GOATS

There is much talk about goats lately, and I don't mean the kind who faint or scream.  G.O.A.T. is an acronym for "greatest of all time," and Maddie's been growing up alongside two of the greatest athletes of all time, both of whom have retired very recently.  The first is the legendary quarterback Tom Brady, although we're not the biggest football fans here.  The second GOAT to retire this year is Shaun White, who we saw tonight in his final performance.  He came in fourth just missing the podium by a very small amount, but it doesn't matter.  He was there with athletes that were just one year old when he was at his first Olympics.  He was competing with all these younger ones that grew up watching him win time and again.  He knew his legs were giving out with him on each hit, and he knew the odds were not in his favor so much, but how great it is to see him go into a sport he loves just for the thrill of competition.  And that second run of his tonight was just amazing.  The final run, the one where he clipped the side, was a let-down, one where our entire country gasped in disappointment.  But he took off the helmet and slid down the middle of the slide, waving and meeting all of the standing athletes at the bottom of the hill, joining us in a salute to just a great Olympian.  

I remember us watching this competition last Olympics as it unfolded, so tense and nervous and just screaming as he nailed his last run.  It might have been one of the most thrilling competitions we'd ever seen - so close and so much tension.  He wasn't able to pull off a miraculous last run this time, but nevertheless, he was there, and he tried, and he was there for the thrill of the sport.  And if not for him starting to feel the pain of every hit a little more, he'd still be out there going full throttle.  It was great to see him one last time - we joined the rest of our country in saluting Shaun White - thanks for some incredible memories.  We were watching a few of the slalom racers that missed a gated and the typical reaction is to just move on down the hill with a DNF - did not finish.  But a few of these racers would stop, and just use their skis to plod back up the hill to where they made their error, and then do the gate correctly and move down the hill from there regardless of the much-longer time.  The important thing to them was finishing the race, no matter what place they came in.  I think that's such a wonderfully noble sentiment, and obviously a Biblical one too.  Finish the race.

Okay, moving on.  We had KidPak tonight, although it wasn't technically KidPak.  It was us watching children so that some parents could go out on a date night.  The idea was last minute and sort of inflicted on us, but nevertheless, it turned out okay.  We had a movie playing, "Encanto," in the recreation room on a large-screen television that rolled out.  And there was pizza too.  I was back-and-forth dropping off and picking up Maddie from taekwondo, which she enjoyed tonight.  She was instructing in one class, and then joining the other students for leadership after that.  It was funny tonight at KidPak when Maddie joined the volunteers watching over the kids.  We had that movie "Encanto" playing, and there were more volunteers actually watching it than kids!

We've been watching the world news, which has been so tumultuous lately.  I only hope a year from now we can read this with peace knowing it all turned out okay, but the rumors of war persist in Ukraine.  I may be wrong in this, but apparently the whole threat of war comes from the fact that Ukraine is joining NATO and that's right there on Russia's border, and Russia doesn't want that because Russia doesn't want the armed forces of NATO right there on the border.  That's how it's been explained to me, anyway.  It seems the obvious solution, if that's the case, is to hold up on letting Ukraine join NATO, at least until tensions calm down.  Because from what I understand, China is supporting Russia and we're supporting Ukraine along with all of Europe, and it's really possible to see this get out of hand very quickly.

Meanwhile, Canada of all places is having somewhat of a revolution.  Our neighbors to the north have citizens that have had enough of overreaching government control.  So the Canadian government has responded by showing even more overreaching government control.  This, despite the fact the protestors haven't looted stores of everything inside or burned down places of businesses as we saw two summers ago.  From what I understand, there haven't been any deaths or violence either.  By all appearances, it's been an outdoor party, one that's blocking some important roads.  So what to do about it?  The government there is stealing gas and wood, but maybe... and I know this is just a crazy idea... how about empathy?  Both this paragraph and the one before it show stubborn people refusing to talk, refusing to empathize, and refusing to work together to find peace.  We don't seem to talk to those we don't agree with.  These days, we only crush them.  Where's Dudley Do-Right when we need him?

Anyway, lots going on in the world, and we have a wary eye on it.  Maddie had a quiet day today.  We were talking on the way home, and she got a bottle of that frappaccino for the first time.  This is a creamy cold coffee drink that I first remember trying back in the 90's in Hawaii.  I got addicted to them for a season, but the Starbucks variety are still for sale and going strong.  Maddie had one of these for the first time and decided she liked it very much, so I suspect it won't be the last one she drinks.  

"The Legacy of Secrets" continued for our evening reading, as Finn remembered Amanda and Jess fondly, and of course we just finished a book that talked about what they were doing while Finn was on his adventure.  We're here in mid-February reading the penultimate book in the entire series.  It seems as if we'll finish it all maybe at the end of March or early April, and I just read the next "Kingdom Keepers" book is going to be out on April 19th, part of a new story for a next generation.  It was going to be out earlier, but the author explained the delay is because of "supply chain issues."  This could be related to overreaching governmental control, but who knows.

We said our prayers tonight, and there's a lot to pray for and a lot of people who need help.  We'll continue to pray for them.  Maddie went off to bed, and I was working on the script again for this Sunday.  It's a little on the long side, so I'm streamlining where I can.  But Maddie's part should be pretty funny.