Cowhide...

Well, the mighty Redwood Rangers had a good game last night and won the storied "Cowhide" game at Giant Stadium, or whatever it is now called. I am happy for the Rangers partly because my two kids attend high school there, but also because this has been a tough year for Redwood off and on the field!

There was the loss to El D a few weeks ago, devastating in so many ways, but prior to that in the early days of the school year, gang activity was happening at an alarming rate. Why Redwood? Not sure of all the reasons and this blog is not going to be a social commentary on gangs, except to say that the gang problem is bigger than any of us realize. My point is the Rangers needed a win, both to end the season on an up note, but also to reassure our community that no matter the problems coming back is possible.

I think about "come backs" a lot. Some of the best known comeback artists of all time are also personal and national heroes. There was George Washington and his rag tag independence army. Out gunned, out manned, and out classed in every sense except in commitment, they came back and defeated the British and gave us independence. Abe Lincoln is surely another. Failed at business a few times, lost EVERY election he ever ran in, that is, except one. That one race took him to the Presidency of the United States and a history making crusade against slavery. I like Lincoln. Tall, dark, not so handsome, but what he had was a stubborn unwillingness to be defeated. I want to be like that, stubborn, in a good way!

This morning, after contemplating my own struggles, I was ready to give up on, hmmm, hope. It was once said that hope exists whenever blood pumps in your heart and your lungs fill with air. I like that. Hope, what is it and why do we lose it? No idea really, seems to come from somewhere alien, otherworldly, especially when it seems that THIS world is all despair.

I personified despair today and I don't like it when that happens. My heart still beats, my lungs fill up with air, thoughts race in my brain, but I can't see the life in me, or around me. Seems the world is like that, too. Maybe that's part of the gang problem, or least part of it.

Nah, I don't know anything about the gang problem, so forget I even went there. What I do know is, when you get back in the game, like Redwood did last night, well, hope has a way of showing up. Heck, you still may lose, but boy when it's all said and done, inside you know one thing ... quitters never win and winners never quit.

Rah, rah, rah, GO, ABE!