The Beauty of the Peloton

I love team sports. While an individual performance can be very impressive (think, Michael Phelps in the Olympics), it can never compare in my mind to a world-class team performance. Watching all the parts come together with everybody doing his or her job well to achieve a common goal is always more exciting, and more difficult, than one person having a great day. I would much rather watch Megan Rapinoe launch a 40 meter pass to Abby Wambach's perfectly timed header to tie up the game against Brazil than see Cristiano Ronaldo dribble through three players to take an individual shot. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the most interesting, strategic team sport out there is cycling.

I think most Americans understand that cyclists compete on a team, even though the race itself is really an individual race. But the teams themselves are fascinating. A pro cycling team will generally have a sprinter, a climber, a general classification contender, and a number of "domestiques" who are pretty good at everything and basically there to serve the specialists any way they can. The team director has to decide, based on the athletes available, what is the goal of the team and build the team accordingly. The BMC team in the Tour de France was clearly built around shepherding Cadel Evans to the Tour win. They seldom did the work at the front of the peloton, participated in few breakouts, and just carved a clear path for their main guy so that he could keep up on the portions of the race that are not his forte and then dominate in the final time trial. Leopard Trek took the second and third spots on the podium. They had a similar race, focusing completely on getting the Schleck brothers onto the podium at the end of the race. Unfortunately for them, they were not able to put enough distance between the Schlecks and Evans on the big climbs to overcome the advantage Evans would have on the time trial. I have to wonder what would have happened if they'd only had one GC contender and could focus on positioning him perfectly. Garmin Cervelo was all about the team. They won the team championship, but never really contended for the individual awards much. HTC Highroad was built around winning Cavendish the green jersey, and, although Garmin won the team championship, HTC probably did the best job of accomplishing their goals. They worked harder than any other team, and Cavendish graciously gave his teammates the credit they truly deserved.

What fascinates me most about watching cycling, though, is the organism known as the Peloton. The majority of the riders are part of this group, which is truly a living macro-organism. Watching the Peloton move together, constantly changing shape around physical obstacles, is absolutely beautiful. If you watch carefully, you can see teams riding together within the Peloton, protecting their GC contenders, dropping back to get water for the group, pushing the pace or blocking in order to achieve their team goals. I love to watch the temporary informal alliances among the different teams during the race as well. No other sport has so many teams trying to achieve the same goal at the same time. When a few riders break out in front of the group, the teams still in the Peloton work together to gradually pull them back in, sharing the workload up front. At the same time, the riders in the breakout group will work together as their own ad hoc team, taking terms pulling on the front and drafting off the other riders. No other sport has such a clear metaphor for life. We are constantly changing alliances, and often have to work together with "the enemy" to achieve our goals. Nobody can win a race like the Tour with a tremendous individual effort. As the day's finish line approaches, the group breaks back down into teams, and eventually the teams break down into their individual protected riders of the day sprinting for the finish. 

I have no doubt that the Tour de France is the most beautiful event in all of sports, and I can't wait for the Vuelta in August!

Politics Disgruntles Me

Most people who know me would say that I come down on the liberal side of most issues. I tend to read, watch, and listen to left-leaning media outlets. Anything I write needs to be read with that in mind. With that said, I can move on to the main point - what has gotten me disgruntled? Obviously the debt ceiling and the general economic approach of our federal government is a huge issue right now, but almost nobody seems interested in solving the problem. The Republicans in the House know that nothing can happen unless it goes through them, so they have a tremendous amount of power here. They also know that the American public will automatically blame any failure on the sitting President, so by blocking any progress and refusing to compromise, they can build public resentment against President Obama as the election year approaches. From my reading of the news, it definitely appears that the Republicans in the House are far more interested in making sure that the US fails so that voters will lean to the right in the next election than they are in actually solving this crisis. At the same time, President Obama knows that he is up against this brick wall and is trying his best to compromise and find some middle ground. What does he get for that? No return compromise from the other side, and his own party angry with him for compromising. As a pretty far left liberal, I would love for the President to be the guy I elected and work to accomplish the things he truly believes in, but I can respect his willingness to try and compromise. Something is better than nothing, as disappointing as it is.

The far right loves to talk about what the venerable Founding Fathers wanted, as if they were somehow able to anticipate every possible situation that might occur in the future. What would the Founding Fathers think of this desire by the controlling party in the House to make sure that the nation fails? Our system of checks and balances was designed with the faith that almost all elected officials would have the good of the country as their number one immediate goal. Now that gaining and maintaining power has become the main goal of a very large number of our elected officials, the system is breaking down. In the next few elections, can we PLEASE elect people who will work for the good of the country and the good of their constituents first? There are plenty of good people in all political parties who will make that their goal. Let's find them and put them in charge!

Go Zen, then!

Yes, I know I'm getting old, but tonight was a terrific night because nothing happened. This morning while the kids were at rock climbing practice, Deb and I both got in some exercise. Then we spent the afternoon with the kids - I played tennis with Mark and Deb took both kids to the pool. Tonight we made a healthy dinner, then worked in the garden for a while. Finally Layne made (with some help from Deb, but Layne was in charge) a blueberry pie, completely from scratch, using the blueberries we got at the farmers' market this morning. (And it was AWESOME!) At 9:30, we're still sitting on the back porch, enjoying the beautiful weather. Deb and the kids decide to head to bed and I say, "I feel like I should sit out here on the porch and write a blog post, but I don't know what to write about." Deb suggests writing about perfect camping weather. One quizzical look later and she says, "Just go Zen, then!"

So here's my current take on religion. I have had a pretty varied religious experience over the years, especially considering that I grew up in Lynchburg, VA, home of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. I was baptized in the Catholic Church, grew up in a Presbyterian church, then attended chapel 3 times a week at my Episcopalian high school. In college I checked out all kinds of options without really settling on one. I helped to found the Presbyterian Student Fellowship while at the same time singing and playing guitar at Catholic Mass every week. In graduate school I found a Lutheran Church, where I started to really feel comfortable, and have later attended Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ - you know, that church in your town called "First Christian"), Lutheran Churches, and Episcopal Churches. As a teacher, I have also taught in different schools - Catholic, Jewish, and Episcopalian - with both good and bad experiences at each. (Although I have to admit, in my experience, Jews are pretty awesome!)

All of this leads me to a pretty muddled state of confusion in my adult life. I have tended to stick mostly to my Christian roots, and lean towards the Lutheran or Disciples of Christ traditions, but I've had enough experiences with other religions or denominations to believe that no single church can really have all the answers. Deb said, "Go Zen, then," because she knows that I am very attracted to the teachings of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism especially, looks at the writings and teachings of others as great sources of wisdom, but believes that the true goal of religion is to find the wisdom inside yourself. I have read many of the main scriptures of the world's great religions - the Bible (obviously including the Torah), the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, many of the writings of the great Talmudic Scholars, and foundational documents in Tao and Shinto. When I read them, I can't help but notice all the similarities. The major tenets of all the world's religions truly are the same, they are simply expressed in different ways in different cultures. The one faith movement that really seems to recognize this is the Baha'i Faith, which believes in one God who has expressed Him or Herself through the voices of many prophets through the years, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. The Baha'i's believe that we can learn something from all of the world's religions and that it is important to understand and appreciate them all. What can be more beautiful, peaceful, and unifying than that?

Within the realm of Christianity, which is most comfortable for me based on my own cultural surroundings, I have really connected with a group called the "Emerging Church" especially through a particular scholar, Marcus Borg. Much of what he says would be considered heresy by more conservative Christians, but it makes a lot of sense to me. He recognizes that the Bible, along with all other religious documents, was written at a particular time under particular circumstances. When read in context, virtually everything in the Bible makes perfect sense. We don't live in that same context today, though, and it doesn't make sense to apply the literal statements of the Bible to our world. Instead we need to engage with them, discuss them, study them, and think about them in order to figure out how they apply to our lives today. Sounds like a much more vibrant religion that way, doesn't it? I believe, along with those of the Baha'i Faith, that the same can be said about all the other major religions. How could I possibly worship a God who is so simple and weak that He can only speak to people in one way? If there truly is a God, then wouldn't he or she be smart enough and powerful enough to address different people in different cultures in the way that will best resonate with them? Also, wouldn't He be more concerned with feeding the hungry and helping the downcast than with what color a minister wears on a particular Sunday or whether or not somebody has had a little water sprinkled on her head before she participates in Communion? We get so wrapped up in our differences that we don't see our similarities. If we could forget about those differences for a while and focus on working towards our common goals, the various churches of the world could solve so many problems. Zen is all about finding inner wisdom, but I don't believe you can find that inner wisdom without being compelled to help the world around you. That same idea can be found in the writings of C.S. Lewis, Muhammed, and Maimonides.

So if you're reading this looking for my answers to the fundamental questions of religion, you'll be disappointed. Is there a God? I don't know. Some days I'm convinced that there is, other days it makes no sense to me. Which religion has the correct route to Him if He exists? It depends. Which religion speaks to you most clearly? That one is the correct one for you even if it's not the correct one for me. Do you have to be religious to please God? On that one, I'm pretty certain of my answer of a resounding NO! The Bible teaches that we are all God's creation. If we do good things and live a life of compassion, then we are inherently bringing glory to God even if we don't believe in Him. Do we have to be perfect? There is not a single religion in the world the expects perfection! So if no religion has all the answers, what do I do now? I say, study them all. Look for the common themes. Trust you heart and your intuition. I hope you don't settle on one religion, because they all offer wisdom in different forms. In the end, if none of them really connects with you just the right way, then live the best life you can and trust that every religion also teaches that God is inherently Good and loves us. He will not turn his back on a good person, even if that person did not communicate with Him the way that his or her surrounding society said was the right way.

Stereotype Threat

The faculty summer reading book at my school is "whistling vivaldi" by Claude M. Steele. I started it today and have read only the introduction, but already I'm hooked. The book is about how stereotypes affect our performance. It takes a little different approach though, by looking at what they call "stereotype threat" - the extra pressure people feel when they are in a situation in which they know their actions might confirm a stereotype. This is important to us as teachers, because no matter how fair and balanced we might feel that we are, we need to recognize that students feel this stereotype threat even when the stereotypes are not being actively enforced. A girl in my math class may feel the pressure of knowing that, if she messes up, it will just confirm the stereotype that girls are not good at math, like in this cartoon from xkcd.com:

The introduction to the book claims that the author will propose concrete ways to combat the effects of this stereotype threat, so I am hopeful that I'll have something more useful to post soon. The research that Steele mentions in the introduction is compelling. The study that prompted this book involved minigolf of all things. College students were asked to complete a minigolf course. Some students were just asked to play the course. Another group of students was told that the course was part of a test of Natural Athletic Ability. A third group of students was told that the course was part of a test of Intellectual Strategic Ability. Compared to the control group, white students' scores were several strokes worse when told that it was a test of athletic ability, while the negative effect on black students' scores was even worse when they were told it was a test of intellectual ability. There was no difference in the scores between the control group and either the white students in the intellectual task or the black students in the athletic task. There were no extra obstacles. Nobody told the black students they wouldn't do as well on the intellectual task, and nobody told the white students they wouldn't do as well on the athletic task. The difference seems to be that the white students put pressure on themselves not to mess up the athletic task and the black students put pressure on themselves not to mess up the intellectual task because they didn't want to confirm negative stereotypes. That's tremendous pressure to believe that your mistakes will reflect on your entire group! It's important that we teachers realize that being unbiased (as if that's humanly possible) is not enough. We need to actively fight these stereotypes if we are ever going to defeat them. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away!

Reliving the Past for the First Time

This has been a tough week. I feel kind of bad saying that, because it's been a much tougher week for other people, even in the situation I'm thinking about right now, but it was tough for me too in a different way. I've made references on Facebook to being at the hospital with a student. With medical privacy laws, it's hard to know what I can say here, but hopefully since there's nothing here identifying the particular student, this will be okay. If not, well, I don't think any of my three followers will turn me in to anybody.

The student went to the hospital with internal bleeding. He felt terrible, was completely exhausted, and started excreting blood in the way you can probably imagine. To make a long story short, he almost didn't survive Friday night/Saturday morning, but on Saturday, after several failed attempts, they were able to fix the problem. (He's not out of the woods yet, but things are looking good.) I spent many hours with him in the hospital because his family was out of the country and it took them a while to get here. This was hard because he's a terrific young man, and no 16-year-old should have to go through this kind of experience, but there is more to it than that. The more I talked to his doctors about the problem or looked at the endoscopic pictures of the problem site and the fix, the more I came to realize that this problem is exactly what took my father 30 years ago this July. The last time I heard an explanation of what happened to my Dad was when I was 9 years old, and I have never fully understood it, but everything began to make sense as I listened to the explanations of what was wrong with my student. In 1981 we didn't have the ability to send a fiber optic camera down somebody's throat to identify and then fix such a problem, and I am so thankful that we do now. I have to wonder, though, if my Dad could have been saved the same way my student was. As we approach both Father's Day and the 30th anniversary of my father's death, I can't help but dwell on these thoughts more than usual. Mourning never ends, but I am thankful for all the advances we have made, and for the unsung heroes who toil all their lives in obscure laboratories making scientific advances that eventually become things they never dreamed of, like fiber optic cameras which can be threaded through a patient's mouth and into their intestines, eventually saving the lives of terrific people who deserve so many more years, like my student and my Dad. I respect those unsung heroes so much that I married one of them!

A Classic in Honor of Memorial Day Weekend - "The Final Inspection"

Memorial Day is an ironic holiday. It is the unofficial kickoff of summer and a time when everybody has a big party and rejoices. At the same time, it seems like it ought to be a solemn remembrance of those who gave their lives (and that doesn't just mean those who died!) to the protection of our freedom. While those seem to be two difficult things to do at the same time, in a lot of ways, I think it's appropriate that this weekend be a celebration of exactly those freedoms our military has given so much to defend. I've always liked this classic poem by Sgt. Joshua Helterbran honoring the sacrifices made by our servicemen, servicewomen, AND their families:

THE FINAL INSPECTION 

The soldier stood and faced God, 
Which must always come to pass. 
He hoped his shoes were shining, 
Just as brightly as his brass. 

"Step forward now, you soldier, 
How shall I deal with you? 
Have you always turned the other cheek? 
To My Church have you been true?" 

The soldier squared his shoulders and said, 
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't. 
Because those of us who carry guns, 
Can't always be a saint. 

I've had to work most Sundays, 
And at times my talk was tough. 
And sometimes I've been violent, 
Because the world is awfully rough. 

But, I never took a penny, 
That wasn't mine to keep... 
Though I worked a lot of overtime, 
When the bills got just too steep. 

And I never passed a cry for help, 
Though at times I shook with fear. 
And sometimes, God, forgive me, 
I've wept unmanly tears. 

I know I don't deserve a place, 
Among the people here. 
They never wanted me around, 
Except to calm their fears. 

If you've a place for me here, Lord, 
It needn't be so grand. 
I never expected or had too much, 
But if you don't, I'll understand. 

There was a silence all around the throne, 
Where the saints had often trod. 
As the soldier waited quietly, 
For the judgment of his God. 

"Step forward now, you soldier, 
You've borne your burdens well. 
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets, 
You've done your time in Hell." 

-      Sgt. Joshua Helterbran

Nothing thoughtful or challenging here

Usually I like to delude myself into thinking that this blog will cause me to think a little more deeply about things I'm confronting in my life; that is simply not the case here. The entire point of this blog is that it was a great day, and maybe if I record that here, I can come back and read it sometime when it is not such a great day.


This weekend has been looming for a while now because it is SO busy. One thing I've been fighting about myself the past couple of years is that I would often rather be bored than busy. That is not the person I was when I was younger, and is not really the person I want to be today, but that's the way it often is. Yesterday was a big day with Mark's choral concert midday (he was incredible!), a meeting with my Headmaster about a statistics project he asked me to do, and finally Layne's birthday sleepover last night. This morning, Mark had a soccer game at 9:00, both kids had rock climbing practice at 10:00 (we ended up skipping that), then we hosted a baby shower for our kids' favorite teacher this afternoon. Meanwhile, my school made the state championship game for boys' lacrosse, and we were hosting that game here on our home field.

I dread this kind of busy day, but it turned out to be a terrific day. The soccer team played really well. The shower went great, and the cake Layne made was awesome! We won the state championship in lacrosse, and I even had time to take Mark to watch part of the game. In the end, we still had time for a relaxed dinner on the back porch and card playing late into the evening with the family. Tomorrow we start with Bike DC, when several of the major streets of Washington are closed to cars and only open to bikes, then another soccer game and a soccer party. It will be another busy day, but another awesome day too. Usually it's the negative things in life that really make you think about what's important to you, but a day like today does the same thing. Today was all about family, friends, and going out of the way to let our kids' teacher know that she is loved and appreciated. How could any other day make you think more about what's important in life? In the words of the great Scott Trufant (and beer ads from the '90s) - Guys, it just doesn't get any better than this!