High/Low Week 5 2010

I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a low point for the week, how nice is that? This week I ran on less sleep than usual, beginning with election day and then careening a couple of days later into a 3 a.m. sleep time that left me blearier than usual for work the next day. Yet despite the fertile ground for crankiness, I really don't think that I ever caved the way I had a couple of times recently.

In fact, at one point I recognized a symptom of crankiness late one night. One of the condo neighbors sent a note which demanded that I provide some information as treasurer and, until such time, was withholding exactly $2 from the monthly fee. Since she had no right to withhold payment, the irritation was there. Should I respond within my authority, assessing the $5 late charge and explaining where her rights ended? Nah. Some hills aren't worth dying on. $2 isn't worth compromising a relationship over, especially since she's an elderly woman who probably gains a sense of control in life this way. But my initial reaction was darker. And realizing that my mental trip wire was a bit tighter than usual, I let Dena know objectively what my mood was when I got downstairs. That way it heads off the potential for my making mountains out of molehills against the nicest person in McLean County!

Twice this week parents of the basketball team contacted me to talk about the team. There have been some struggles in chemistry lately despite the 10-4 record. And in my younger days I jumped almost eagerly into these types of discussions. There's no downside, right? I have no real authority on the team, so I can just be a listening ear, being the "good coach" and gaining short-term popularity by blaming the head coach. Of course you see the terrible irony of that behavior. But the temptation is powerful, and in both cases I beat it. First, I notified Coach Goldman that I'd been contacted and asked him what his philosophy was on the right way to respond. As I expected, the philosophy was to encourage the parents to work directly with him. And to the degree that, as a reasonable adult, I honored the parents' desire to speak to me, I also relayed the contents to him. And throughout, amid the natural instinct to promote their own children or point out the shortcomings in others, we kept focus on the true goal: To create an environment where parents, coaches and players support each other in the development of teamwork, whether or not it results in wins on the basketball court.

It was also affirming again this week on the basketball court, where I played for 2 1/2 hours (the longest in years), to hear one guy call me a "beast" and another guy with more girth than me mutter to his teammate how surprised he was that I was stronger than him. More and more, while lifting weights, these comments and visions fill my mind to push me to greater growth.