the swimming story

This is something I shared in chapel a few years ago.
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you."
The young boy sat anxiously on the bus as it drove south on Highway One towards Washington. It was hot, all the windows were open and the rushing wind took the words away as the kids talked about how this was the year they would jump off the diving board.
The bus was taking kids from Kalona to their annual summer swimming lessons. The boy promised himself this was the year he would finally learn to swim. When they got to the pool they were lined up and placed in groups. Young kids went to the Beginners class, slightly older ones to Advanced Beginners, Intermediates and so forth. The boy went to his group- intermediates where the expectation was that he could float on his stomach and back, do a few strokes and tread water to keep himself from drowning.
The boy failed miserably. He wished he had heeded his wise grandmothers advice, "Don't go in the water until you know how to swim," but he hadn't and here he was. Unable to float, nervous and embarrassed he was demoted to the Beginners class, certainly the oldest in the group and by all appearances the most frightened.
The next week another lesson came and with it a stomach ache and complaints of not feeling well. His parents said, "we've paid for these lessons, you're going," and they put him on the bus. He sat quietly inspecting the hairs on his arm or counting the passing fence posts. Anything to take his mind off the upcoming torture of the swimming lesson. "Just relax," everybody said, but in the pool it wasn't possible. He couldn't relax and have fun and not worry. He couldn't let go.
"Save me O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters..."
One night his parents talked, trying to console and encourage the boy. Maybe its because of what happened when you were three. The boy didn't remember so they told the story.
As he lay drifting to sleep he tried to remember being in a small pool in a mountainside home with water heated by a natural spring. Playing and splashing on the side he slipped into the water until he lay unnoticed on the bottom of the pool where all was warm and peaceful. Then he imagined strong arms grabbing him from the water that had taken his breath and made him frantic for air and life.
Was this why the boy could not do the dead mans float? Summers came and every year it was the same tortuous ordeal. A swimming school failure unable to overcome his fear, to relax, and to float. While others talked of jumping off the high dive he secretly hoped only to float or to move to a place where no one swam. A place like Ethiopia where if you swam you got schistomasaisis and went blind, or the Amazon where piranhas would eat you if you dared go in the river.
Then one summer the boy and his family moved to a town where the school had its own swimming pool and the father said, "the pools open in the afternoons, to keep you out of your mothers hair you are going," and so he went with his brothers to face the fears once more.
"At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. With you faithful help rescue me from sinking...draw me, redeem me, set me free."
And then it happened. Playing in the pool (of course at the shallow end) he slipped and before he hit bottom he felt himself float. It was as if God himself had reached down into that swimming pool and held him up and to that boy it was a miracle. A smile erupted on his face as he shouted, "I floated," and even though everyone looked and said, "big deal" he was ecstatic. He floated. He floated from one side of the pool to the other and soon he was actually swimming. The boy begged to take lessons where he quickly advanced. He joined the swim team and learned the backstroke, the freestyle, the butterfly, but with his short legs he never quite mastered the breaststroke. Oh those were glorious days, to slide through the water pretending to be an otter or a dolphin.
One day he traveled with his team to Washington, to that very pool where after four years of lessons he had never learned to swim, and he competed in races and won ribbons. But best of all, during some free time he climbed the diving board, and savoring each moment, he strolled to the end of the board, and smiling he jumped.
"But God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved and raised up with him....For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God..."

The Best and Brightest

I finished reading The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam a month or so ago and kept thinking I would write something but never got around too it. Then today I saw a story saying President Obama would be making his decision about sending up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan within the next week.
In The Best and the Brightest, Halberstam tries to explain how JFK and then Johnson got the nation involved in Vietnam, especially when some of their advisers, particularly Robert McNamara, McGeorge and William Bunday, among others were widely regarded as some of the smartest people to work in government. If I understood Halberstam, their own belief that they were so smart was a large part of the problem. JFK was able to hold back on their requests to send more troops to Vietnam. Johnson on the other hand, was unwilling to stand up to them, even when he thought they might be wrong. Halberstam attributes that to LBJ's insecurities.
I don't know what it is about presidents from Texas and insecurities about their manliness but the following quote seems to describe a more recent president in addition to LBJ.
"He had always been haunted by the idea that he would be judges as being insufficiently manly for the job, that he would lack courage at a crucial moment. More than a little insecure himself, he very much wanted to be seen as a man; it was a conscious thing....and at a moment like this he wanted the respect of men who were tough, real men, and they would turn out to be the hawks."
As Obama makes his decision, I hope this is one of the books that he read, or has at least had summarized for him. Halberstam describes how the military, primarily the Joint Chiefs, deliberately mislead civilians, asked for only a small contingent of troops, knowing that they would be attacked, and that then they could increase their troop requests to even higher levels, arguing that " more troops were needed in order to keep bases and other troops safe." The idea of just bringing them home never seemed to occur to anyone in the government, and if they did, they were afraid to mention it for fear of being seen as weak.
Throw in a strong dose of American arrogance and sense of superiority and these guys figured there is no way they could lose to the North Vietnamese. It was all a recipe for disaster, one I hope our current President does not repeat.

cross country

I spent a couple of hours serving as a spotter for the conference cross country meet held at IMS this afternoon. Over the years I watched my kid run or drove the team to meets it seemed that cross country fans generally show a lot of sportsmanship during the course of the event. Parents and fans will encourage their kid, but you usually hear lots of affirmation for the other kids as well. Some fans make a point of staying till the last runners finish even though they may be several minutes behind just to give them a word of encouragement.

I haven't been at as many meets this fall so maybe it changed earlier, or perhaps it was the chilly, miserable weather, but tonight I think I heard more yelling at a cross country meet than I've heard before. It started with a mix-up in the Junior High race. Because of the mix-up the junior high boys all ended up running about 600 extra yards. Based on how they were running I doubt the results changed but the way one parent yelled you would have thought we had committed treason. He tried to yell at me, actually he did, but I gave him my grumpy look and he quit. There wasn't anything I could do about it anyway. He decided to leave me alone and "take it up with the race officials."

The Junior High race was followed by the varsity girls race. I was stationed near the first corner after the start so I am supposed to make sure fans don't get in the way and that the runners follow the right line. After the start I move over a few yards to make sure people leave a clear lane along the woods. As the girls came up the hill it was interesting to hear the mothers (i assume they were mothers) yell "words of encouragement" to their daughters. "How could you let that big girl get ahead of you?" "Go faster, go faster" they screamed as loud as they could. What was humorous was when the moms who were at least 100 lbs overweight tried to run along side their kid hollering, "run, run..." Usually after taking five steps, or nearly falling up the hill, they stopped, and either expressed their satisfaction or disgust with their daughter's increased effort, or seeming inability to try harder. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do cpr on any of them. Thinking about it, maybe it was more of a mother-daughter thing, since the races for the boys seemed much calmer. The fathers were just more inclined to shake their heads if their kid wasn't doing as well as expected.

U.S. Men's soccer

Last night I watched the US play El Salvador in a World Cup qualifier. The US won 2-1 plus they had a goal called back after an extremely puzzling call by the official so it could have been 3-1. Unfortunately, the score could have just as easily been 2-2 or 2-3.

When Donavon, Altidore, Davies and others are passing and making good runs they can be an exciting team. But for the most part I find them to be extremely frustrating to watch. In the first half the US midfield and back line would give Salvador too much space in the midfield. In one sequence the Salvadoran player dribbled 30 plus yards down the middle of the field before anybody decided it might be good to challenge him. When a defender finally challenged him the guy made a good pass putting even more pressure on the defense. Fortunately from the US perspective, the guy who received the pass didn't have the best touch on the ball and a US defender cleared the ball off the eighteen.

The extremely frustrating part of the game to watch was the second half when the US seemed content to piddle around and "protect" their lead. Instead of possessing the ball and pushing forward they seemed perfectly happy to make two or three passes in the midfield before one of the players would make either a bad pass or lose possession. Dempsey played around with ball, drew defenders, and would then lose possession. Instead of working to get the ball back he would act like he was fouled and then whine when the official didn't make the call (because there was no call to make) El Salvador got off at least two good shots after picking up a loose balls in the midfield.

I tell my players, especially the forwards and midfielders that nothing frustrates me more than a player who loses possession in the midfield and then stands there watching the action, or worse yet, acts like he got fouled. I can live with losing possession because it happens, even to the best of players. But if you lose the ball, you better bust your butt to at least make an attempt to pressure the ball. I've seen way too many goals scored because a forward lost possession, the other team counters, and the guy who lost the ball does nothing. Those are the goals you can see coming. The forward loses the ball, the midfielder is slow to get back, and the defender is caught out of position. The goalie, who has been left hanging, is forced to make a great save to keep the ball out of the net.

I will continue to watch, but if the team is going to qualify for the World Cup and move out of pool play they are going to have to improve their midfield play significantly and tighten up the defense.

So much for my humble analysis.

Vietnam Memorial and a WWII vet

School is underway and I survived the senior class trip to Washington D.C. Being from a place like Iowa, there seems to be a strange compulsion to speak to other people you think may also be from Iowa. One evening we dropped the students off at the Lincoln Memorial with a map which showed the locations of the other memorials. They were to meet the bus in two hours at the Jefferson Memorial. It is somewhat surprising how many get lost between the two locations but we did manage to collect all of them before heading back to the hotel.

I was curious to see how the kids reacted to seeing the Vietnam Memorial, plus I was tired, so I sat on a bench where I could see them as they walked towards the giant tombstone. Most of the kids seemed to be sobered by the site and walked slowly by the names.

In the meantime there were quite a few old guys going by. Some were in wheel chairs, many had canes, but they were all wearing yellow t-shirts which said something about being WWII vets. Most had name tags which indicated they were from Iowa. One of the old guys sat at the other end of the bench I was on and asked if I was from DC. I told him I was from Iowa with a group of school kids. I asked where he was from and he said Altoona, in central Iowa. I told him I was from the Kalona area and he said he remembered playing them in basketball when he was in high school. He remembered there were three Gingerich's on the Kalona team, and three Kemp's on the Conesville team he played for. I asked where he served in WWII and he rattled off the names of several islands including Okinawa. I mentioned that from what I had read, Okinawa experienced some major battles. His response was "it was ugly, there was nothing good about it." He was part of group of Iowa veterans, Hy-Vee took to DC for a day to see the WWII monument (before they die).

After WWII he made a career out of the Marines. He served in Korea and then trained men going through basic training on their way to Vietnam. He said he hated reading Leatherneck magazine every month because they listed all the Marines killed the previous month and "it tore me up when I saw a kid I had trained."

He had three names he wanted to find on the wall, one he had named his son after, the other he described as his best friend. He knew which panels to look for but was having a little trouble, so I tagged along and helped him find the names. He kept repeating, "its a shame these men died." When we found the names he cried and after the last one, his best friend, he walked away.

I've been reading David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest" and didn't have the heart to tell the old guy that he was right - it was a shame 70,000 US men had to die in Vietnam, let alone the 2 million plus Vietnamese thought to have been killed. Halberstam describes what happens when men who think they are smarter than everyone else, and have no sense of humility or history, try to run a war. It is sad story full of misperceptions, mistakes, arrogance and foolishness. In my understanding McNamara's book confirms much of Halberstam's analysis. It was a war which didn't need to happen and shouldn't have happened.

When I walked back, I noticed the old guy was sitting on the bench so I stopped and thanked him for letting me tag along. He wished me well, and said, "tell those kids you're teaching, that this isn't worth it. I wish they'd never have to build another one of these." Its too bad we are probably well on our way to doing so. And its tragic that so many people still look at war as a glorious thing.

sweet corn

It is sweet corn season here in the middle of the cornfields. These are two ears of the corn brought to us by a family at the church where my wife was the pastor. They picked the corn at 9 or 10 in the morning and I ate these two for supper around 6 pm. Covered with butter and salt, I'm not sure there is anything much better tasting.

Folks who aren't from around here are sometimes surprised to find out that most of the corn grown in Iowa is not meant for human consumption. It finds its way into pigs, turkeys, cattle and other livestock. A lot is turned into sweeteners and used for such things as pop, or soda, and therefore gets blamed for adding to the obesity problems faced by many Americans. Some is turned into ethanol and added to gasoline to help fuel our cars.

But as far as I know sweet corn is grown to be eaten by humans. We gave up trying to grow it in our backyard garden because it never seemed to do well, it took up lots of garden space, and the one year it did do well we had a lot of raccoons visit. Not only did they help themselves to the corn, they also ate the other vegetables and tried to take up residence in our shed.

Eating sweetcorn is not something you necessarily want to see other people do. Some people munch through a whole row without stopping, some spin the ear of corn as they eat, some try to be dainty and neat but at least at our house that never seems to work. Having a beard allows me to taste the mixture of corn, butter and salt for some time afterward, as the melting butter tends to drip into my beard as I eat. A good face washing is required to clean my face as a napkin doesn't clean the mess well at all.

Some people freeze corn, or can some, but we are content to have enough to eat for several meals. We also like to let two or three ears dry. After the kernels are dry you can add them to the popcorn popper with some popcorn. The kernels get crunchy and add to the popcorn eating experience.

So here's to sweet corn. A little bit of golden delight in the middle of an Iowa summer.

lessons from Vietnam

The other week Robert S. McNamara, "the architect of the Vietnam War" died. A couple NPR programs played excerpts of interviews he did after he wrote In Retrospect:The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. The local library had a copy so I checked it out. It was interesting thought-provoking book. At the end McNamara offered eleven "Lessons of Vietnam" which I thought were helpful reminders. Needless to say I don't think President Bush or V-P Cheney read the book, and I wish President Obama would read it before he sends more troops to Afghanistan.

The lessons
1. "We misjudged then-as we have since-the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries...and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions." [Does Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction come to mind?]

2. "We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience....We totally misjudged the political forces within the country?"

3. "We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people...to fight and die for their beliefs and values-and we continue to do so today in many parts of the world."

4. "Our misjudgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders." McNamara explains how at the time there were numerous US officials with a strong understanding of the Soviet Union but there were no senior officials with expertise in Southeast Asia. I think the same could be said of the middle east. [In a Washington Post article from October 16, 2005 there were only eight people in the U.S. diplomatic corps "fluent at the highest levels" of Arabic. http:www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/15/AR2005101500104.html)
Another interesting article which comments on Bush's ignorance of the middle east (what is the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'a?) is at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/bazzi.

5. "We failed then-as we have since-to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine in confronting unconventional, highly motivated people's movements. We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture." [I've watched enough documentaries and film clips of the military in action to understand that while some of the soldiers may be doing good things, getting forced off the road or shot at by a U.S. military convoy, doesn't do much to win "hearts and minds." [Throughout his book, McNamara relates the heavy reliance on bombing Vietnam, even after in his analysis it was no longer effective. Instead, they kept bombing to avoid the appearance of being weak.]

6. " We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large scale U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia before we initiated the action." [Instead we were told to trust our leaders, that to question policy was to raise questions about one's patriotism, and in any case, the people of Iraq would welcome us as liberators, and it would all be over in six months.]

7. " After action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course, we failed to retain popular support in part because we did not explain fully what was happening and why we were doing what we did...." [see above- instead value secrecy, raise questions about critics loyalty or otherwise discredit critics.]

8. " We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient.... We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our own image or as we choose. [We just had a leader who claimed God told him what to do.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa

9. "We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action-other than in response to direct threats to our own security- should be carried out only conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community."

10. "We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions."

11. McNamara argues that the administrations he served did not organize structurally in a way to deal effectively deal with Vietnam over the long term.

There is one more which too many people forget, "Wars generate their own momentum and follow the law of unanticipated consequences." (p. 174)

A couple of other things which seemed evident as I read the book. There was little to no diversity among the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. The advisers were all white males, most of whom graduated from Harvard. McNamara discusses their common experiences of growing up during the Depression, involvement in World War II, and of course their education. My guess is that thinking outside of the box wasn't highly valued, even if any of them were capable of doing so. McNamara and the others seemed trapped by their worldview where every world event was seen through the lens of the Cold War. In the end, if you want to understand the Vietnam war from the perspective of a man who helped plan much of it, this would be a good book to read.