Football

Life’s Plan-Life’s Purpose.

Ronovan Inspiration & Motivation, Thoughts , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have a lot of ideas. Too many of them actually. It’s very difficult for me to stay on one path to the goal of completion. The reasons are partly medical and partly a need to grab hold of that next big idea I have in my mind before it slips away.

Life's Purpose Image by Ronovan.

We do a lot of planning. Perhaps years or even decades are put in to a plan but then the plan comes to an end. The bad part about the end is that we didn’t have that in our plan. Although it isn’t  always a bad thing when your personal plan comes to an end.

Proverbs 19:20-21

Listen to advice and accept discipline,
    and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
    but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

The many plans we make are not always for our best. We travel along, sometimes staring out the window at the monotony of life passing us by and are mesmerized into complacency and routine. We believe what is may perhaps be all there is.

I have moments of indecision. I don’t mean indecision of the mind, but of the heart. No, not about love, I am certain of those parts of my life. But there is indecision about creations and taking the right step that tear at my heart. My mind does a good job with decisions and filing them away properly. It knows what to do, but the heart is the part that throws plans into chaos.

Fortunately a verse came to me today, a verse of the day, the one above. Those plans in my heart that tear at me? I need to learn to let them go. God knows the best plan. He even tells me the plan, I just don’t either always know the language/manner he’s speaking in, or am just not hearing it.

A great many things have happened in my life. One is about a young man I played football with. He was a star athlete, super intelligent. He had it all. Then one rainy game he tackled a player and with the wet uniforms, field and everything else, his neck broke.

The young man was a leader in many ways. People looked up to him. There was a bright future ahead for him. He was also a Christian.

Our team was losing badly, it was late in the game, and the other coach had asked our coach if he wanted to call the game and end it early. Our coach said no. It almost would appear that things were working against my friend from fulfilling his purpose for God and for life.

He has graduated from college, is now driving his own van, still paralyzed from the neck down, and travels to do speaking engagement to sports groups and FCA groups. That’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He doesn’t drive himself to those events, just wanted to make that clear. He’s my age and just recently was able to get a van and go through everything to be able to drive.

But God has a purpose and he uses indecision, and attempts to take away a bright and shining star to make them even brighter, IF that star chooses to move forward and upward with the purpose and the plan. My friend could have went through life in his wheelchair and no one would have said anything about it. But he had a support group, his parents, and all those who knew him to encourage and be God’s language in my friend’s ear.

I didn’t know where this was going when I first began writing. I thought it would be about my efforts to write novels. Then I put the scripture in. After that the part about my friend came to mind. He leads a more enriched life than most of us do and he is a benefit to more people than all but a handful of us will ever have the opportunity to. Well, that is unless we realize what the purpose for us is.

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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Football “strikes” Out.

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For my American friends who have been following the NFL Draft, you might get this. Who knew “never ever” meant “until we needed a good pick”?

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Ronovan Writes Weekend Mick Flick. Do you have The Game Plan for this weekend?

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ronovan writes

I suppose you might want to know what a Mick Flick is. Well every man fears, actually dreads two words; Chick Flick. That’s right, we know what it means. Romance, tears and we are deemed as failures either because we are men or because we aren’t the men in that, dare I say it, RomCom.

Instead of Chick Flicks, men need an alternative. And this is something we men need to embrace and women, you should as well and you may find date nights become a whole new experience.

The alternative? Rooster Flicks? No. I don’t even like saying Chick Flicks so giving it some form of relevance by actually calling the alternative as Rooster doesn’t work for me. And with the various possible definitions one could give to Rooster based ones mindset and locale, I am just not going there. No, Male Chick Flick. That’s right, the Mick Flick.

What constitutes a Mick Flick?

  • It needs a touch of humor if it doesn’t have action.
  • It needs to tug the heartstrings in some way, with a message or something.
  • And yeah, an attractive female lead might work out, but it’s not completely necessary. Oh, you don’t believe me on this one? I shall prove you wrong, although attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder. For me it is the eye of the personality. Pretty lady, ugly personality equals scary run the other way. Yeah, NOT attractive.

Today’s Mick Flick is:

The Game Plan

dwayne johnson

Dwayne Johnson (Joe Kingman)

Madison Pettis (Peyton Kelly)

Roselyn Sanchez (Monique Vasquez)

IMDB 6.2/10 over 37,000 users.

 

Another Cromedy this week. Starring

The Rock not being the Rock, not smelling what the Rock is cooking or kicking someone’s candy grass. Makes you wonder why in the world even bother. In all honesty, if you’ve seen him kick one guy’s grass you’ve pretty much seen him kick everyone else.

This movie has Johnson as Joe Kingman, the perfect quarterback with the ego to match trying to make it to the championship. That’s when he’s give a play that deflates balls quicker than a ball boy in a restroom. (An aside, not that I believe any of that nor do I care. That’s for those who got the joke.)

Enter little Peyton Kelly played by Madison Pettis. Kelly is the daughter that Kingman never knew about. Her mother has died and she has come in search of her dad. Kingman of course does the right thing and takes the kid in.

Of course you know what’s going to happen. Yep, he melts. They meet Monique Vasquez and all sorts of things start confusing the King and changes his world.

I won’t give away any more than that. Grabbed me was the father daughter relationship and realizations. There are moments that are nailed. Some people don’t like the Disney sentimentalism that runs through some of their movies, but they really had Kingman near the end of the movie showing the feelings, the thoughts, and the results of what being a father is. Even if it is for a daughter you never knew.

 

Now time for the BroJo to get going.

Men, why you need to watch this movie.

Guys, seriously, what makes you want to go the move in the first place? You want some action, you want something nice to look at, and you want to cheer. Dudes, I got ya wid dis one.

Now to the ranking of the movie:

Good acting – This is a tough one. There are some great acting moments where things are conveyed so well. Do I ever forget I am seeing the Rock? No. But that really isn’t possible. Actually it is but that’s a whole other movie. I think everyone plays their part right. Johnson progresses through the film. We see a little of the inside the life of a superstar quarterback. So in the long run I will give this a Yes.

Attractive Female Lead – Roselyn Sanchez is gorgeous. But little Madison Pettis is so adorable that she steals it. You would die for that little girl. Yes.
Insane Characters – Hmm. There is Spike the bulldog who is hilarious at times. And Kyra Sedgwick, who plays Kingman’s agent, does some crazy things. But insane characters? No.
Humor – Again we have Spike. There is also the bedazzled football scene and several scenes really. Not sure what it is about putting Johnson in a tutu directors seem to want to do. Makes me question the directors a little. Yes.

Bodily Harm – It’s football. You got it. Yes.

Food Humor – I can’t think of any food humor at the moment. Just the opposite actually. So giving this a No.

Action – You have football scenes and an emergency scene during the movie. Yes.

Good Message – Love will find a way. I think for the heart there is a good message, Yes. For a parent and life perspectives, Yes. For children and how Peyton ends up with Kingman, No. But this being about being a Mick Flick, I’ll give it a Yes.

Tear Moment – I’m crying now thinking about a couple of scenes. But don’t worry guys it’s not in a bad way. So that’s a Yes.

Male Lead is Not Made Out to Be Stupid: – Well, I want to say people try to make Kingman look stupid at times but overall he’s not. He pulls off the father thing slowly but surely and even along the way he might not do things like most parents do but he gets the job done. We have a Yes.

Cuddle Taco Bonus (CTB) – I don’t know that this is a cuddle movie. It might be an ‘aww, baby, it’s okay, it’s just a movie’ here and there, but cuddling? I say No. So no bonus Taco this week.

So on the Taco Scale of 10 Tacos being awesome  and 1 being like tacos without the meat, cheese or sauce,today’s Mick Flick receives:

 8 out of 10 Tacos. Fiesta Time. But without that CTB you still might end up with Siesta Time afterwards, if you know what I mean.

 

Honestly, 8 out of 10 is a surprise. But my rating is based on the appeal to a generalized male audience. So significant others out there reading this you’ve got the Rock in a unitard and your man happy to be there.

That’s my Cromedy Recommendation for this weekend. What movie can you think of that meets the Mick Flick requirements? I already have future movies in a list so don’t be surprised if you end up seeing your idea in a future post. Leave a comment and let me know your pick.

Much Respect and Much Cuddling for you This Weekend,

 

Ron_LWI

 

 

 

 

@RonovanWrites

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Overprotective or Just Aware of Reality

Ronovan Opinion Articles , , , , , , ,

Should you worry about your children getting hurt? Do I?

I know it will happen. Heaven knows my son comes home with things all the time. One day he even came home after some older kid hit him in the face with a base from the baseball field. Kid just picked it up and slammed ‘B’ in the face.

The kid was fortunate. You see the kid is a little taller, but ‘B’ is one strong kid, and his first instinct is not to come out swinging . . . yet. His first thought is, “Why in the world did you do that, you idiot?” He has a reputation that is such the other kid was in serious trouble even though no teacher saw it. Yeah, it’s a school where a teacher has to witness things, but not this time. It was a bit obvious what had happened, and my son isn’t known to be a liar about things like this. He actually never complains.

Am I overprotective?

I’m the kind of dad that says to his 10 year old son, okay he was 9 at the time, “Okay, get on your bike and ride as fast as you can off the end of the porch.” I figure if he falls, he’ll be fine and he’ll see it is just a fall. Okay, so it isn’t but like a foot off the ground, but he thought it was like huge. He was always worried about falling on his bike because of the whole protective mother thing. Having been a boy and knowing that even running into a tree with my bike didn’t kill me, I am of the mind to let the boy go and fall and get back up and have fun. In fact they have more fun then because they can take a little more of a chance knowing that a fall is just a fall. This past summer was great for ‘B’. Bikes, chopping through vines to clear away Grandma’s hedges, climbing ladders. Oh, the ladder? I’ll get to that ladder, I mean later. (Anyone want to shuck some corn, cause I got lots more where that came from.)

So what’s my deal with ‘B’ and football?

I put out an article yesterday about my son not playing football and included information about concussions and a certain football team and the actions of the coach and trainers. Well, here is the problem I have with the way football is, it’s the coaching and the staff I have a problem with. I got hurt playing football, baseball, and basketball. I got hurt riding my skateboard. I got hurt picking a book up off my bed. Okay so that last one was in my 30s, I think, and I already had back problems, but you get where I am coming from here.

Hurts happen, but there are degrees of things that can be avoided if a coaching staff does their job properly. The quarterback should not have been allowed to continue the game. He was in a condition where he could have been hit again and permanently damaged. That’s the problem I have. A fully aware quarterback has a difficult enough time as it is avoiding 300 pound monsters, a badly shaken up, glassy eyed one could end up in the hospital.

Concussion

My college football team is UGA, The University of Georgia Bulldogs. Last year we had a great quarterback, broke all kinds of records. What did he do to end his time at UGA as a member of the team with no more than like 3 games left? He tore an ACL and didn’t leave the game. He kept playing one or two more plays. That wasn’t the coaching staff  because all he did was limp. The quarterback had this mindset that can come into play in some competitive sports. UGA isn’t one of those ‘push the player while they are hurt’ schools. I’ve taught the Head Coach’s kids. My son interacts with another coach’s kids. In other words I know the products of the people behind the scenes.

Am I overprotective?

I don’t mind my son getting hurt. It happens. I even let him climb a ladder to get his ball off the edge of the roof, of course with me below him and holding him. He thought that was the coolest thing ever. And yeah, I had to stop him from trying to climb on the roof. He’s crazy like that at times. And he has learned to hit the brakes on his bike and slide it around, he calls it drifting. Thank you The Fast and The Furious. Wait, he hasn’t seen that. Maybe it was Cars. Disney us evil. I am the one the encourages taking the calculated risks.

So, am I overprotective?

I am a ‘protect my child from a bad situation if I can help it’ dad. I have a great kid who has obviously been brought up nicely. Great grades, very courteous and respectful to his teachers, knows reality versus fake, and is just really very mature in many ways and also very much a kid in many ways. He can play for hours with various toys he has. Awesome kid, so I guess something is being done right. I am most proud of him at church during his Sunday School class or when they have children’s time during service he stays quiet, letting everyone else have a chance. Then either one of two things happens, if no one is giving a right answer the person will then look at ‘B’ and say, “Tell us, ‘B’.” And he gives the answer. Or if time is running short they will just go straight to him.

Are other sports safer?

I was going to mention other sports yesterday but instead I stuck with football to make the article short and to the point. A little league kid was hit in the chest with a fast ball pitch while up to bat. The pitch hit right over his heart and stopped it. He died. Pitches also have line drives hit back at them to the head. Basketball has ACL problems, broken noses, and all sorts of things going on. Golfing has back problems and shoulder problems. A man died in a short dirt track race not long ago when he was run over. He had been smoking marijuana prior to the race and then got out of his car to confront the other racer who was actually still driving around the track. Another driver’s father died several years ago in a crash. Divers hit there heads on the side of the pool or the bottom or even the platforms or boards.

I could go on and on but I think you see that I know about other sports.

One of my favorites sports I played in college was racquet ball. I don’t know if you’ve ever played the game but it is not an easy sport. There are these things called walls that tend to want to stop a body running stupidly after a bouncing rubber ball.

Oh and I have to tell you this one, it’s funny, in a way, but maybe it explains a few things about me. I guess I was in High ron_ballpark - CopySchool when this happened or just after. I went golfing with my Dad. He was showing me aTiger Woods few things and said, “Stand right there and watch what I do.” He actually put me in a spot to watch from. Either his arms were longer or his club was longer than he thought. His follow through ended up with the flat part of the club, fortunately it was a driver, square in the center of my forehead. We could not have rehearsed it better. I simply gave it no thought, although he freaked out big time. I think mostly because he was afraid I was gonna tell my Momma on him. (Tiger can’t believe my Dad did that to me.)

 

 

My son starts basketball in a few weeks, and then baseball in the spring.

 

So my question to you is this:

Am I overprotective or just taking into consideration what things are like for real?

 

Ronovan

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My son and Football. Will it happen?

Ronovan Opinion Articles , , , ,

The question comes up here in the United States about my son his school of “Is he gonna play football?” This is the American type of football.

If you have time, watch the video and then continue onward. If not you can skip the video, but to get a good idea of where I am going with this you will want to see it. You don’t even need the sound.

 

 

My son is 10 and almost 5 feet tall, broad shoulders, athletic. To be downright personal, his shoulders were so broad he was delivered by C-section. His school is in the state playoffs, think championship tournament, each year, even making it to the actual championship game one of those times and the football program is not even 10 years old.

The school has the children of elite athletes including former professional quarterbacks, think the guy who passes/throws the ball down the field to his teammates. One of the coaches helping out was the winning quarterback in a Super Bowl. In other words, football is huge for the school.

He’s not playing football, or at least that is the intent. Why? If you watched the clip above you know why. Concussions are common in football. More common than anyone ever knew, because before they were kept quiet or the players didn’t say anything.  A key player out of a game could actually cost a coach his job.

If you watched the video then you know it was obvious the quarterback should have been out of the game. Who should have known? Anyone watching.  Some might say the coach didn’t talk to him on the sidelines, that a trainer or someone did. The trainers are actually the ones that can say yes or no to a player playing. Notice the quarterback never took his helmet off. He wasn’t thoroughly checked out. And then, in he goes.

Look at the kid’s eyes.

Michigan QB

Some people outside of the United States don’t think football is all that much. That we wear these protective pads. Okay. Imagine your soccer players being hit straight on by a 300 pound 6’5″ man running almost at Olympic level speeds. Hitting the player in the head as they are moving forward passing the ball, defenseless.

One of my high school friends learned how to drive a van last year. I’m 44 and so is he. It took that long for him to get enough control and get the right van to drive. You see his neck broke during a game in high school. A game that should have been stopped because we were losing so badly there was no way to win. A game that even the opposing team’s coach wanted to stop, but our coach said no.

My friend uses one of those breathing things to operate his chair with at times, and he has just enough control with his hands to be able to drive a specially modified van.

I always wanted my son to play football. But I would rather have my son.

The coach of the team in the video said basically that he had no idea and that if the kid wanted to come out he would have. Bull! The quarterback position is a competitive spot. No quarterback wants to come out, no matter what. And then you have the kid obviously banged up.

I love college football. It’s really the only football I even keep up with, the only sport for that matter. I used to be a huge tennis fan, but that was long ago. But I am slowly losing interest as time passes and the ethics of the coaches are revealed. The coach said he didn’t know. Yes the boy had a hurt leg from earlier, but what college guy is going to hang on to another player in front of thousands of people and hold his hand? The kid got nailed!

Will my son play football?

No.

My rant is over.

Much Respect

Ronovan

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Inspiration Today

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Inspiration

aeneas_williams_hall_of_fame_induction.jpg

This is an excerpt from Aeneas Williams’ 2014 Football Hall of Fame induction speech. It is great for everyone in that the message is universal. Please take the time to read it and be inspired and motivated. This not about me and this site, this is about you and what’s ahead.

“Hey, let me tell you first thing, begin with the end in mind.  People say what’s it like to be up here?  I’m going to tell you what it’s like.  I learned write down what’s in your heart.  See, growing up I grew up in church, but I never gave my life to Christ.  I didn’t understand how God related to everyday life.  When I was growing up, I thought church was a religious deal.  You go sin for six days, then on the 7th day, empty your sin bucket and go do it again.

But I’m going to tell you something, I was on pace to graduate with my degree in accounting in three years and I don’t even like numbers.  My brother Achilles graduated with his degree in accounting in three and a half years.  He called me back and he said little brother, slow down.  You’ll be working the rest of your life.

Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, it was at that time over the two years, freshman and sophomore year my uncle William and a guy named Michael Lindsey who was on Southern University’s football team who also played with me in high school.  He would always, and my uncle would always say, they called me Nicky in New Orleans, so if I hear aeneas_williams_touchdown_rams.jpgNicky, I know you know you’re from New Orleans.  And they would say, why don’t you play football?  I’m going to tell you why I didn’t play football because I didn’t know how God talked to you.  I would hear people say God talk to me.  I was standing next to them; I didn’t hear anything.  I tell you how you know.  A week before the season started my junior year in college, it was different.  Unlike the freshman, sophomore year.

In September, you football guys know when the weather changes.  It goes from dead hot summer to the fall.  We all know because it’s getting time right now.  We’re itching right now on this stage.  We know it’s getting ready to be football season.  Yeah, you fans know it’s getting ready to be football season.  So how do you know?  Some people say you got to be a Christian to know God talks to you.  No!  God is talking to us all the time.

How do you think I got on defense?  Troy Descano, when I was playing 95 pound ball, and we decided I was a big bad running back.  I emulated Larry Csonka.  I went out running, and we decided we hadn’t lost a game, and we decided we’re big and bad, we’re going to play the 110 pound guys, and Troy Descano was at the 110 pound guys.  I came through the hole, Troy hit me so hard.  I was on the ground wondering when I’m going to catch my next breath.  It was at that time God spoke to me.  You know what he said?  He said, “You got to be better hitting people than getting hit.”

So I’m telling you pay attention to the signs God’s giving you.  Back to the story, all of a sudden when it comes down to God talking my heart changed a week before the season started.  That’s what happened.  All of a sudden, it entered my heart to walk on the football team a week before the season starts.  Made no sense, but the first sensible thing I did was didn’t tell my parents.  I’m already on my parents’ dime.  I’m getting ready to finish, and I didn’t tell my home boys who were from New Orleans.  I walked on, started my fifth game Bayou Classic, that’s right, Bayou Classic, all you State people, it’s Southern University.  God’s favorite color is blue.

It was after the Bayou Classic after my second year playing, I read in the newspaper one of my coaches said, “Aeneas Williams is a good player, but I don’t think he’ll ever go pro because, at best he runs a 4.6, 40.”

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the difference when I learned the difference between facts and truth.  Facts were I did run a 4.6, 40.  The truth is I found my teammate Brian Thomas, and Brian, if you’re here, if you could stand up.  Brian was the fastest guy on Southern University’s track team and the fastest guy on Southern’s football team.  He was a wide receiver, and he was our Usain Bolt, 6’3″, and Brian wrote on his practice pants siren is speed, and speed kills.  I couldn’t cover him.  I’d lineup ten yards off Brian and he’d run right by me.

Brian had thing when he’d run by you he’d make this noise (imitating).  So when I read that I didn’t get bitter.  Some people spend their whole life to prove people wrong.  The goal is not to prove people wrong.  The goal is to reach youraeneas_williams_thanking_God_Cardinals.jpg potential.  The first thing I did was went to Brian Thomas because mentors are critical.  You have to find credible others.  I didn’t go to the offensive line.  I went to Brian.  I went to Brian after we had upset Grambling.  I said, Brian, can you help me get faster.  Brian Thomas looked me in the eyes like I’m looking at these Hall of Famers.  He said, Aeneas you can run a 4.3, 40.  It baffled my mind because all my life I’ve been a long distance guy.  They said you can’t have speed, you either got it or you don’t.

I said, Brian what do I do?  He said Aeneas, walk on the track team.  Now I’m in graduate school.  I’m going into January.  I’m going to finish my final season while in graduate school in the fall.  I said, Brian, what do we do?  He said get next to me because more is caught than taught.  I said, Brian, and we running, we working out.  All of a sudden we’re finished running, and Brian is walking like we hadn’t worked out.  I’m on the ground and my legs are telling me, Aeneas, you can keep this up or we through.  Ladies and gentlemen, by April of that spring, the scouts came and I ran a 4.3, 40.  I was the number two rated cornerback in all the country.”

 

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