended on it, that’s faith. And that’s really what faith is all about. Putting action behind what you believe.
Afterall, what good is faith in anything if it doesn’t change everything you are about? An unnatural choice to trust first.
Have you ever stared into a starry sky?
Lying on your back you’re asking, “Why?”
“What’s the purpose?” I wonder, “Who am I?”
If you’ve ever stared into a starry sky.
“Have You Ever” -Brandi Carlile
Ok, maybe the music I define as obscure is only because I’ve never heard it before. I’m referring to music that never gets major airplay, you rarely hear these songs on soundtracks or greatest hits, and yet, they are gems! I discovered another one of these a few months ago when I bought the Doobie Brothers “Toulouse Street” record at a yard sale. Two songs after the gigantic hit “Listen To The Music” was a song that quickly became my favorite of theirs. It’s called “Mamaloi”… enjoy!
*all songs rights and copyrighted material are credited to the Doobie Brothers, not me, silly!
Out of the Wilderness 
