Where have you gone, Joe Paterno….?

Greetings, Bearers!

I’m in between work right now.  Helping Mrs. J. Dean out with some work at her place (Well… actually, I’m just keeping her company.  Not much I can do for her that’s hands-on, except distract her by trying to be cute and romantic, and that’s not a good thing to do to a working woman.  Not if you don’t want your fingers broken, at least…).

I wanted to throw out a few comments about Joe Pa and the whole mess at Penn State.  As a football fan, it’s been both fascinating and sad to follow the stories of Paterno and Tressel, seeing their downfalls like this.  While I’m a Wolverine fan and relish beating both the Nittany (Nifty) Lions and the Buckeyes on the field, I don’t take any sort of personal pleasure in either situation, so if you’re a fan of either of these schools, you have my sympathies right now.  This is a mud dragging for your programs, and I don’t wish that on anybody, no matter how much of a rival he or she may be.

The thing that’s most interesting is how one incident in the lives of both of these men has wiped out years (or, in Paterno’s case, multiple decades) of an otherwise solid reputation.  Both of these men garnered personal respect, even outside of their own programs and schools, and had a reputation for being men of staunch character and trustworthy ethics.  But now, all of that has been erased.  I guess the words one of my youth ministers stated many years ago to us in a chapel meeting still hold true: It takes thirty years to build a reputation; it takes thirty seconds to destroy one.

There’s a lesson there, one I don’t need to spell out, and I hope that all of us take it to heart.

In the meantime, while I await the completion of the cover for my short story collection, please continue to enjoy my works, and spread the word about them.  I’ve been encountering new readers here and there, and if you are a new reader, I encourage you to drop me a line letting me know what you think about the stories.  I love hearing from readers, so don’t be bashful!  Write me!

See you in the Vein

J. Dean

 

Tressel and Character

Greetings, Bearers!

In between my writing, I took time to notice this article about Jim Tressel featured by Sports Illustrated, after hearing about “The Vest’s” resignation from Ohio State.  The article was very interesting, and sadly very enlightening; even as a die-hard Michigan football fan and Michigan alumni, I had great respect for Tressel (despite wanting to beat him on the gridiron).  Now, it comes out that Tressel really did play the part of a hypocrite-and I don’t say that maliciously.  The man did not practice what he preached, and that’s sad and embarrassing.  Tressel professed Christianity, and while we Christians still struggle with sin, we need to be mindful of our testimony, and how we appear before an unbelieving world. 

Looks like Tressel didn’t think about that part of it.

People have been asking me whether or not I’m happy about it.  I’ve replied that I’m satisfied that justice was served but that I’m not gleeful or emotionally enraptured with the whole thing.  Justice is a good thing; vindictive emotion is not.  I say that because I know that I’ve not been nailed for every wrong thing I’ve done in my life, but I know that I deserve to be.  So, while it’s good to see consequences, it’s not something I get any giddiness from. 

Moving on, my short story (The one I posted an excerpt from a few posts back) is almost complete, and I intend to put together my first collection here in the next couple of weeks, although when it will be completed and posted depends on whether or not I can keep working without interruption (Mental note: simultaneous TV, radio, and writing doesn’t work).  And The Summoning of Kran is going well, although I need to be a bit more consistent with it as well.

So back to being consistent!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean