De of Sportsmanship

Anna had a great year in Soccer. Anna's team, in addition to the privledge of playing on the Galaxy Field, was awarded the Sportsmanship Award. This trophy is about twice as big as any other trophy in the region, because, well, it is twice as important, isn't it?

As the trophies were being handed out at our coach's house, our team's coach surprised the girls with a another BIG surprise. Two-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Forward Lindsey Tarpley was there to do the honors. Just for us. Just for our girls. How cool is that? I mean, there were our girls with their three-foot-high plastic and mystery-metal trophies next to a real Olympic gold medal. One side of the medal was solid gold, the other had a ring of white jade, a very precious jade with special meaning in China. Jade is a symbol of many De (virtues). Confucius said something like this:

'The wise have likened jade to virtue. For them, its polish and brilliancy represent the whole of purity; its perfect compactness and extreme hardness represent the sureness of intelligence; its angles, which do not cut, although they seem sharp, represent justice; the pure and prolonged sound, which it gives forth when one strikes it, represents music. Its color represents loyalty; its interior flaws, always showing themselves through the transparency, call to mind sincerity; its iridescent brightness represents heaven; its admirable substance, born of mountain and of water, represents the earth. Used alone without ornamentation it represents chastity. The price that the entire world attaches to it represents the truth. To support these comparisons, the Book of Verse says: "When I think of a wise man, his merits appear to be like jade."'

If Confucius had thought about sportsmanship, I think he might have added that to the list of jade's De.

I like to take my kids to unpopular professional sports, like women's soccer. There, the kids really get to see the best of sport. Maybe not any of Kobe's three pointers, but they do get to see a lot of people completely dedicated to their teams and to the goals of the team. They certainly aren't in it for the money. Lindsey Tarpley is dedicated, humble, committed and a gracious example of what I would hope for my daughter. Maybe not in soccer (the first signs of Anna's soccer ability are somewhat doubtful), but in whatever Anna would strive to achieve. Thank you, Lindsey.

La Luna

Look! Look! The moon will not be this big and bright again for a long time!

The cost of nothingness

Haircuts for monks: $16 for no hair.

Stuff I see.

She sees sea shells.

Stuff I see.

Donuts and Dharma

Stuff I see.

As long as it's covered in coconut

The Tournament of Roses Parade has to be the grandaddy of all parades. For my American friends, this New Year's tradition needs no further introduction; for my friends in other places, a quick explanation:

Giant (huge!) parade floats of every imaginable iconography to celebrate the Rose Bowl football tournament game are designed and constructed, sometimes by professional firms, who do nothing else, and sometimes completely by volunteers. Most of the decorating of the floats is done by hundreds (thousands?) of volunteers. Now, the decorating part is important, because every visible surface of the float is to be covered with flora, anything that is a plant or part of a plant. So there are lots of flowers, obviously, but also every variety of seed and hairy grass and vegetable husk is used to create color and texture.

This parade is held every New Year's Day in Pasedena, which is only a few miles north of downtown Los Angeles. As much as I would like to watch the parade in person, camping out overnight to secure a spot along the parade route is lower down on my bucket list. Much lower down. Nope, farther down than that.

As an alternative, we opt to see the floats post-parade. The floats are available for viewing for a couple of days before they completely wilt and wither. I took mostly snapshots of the details, thinking there would be lots of photos of the whole floats all over the official sites. No such luck.

Think what you like, but if you cannot get excited about a two-story robot covered in coconut, you are beyond jaded. Really. Or a delicate little king crab covered in lentils? C'mon. This is good stuff! Anna's favorite: The pixies and faeries. Jack's? Tillman, The Skateboarding Dog. Living in Los Angeles, my kids have seen a celebrity or two out and about, but none received the kind of awed admiration as did Tillman. If you cannot get excited about a skateboarding bulldog, then, also, there's really no help for you at all.

Die Tournament of Roses Parade ist wohl das A und O für Prunk. Für meine amerikanischen Freunde, eine weitere Erklärung ist nicht notwenidig. Für meine Freunde in anderen Ecken der Welt eine kurze Erläuterung ist vielleicht angesagt:

Gigantische (riesig!) Umzugswagen jeder möglichen dargestellten Ikonographie werden machmal von professionellen Firmen, die nichts anderes tun, aber auch machmal ganz von Freiwilligen entworfen und gebaut, um das Rose Bowl Football-Endspiel zu zelebrieren. Das Dekorieren wird ausschließlich von hunderten (thousanden?) Freiwilligen unternommen. Nun, das Dekorieren ist in diesem Zusammenhang wichtig, denn jede sichtbare Fläche muß mit Flora bedeckt werden. Blumen kommen natürlich sehr oft vor, aber auch jedes Saatgut, haarige Gräser, bzw. Gemüseschale werden verwendet um Farbe und Textur zu erzeugen.

Der Umzug findet jedes Neujahr in Pasedena, lediglich ein paar Milen von Downtown Los Angeles statt. So sehr ich den Umzug gerne selbst in Person zuschauen möchten würde, umso weniger möchte ich auf der Strasse übernachten, um einen Platz am Strassenrand abzusichern.

Ergo, schauen wir uns die Umzugswagen wärend des sog. Post-Parades an. Die Umzugswagen sind für zwei Tage, bevor sie komplett abschwelken, ausgestellt. Ich habe meistens Schapschüsse der Details aufgenommen, in der Hoffnung, das das WWW voller Bilder der gesamten Umzugswagen gäbe. Kein solches Glück.

Denkt was Ihr mocht, aber ein zwei-geschossiger Roboter komplett mit Kokonuß überarbeitet ist doch toll, oder? Jacks Liebling war Tillman, der Skateboarding Hund. Annas, die gigantischen Blumenfeen.

Oh Nein!

For the English/German speakers in the bunch, this new year will--per the homophony--seem to radiate quite a bit of negativity.

Oh well.

So far, Oh-Nein has started out just terrific for my family.

My son was invited to spend New Year's Eve at a sleepover party. Well, the younger sister was a just bit jealous and told Jack that this was how our New Year's Eve went:

"Well, first we had sushi. And then we met the Jonas Brothers. And they took us in their private jet to Hawaii. And Barak Obama was the pilot. And then we swam with dolphins."

Not a bad way to party like it's oh-oh-nein. Well, maybe she embellished. Just a little. In reality, we did go out for lots of sushi. And the sushi place had a projector playing a concert of somebody who might look like a Jonas Brother in about twenty years. But I don't remember anything resembling Hawaii, dolphins or Barak Obama. Maybe it was a premonition. We can hope. We did pull plenty of poppers and we did dance in the living room like nobody was watching. So, all in all a great way to start Oh Nein.

I don't have much for eye candy, except the day's mouth candy.

Happy New Year! Love to you all!