A Sadness Beyond Words

Many of you will have already heard the news posted below from Bill Ball, about Kathleen. But I got two Facebook messages today from folks who were "out of the loop," and so I thought I'd post this to my blog.

Anybody who is a Methodist in North Texas will be heartbroken by this news. For those of us who love Kathleen and Bill like family, it's beyond words. I hope some of the old Pursuits Class friends will also perhaps see this, and I invite you to support Bill and Skyler in this time too.

More to say in a few days. But Bill's email is below the jump...and there's not much more to say now...


Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball Update

Kathleen had a PET Scan on Wednesday morning. They found that the cancer remained fairly small in her liver. However, the scan found some cancer in her brain near her cerebellum. An MRI on Wednesday evening, confirmed the cancer near the cerebellum and noted three other locations in the brain where there are very small areas of cancer. Kathleen has decided to not have any form of brain surgery or radiation treatment for the cancer in her brain. Those efforts would likely cause much more suffering than healing. She will begin receiving hospice care at home.

We are all very sad. We want to make the most of the time that she has left. Kathleen has fought this cancer with great might. She has only missed two Sundays when she was scheduled to preach over the past two years. She preached last Sunday despite many physical challenges. Many times, she has miraculously found the strength to keep moving forward in her ministry at Suncreek and in leadership positions beyond the local church. She is grateful to all of those who have permitted her to continue to be so active in ministry.

She has now reached a point where her body needs rest. Her spirit remains strong. She wants to spend what time remains saying goodbye.

She is trying to balance her need for rest with her need to remain very connected with others. The plan for now is to setup times each day when persons can stop by to visit.

Early in Kathleen’s illness, a group from Suncreek hung symbols of love and hope on the tree in our front yard. We loved this. We welcome anyone do so now.

Kathleen wants to express her deep gratitude to all of those who keep offering her their prayers, love, and support. She wants you to know that she loves you.

Bill D. Ball, Jr

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A College Football Playoff

Since it appears that this year my team is the one that gets screwed by the BCS, I am drawn back the grail-like search for a college football playoff.

For the record, I am one of those twisted people who has actually made peace with the BCS. I have actually come to enjoy the regular season, believing that, in a strange way, it functions as a "March Madness" that lasts from September to December. If you look at it that way, you can get a lot of enjoyment of college football, even with the flaws. I can say that, even with the news today that OU jumps over Texas to play Mizzou. (Despite the unbelievable truth that Texas beat Oklahoma AND Mizzou!!!)

Be that as it may, it IS a deeply flawed system. So, since I'm assuming that over the next few months, the whole world's going to throw out all sorts of plans, I figure why not jump in with my HSO?

As I look at it, there's a way to create a college football playoff system and only add ONE game to the current schedule for the eventual winner.

Sound interesting?

It would take a lot of "outside the box" thinking, but if I have your attention keep reading...

First, five assumptions to get to my proposal:

1) A playoff system must start with a 32-team bracket.
Only then will it create the kind of buzz/excitement that March Madness enjoys, and avoid the controversies of the current BSC system. Barack Obama --and many others apparently-- suggest an eight team playoff. With all due respect, that won't solve a thing.

Teams 9 through 25 will bitch about how they were left out or ripped off by poor ranking. Additionally, an eight team bracket will not build nearly the excitement of a 32-team bracket, or even as much as the current bowl system. No, a playoff system would have to include a 32-team bracket to avoid the charges of being too biases toward major teams/conferences.

Also, an added bonus: at 32 teams, almost every year would include some of the "Cinderella Teams" that make March Madness so cool.

The teams could be picked using the current BCS ranking system, expanded out to include the top thirty two. Or any other ranking system, really. To my mind, the system of ranking wouldn't matter nearly as much, since even if it's CLOSE to accurate, the playoff itself would help weed out any errors.

Number one would be seeded to play number 32, avoiding the charge that the seeding was unfair (If the top ten can't beat the bottom ten, they probably didn't deserve their seed, whether it was one, two or five...)

2) The Bowl System, as is, will have to go.
But the cities that host bowls could be incorporated into a playoff system. I've never understood why this wouldn't be a HUGE "win-win." If the playoff is as extensive as suggested here, there'd be plenty of games for even the most obscure bowl/city to be included in a playoff system. And, frankly, the less lucrative bowl cities would probably end up being the first tier playoff cities. It seems to me that it could end up a wash, or even a net PLUS for the more obscure bowls.

3) The Conference Championship Games would also have to go.
I'm not sure anybody believes they have any real purpose these days anyway. The competition is so UNeven from conference to conference that there's just no way to justify keeping them around. To my mind, this might be the most difficult hurdle of all the assumptions, but for the life of me I don't understand why.

4) The first two meaningless non-conference games would be repurposed to be part of the system.
Instead of playing these early Fall games, they would be added to the end of the season as two rounds of a playoff system. Yes, that would mean that not every team would get to play one of these games, but the payouts for the teams that DO make it would be HUGE. And wouldn't the college presidents, who are allegedly "so worried" about student athletes, find it hard to argue against a system that makes the season shorter for most teams?!

5) The "Rivalry Week" games would have to move a week earlier.
Actually, if everybody bitched, the truth is my proposal could be adjusted to avoid this. The reason would be to open up Thanksgiving Week for the first-round of the playoff system....capturing the holidays for this in a way that would be very cool. But, as I said, it if it can be worked out to move these games, over time the first round of a playoff starting Thanksgiving Weekend would be an amazing tradition that everyone would quickly embrace.

Having said all this, here's the plan:

Eric's Proposed NCAA Division 1A Playoff Schedule:

ROUND ONE:
When: Thanksgiving Weekend through the First Week of December (when Conference Championships are now played).
Who: 32 Teams.
The sixteen sites for these games would be pulled from bowls that currently take place in mid December and from Conference Championship sites. There are a lot of pretty meaningless bowls with dismal payouts out there. They would probably kill to be in the first round of an official playoff system.

Think of the excitement generated with a playoff that starts Thanksgiving Weekend with, say, eight games. Eight more could be played the following weekend, when the Conference Championships are currently played.

TWO TO THREE WEEK BREAK FOR FINAL EXAMS:
I keep hearing that final exams are a big concern for college presidents. OK, then... take several weeks off. You can do it and still make this schedule work!!!

ROUND TWO:
When: The week before Christmas.
Who: 16 Teams.
The eight sites for these games would be culled from the late December, Christmas Day, and week-after-Christmas bowl games. Again, think of the excitement of these games, as the holidays approach. Yes, a lot of bowls would have to change their current date. But take a look at how many there are right now....more than enough to fill an eight-site round of playoffs.

ROUND THREE
When: New Years Day.
Who: 8 Teams.
These four games would rotate among the current BCS bowl sites. Four games on New Year's Day, to satisfy everyone's endless thirst for college football on this day. It's clean. It's doable...and these games would be HUGE in terms of revenue.

ROUND FOUR: Semifinals
When: The Saturday before the Super Bowl.
Who: 4 Teams.
As everyone knows, the NFL takes that week off, in an attempt to build excitement. So, what if the college football "semi-finals" stepped in to fill the void? This would also allow the final four teams several weeks off for rest.
The sites would be determined by a rotation of current BCS bowl sites.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: The Saturday of Super Bowl Sunday
Why not? What a cool weekend that would be.
The site determined by a rotation of current BCS bowl sites.
--------------------------------

That's it.

Note that if you assume the current champion currently plays two non-conference games, a conference championship, and a BCS bowl, this playoff system only means ONE additional game for the winner!!!!

It's also 31 total football games...more than enough to fold-in every bowl worth bringing along, assuming they would move to fit the schedule...and why wouldn't they?!

To get there, it DOES mean thinking very differently about the bowl system, about non-conference games, and conference championship games. It shifts the season later into January. But is that all bad when Pro Football is still going on? And do we REALLY care about those two early non-conference games? Get rid of them! Move them into the playoff system, and think of how much bigger they'd become!!

If we have to play football in early September, allow teams to schedule semi-official scrimmages with smaller schools. Or, if extending the season that late is a bad idea, then fine, don't take so many weeks off, and the season can still be done the second week of January. There are still enough spare weeks in there to take several weeks off for exams.

Can it be done?

Of course it can be done. It's college sports, for crying out loud, not a United Nations treaty. To do it RIGHT would involve shaking up a lot of the current assumptions. But the payoff --literally, the financial payoff-- could be HUGE.

It can be done. No question.

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Dan Fogelberg Tribute November 15th

It hit me today that I hadn't posted about this show on my own blog!
Connections has a show coming up this coming weekend:

Connections Band
Tribute to the Music of Dan Fogelberg
November 15th, 7 pm
Northaven UMC
11211 Preston Road
Dallas TX

It should be a good one...

Click here for a Google map

Our beneficiary will again be "Nothing But Nets."

A few fun facts about this show:

-- This will be our final show of the year.
-- It is a favorite of the band's because it was our very first show ever.
-- We will feature two new songs "Tell Me to My Face," and "Phoenix" that we've only done once before (At Lovers Lane)
-- We may have other special surprises that night, even if you've seen this show before (Can't say just yet...)

In addition, we'll do your favorite Dan songs:

"Leader of the Band"
"Longer"
"Same Ol' Lang Syne"
" Run for the Roses"
"Heart Hotels"
"There's a Place in the World for a Gambler"

For those of you who don't think you know Dan's music, click here and listen to some soundclips of the above songs.
You'll say "Oh...I know that!" several times.

The set also includes many other great, but lesser known, Dan Fogelberg songs.

You won't want to miss it! We do not know when we'll be scheduling this show again. (Probably at some point, but nothing on the schedule now...)

We have marvelous crowds at both Spring Valley and Suncreek churches. And just last night, we took the show to the clergy retreat up at Tanglewood Retreat Center on Lake Texoma. For the second year in a row, we had a GREAT time with our clergy colleagues.

We're pleased to be able to say that our totals from the two church shows will be more than $ 4, 600!!!

God is good, and we are grateful.

Hope to see you on the 15!

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A Prayer for President-Elect Obama

Ross Wise is a friend of mine. He and wife Sharon live in the beautiful East Texas town of Gilmer. I know Ross because he's a Kerrvert...and even more intimately than that, he's a "Nasbillian" like me.

But, unlike me, Ross is a Baptist and a Republican. That's why this prayer he's written captured my attention. And I liked it so much, I thought that it worthy to pass along to you too.

Dear Father,

Thank you God for letting us live in a nation where we can choose our leaders. Thank you for a system of free elections where we can vote without fear of molestation by those who rule. Thank you for a system of government that is responsive to the wants and needs of the people. I ask you father to continue to bless this nation with the freedoms our fathers have fought and died for.

Father, please be with president elect Obama, and give him the wisdom, the patience, and the understanding to pursue the most challenging and important job in the world. Let him put away the shackles of partisan politics, and pursue what is best for the American people. Give him an understanding of the unique historic position he occupies in the history of our great nation. Let him be guided by the biblical principles of justice for the afflicted, compassion for the downtrodden, and protection for those who cannot protect themselves.

Father, please be with those who voted for Senator McCain, and let us support president elect Obama to the fullest extent that our consciences allow. We know there will be areas where we do not agree, but let us be civil and respectful in our differences of opinion.

Heal our country. Pull us together. Dissolve any rancor that might exist.

These things I humbly ask in the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen.

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Yes We Can

(link)

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes, we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes, we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes, we can.

It was the call of workers who organized;
women who reached for the ballots;
a President who chose the moon as our new frontier;
and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes, we can.

Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes, we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
(We Want Change!)

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant....
We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA;
we will remember that there is something happening in America;
that we are not as divided as our politics suggests;
that we are one people; we are one nation;
and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story
with three words that will ring from coast to coast;
from sea to shining sea:

Yes, We Can.

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What We Need to Hear After the Election

Just dropped my daughter off at school. And there I took a brief peek at the election underway. The front sidewalk has sprouted dozens of signs for local candidates. There were even a few workers out for the two statehouse candidates from our district.

The school is clearly braced for a huge turnout. They moved voting to the gym this year, and seem to have doubled the number of voting machines and volunteers. The PTA is having a bake sale (we contributed banana bread) and there are even volunteers helping people navigate the parking lots. But, thus far, turnout seems to be fairly LIGHT. At least, that's what my pollworker friend told me just now...and it seemed to be the truth from my observation. Perhaps with the increased number of machines and manpower, it just seems smoother? Time will tell...

This election been the longest and most expensive presidential campaign in history. Today, the voters are speaking. Tonight, barring the reappearance of the "hanging chad" or equivalent spoiler, we should have a result.

Whether your favorite candidate wins or loses, it seems to me there are words we all should expect from the mouths of both candidates.

Below, I take my best shot at presidential speechwriting, and suggest some things we Americans most need to hear.

First, let me start with an assumption: George W. Bush failed to say what we most needed to hear in the year 2000, and that failure led to an increasingly polarized electorate and nation. You can't put all of the difficulties of this administration on that one failure. But, to my mind, it set a horrible path with completely predictable results.

George W. Bush campaigned to be a "uniter, not a divider." Many people, including me, truly believed that this was the way he would govern, because this was the way he had governed in Texas.

For myriad reasons, he did not. One good reason was the hotly contested, and seriously contentious, election itself. More than 50 percent of the nation did not vote for him. Many of those persons, to this day, refuse to believe that he won. (I am noting the fact, not editorializing)

Given that climate, we needed him to be the president he promised he would be. We needed a "uniter." I personally believe his own advisors --specifically Rove and Cheney-- steered him away from that path, and convinced him it was unnecessary to go that direction. He apparently agreed.

That mistake, IMHO, was the single biggest mistake of his presidency. Because it pitted 50.5 percent of the electorate against him from the start.

"But Eric," you say, "surely you're not suggesting that all Democrats would have fallen in line behind him!"

Not all, to be sure. But some would have, and probably enough to allow for an impressive "bipartisan" ruling coalition for most of his first term, specially if Bush had taken their advice and counsel as seriously as he always took the advice of those closest to him.

I believe the American people are always looking for a leader who will represent them ALL, no matter which direction they personally "lean." But that "first step," the first indication that it will happen, has to come from the president...not from the people, or even the political opposition. And, BTW, had Bush been able to do it? Had he listened consistently to voices from the other side --found his own "Bob Bullock"-- on the national stage? His whole presidency might have been different. (Emphasis on "might.")

It is a step of great political courage, to lead from the center, and to welcome in the opposition. It sets our government apart from so many others. We fight like hell during campaigns, and then we should (but don't always) put aside those differences, learn from each other, and move forward as one nation.

It strikes me that BOTH the candidates this year are uniquely qualified to do this. McCain calls himself a "Maverick" (btw, did you know the actual Mavericks are not too keen on this?) which I take to mean that he would be willing to stand up to his own party, and reach across the aisle to the other one. Obama's political writings, campaign, and political career, indicate that he also values making this move.

So, with the strong belief that it's necessary, and that either of these two guys could theoretically do it, here is what I think should be said after the election.

The loser should say:

"I congratulate Senator (Blank) on a hard fought campaign. We did not always see eye-to-eye, nor do we now. But for the good of the nation, I call upon all of my supporters to acknowledge and support Senator (Blank) and their administration. The stakes for our nation's future are too high to allow the petty rhetoric of a political campaign to infuse our national discourse. I pledge to support a President (Blank) administration, and I ask all of my supporters to do the same."

The winner should say:

"I congratulate Senator (Blank) on a hard fought campaign. We did not always see eye-to-eye, nor do we now. To all of those who opposed my candidacy, I promise you have nothing to fear. I pledge to be YOUR president too. I pledge to work hard to win your trust and support, and I ask you to work with me. I take seriously the idea that we are ONE nation, and I pledge to do all in my power to not pursue policy in a way that will intentionally drive us apart. The stakes for our nation are too hight to allow the petty rhetoric of a political campaign to infuse our national discourse. I will endeavor to work with and for you, and I ask you do work with and for my administration, so that we might truly be ONE nation."

Can either of them pull off a speech of such political courage?

I don't know for sure. But I know that more than most candidates, they have the personalities for it.

And I know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that it's what we most need to hear from them.

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How Jan Sanders Spent All Saints Sunday

Jan Sanders the widow of Judge Barefoot Sanders. Barefoot, as some will recall, is the legendary Federal Judge from here in Dallas who died about a month ago. Northaven has been Jan and Barefoot's spiritual home for more than three decades, as they raised a family and served the community, and we were honored to host his memorial service.

I told this story this morning in church and, because everybody at Northaven Church knows Jan, it got applause. Which makes me think that even though it's late on All Saints Sunday it might be inspiring for others to hear it too.

Judge Sanders, as you may have heard me say elsewhere is one of those truly rare folks who, over the span of a long career, had experience in all three branches of government. He served in the Texas House as a legistator and was a White House counsel for President Lyndon Johnson. President Carter appointed Barefoot Federal Judge here in the Norhtern District of Texas. By the time he retired in his 80s, he was the senior federal judge in this region.

I know of very few human beings who have experience in all three branches of government, or who were as beloved and respected as much as Barefoot.

All along his remarkable life, Jan has been a support and encourager, while also having a very active life in the community. She was by his side when he ran for the Texas House and when he later ran against John Tower. She is an active supporter of the Dallas Peace Center, and many environmental causes. But, because of the role of a federal judge, Jan stayed away from direct politics during the past several decades.

This morning, at church, we celebrated "All Saints Sunday," and we honored Barefoot as we always honor those who have died during the past year. We read his name, lit a candle, and rang the bell. It was a tender, moving moment.

But Jan Sanders was not there. In fact, Jan Sanders is not in Dallas right now.

Jan left for Ohio on Friday, where she is volunteering to "get out the vote" in the greater Cincinnati area.

I talked to Jan before she left, and it was very clear that Ohio is where she needed to be today. When I mentioned this in church this morning, the congregation applauded, and I told them I hoped they would honor this octogenarian with in-person applause upon her return.

Her daughter says she has not yet heard from Jan, which we both agree probably means she's thrown herself into it with her usual passion, and is loving every minute.

Jan and Barefoot are special people to so many. They shared a life of public service for fifty years. There are many different ways to honor a "saint" in our lives on All Saints Sunday. We honored Barefoot by lighting a candle for him this morning.

And in a very real way, Jan honored him too.

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