Down and Dirty

Cleanliness is next to Godliness, but a little dirt under the fingernails never kept spirituality away. 

Kickoff

Spirituality with football rules occurred to me one day in the presence of my transformational counselor. I thought that if spirituality, which seems to be an overused term in the present and at the same time carries with it an ethereal quality that remains elusive, especially for some of us men I thought it had potential,   So I said to myself why not try to quantify spirituality with something we all know very well, football rules. 

Paper Tigers

After witnessing the verbal posturing that had New York Jet fans convinced they had won the Super Bowl before they set foot on the field were dashed appropriately by a loss to a superior defensive team.  False bravado doesn’t work in football and you never hear anyone bragging about spirituality. People say you have it, and if you claim to posses it,  your record resembles  the Jets, 0 and 1. 

A New Season

We all have our favorite teams we cherish and root for. The first week of the season always signals a new hope because everyone starts out 0 and 0.  We can take on spirituality in the same fashion as a new beginning and a new hope that we can grow as men and feel comfortable in our uniforms and in our own skin. 

Kickoff 2010

Less than a week away from kickoff, and football and it’s many rules will begin yet again. Spirituality has been around much longer than football has and if I can get someone to be motivated to carry it for ten yards it will be more than a first down.  

Roughing the passer is an infraction designed to protect the Quarterback from the most vulnerable position on the field. It is more often called now because of the huge contracts these players command. It might seem like it’s designed for prevention of injury, but it’s purely for commercial reasons. The fact that it might prevent injury is only an ancillary benefit.  

When we get roughed up in our field of play, there is no referee to penalize the miscreant. However it is our ability to stand right back up that commands the respect for ourselves and of others that might do us harm, whether it be by design or by happenstance.  

Football Season is Nigh

Football season is nigh. I am looking forward to the cool days of fall to counter the sweltering summer heat this year has brought. I only have to look out at the dead lawns in my neighborhood to see just how dry the season has been.  I will engage myself in earnest to light up the metaphor bonfire that lies within me when I expound on spirituality with football rules. 

Football Rules Are Very Complex

Spirituality is not at all complex, but it is hard to get know without opening the book and cracking the binder.  I try to practice every day and leave the rule making to the powers that be.  A power greater than myself. 

Wide Right?

I am wondering if I should abandon this project. It seemed like a great idea to move men closer to spirituality. A way to demystify an ethereal concept that we men need more exposure to than ever before. It can be something we can discuss in an open forum. I always like to think that the metaphor of football and spirituality could become kindred spirits, but I am just not sure at the moment anyway.  

Thrown for a Loss

Spirituality with football rules will guide me to either run pass or punt, and sometimes being thrown for a loss can set us up for the next 1st and 10.

The Spirituality Handbook

The football handbook for prayer and spirituality contains a 'grid iron' to mark our daily progress and a 'scorecard' to track our standings week to week.  In order to make the 'playoffs' in this 'league' we merely need to have a winning record.  We compete daily against the self we are leaving behind. Our adversary will continue to 'score' we have to be prepared for that.  Old habits aren't 'tackled' easily and we still 'penalize' ourselves by 'holding' onto familiar run patterns that our competition throws at us.

Kickoff

Well it’s summer and its time for the unveiling of Spirituality With Football Rules or SWiFR. 

As I have alluded in my trailer entries leading up to today spirituality is more like an invisible force that doesn’t have a breeze or precipitation that announces it’s arrival.  It is more of a subtle awareness that contains magnetic forces that we can either be attracted to or repelled from.

I chose football as my metaphor primarily because as men we are rooted in the concrete world and less comfortable in the ethereal one.  If we examine football it contains all the VAK* we want as men.  V is for visual.  We watch the game.  A is for auditory. We listen to the announcers, the crowd and the referee’s whistle and his call of the infraction.  K is for kinesthetic.  We feel the anguish of the dropped pass, fumble, interception or the exultation of a kickoff return TD or a bomb caught by our team in the end zone. 

Spirituality contains these elements as well with the difference being that instead of us doing the initial sensing we sense through the reflection of others whether they are those we love, hate or are indifferent to. 

Let’s take a time out, except there will be no commercials in SWiFR. 

Mini Camp

When football teams hold mini camps they get the new players acclimated to the schemes they will be facing as summer approaches.  Spirituality has no such scheme only a design for living and there is no risk of injury to boot.  

The Do Over

Penalties are assessed yards backwards.  Spirituality recognizes infractions but there is no penalty, only a chance for a do over. 

Who Are We?

The Male Composite: 

Spiritual/Physical/Emotional/Psychological

So we are not just idiots that stare at the TV screen during the winter on Sundays?

I Hate ESPN

It’s only May and they are talking about if Brett Favre will again suit up this year. Who cares about such nonsense here in New York?  Not many I bet except for ESPN who seem to have been short on stories today. 

The real football story starts this summer: Spirituality With Football Rules.  ESPN might not be there but you can. 

Summer is Nigh

Summer's coming and even though we are totally immersed in baseball our minds start to think about weekends in front of the TV.  I want you to start thinking that football and spirituality have much in common.

End Over End

End over end it sails and as we hold our collective breaths we wonder in those few seconds if it will be good or no good.  The tapestry of spirituality blankets us when we are in doubt of the outcome and if it is “no good” we can breathe deep and kick it again. 

Pages Upon Pages

The book of football rules has 208 pages in its hard cover form.   Spirituality has been written about in many thousands of pages it’s time we read a few of them.  

Hold on Loosely

When we carry the football we carry it with the firmest grip possible, lest it get knocked from our possession and into the hands of our opponent. 

Spirituality on the other hand can be carried quite loosely and if someone knocks it from our grasp we won’t mind because we will still have it.

Without Air

The football has to be properly inflated for the quarterback to throw a successful completion to its intended receiver but spirituality requires no such “air” it only needs an intention and with that it carries a guaranteed reception. 

The NFL draft is this week’s sensation on all the sports networks and talk radio programs.  We get festive about who might be going where. While spirituality sits and never gets picked up in the first round.  

15 Yard Penalty

Rules were made to be broken, but in football rarely do they go unpenalized. Spirituality on the other hand has no rules but we seem to think we are breaking them nonetheless.  

The Extra Point

Football games can test our patience when our team drops too many passes. Spirituality allows us to drop many passes and catching but one is all we need to give us patience with the extra point of tolerance. 

What do you think?

I have started my third book its called Spirituality with Football Rules.  It will be a small hard cover with a pullout gridiron and erasable field and scoreboard.  I will put  in the back pages for a diary and a place for refillable pages    What do you think ?

The Spiral

In football a pass doesn’t have to be a spiral to be caught. In spirituality any kind of pass will bring a first down.

Football, Religion and Spirituality

Football is like religion to some of us men.  But unlike religion spirituality doesn’t have to be practiced only on the Sabbath. But rather whenever we let the spirit move us. 

Spirit is Willing

When the spirit is willing but the mind won’t cooperate Spirituality With Football Rules will keep us in bounds one yard at a time.

Football Rules?

Football Rules! But Spirituality you can’t pass up. 

Ethereal

Football Rules are concrete but still subject to interpretation at times.  Spirituality is ethereal and subject to interpretation from individual to individual.  Football Rules are rarely changed and it takes almost an act of Congress to change but even one of them.  Spirituality is changing all the time and most of us don’t seem to know even how to approach it let alone know what the rules are. 

One Goal A Second Chance at the Real Life

 The football handbook for prayer and spirituality contains a 'grid iron' to mark our daily progress and a 'scorecard' to track our standings week to week.  In order to make the 'playoffs' in this 'league' we merely need to have a winning record.  We compete daily against the self we are leaving behind. Our adversary will continue to 'score' we have to be prepared for that.  Old habits aren't 'tackled' easily and we still 'penalize' ourselves by 'holding' onto familiar run patterns that our competition throws at us.

Hot Dogs and Steak

Football and Spirituality don’t go together like a horse and carriage but neither is a steak like a hot dog but they both are a meaty propositions. 

Velcro

Some guys need gloves to catch a football, not spirituality it sticks like Velcro.

The QB Drops Back and

Spirituality goes out for a pass and...............

Catch as Catch Can

Like a football you can catch spirituality as well.

Football & Spirituality

They don't go together like a horse and carriage but this summer we can explore the rules of engagement. 

Spirituality With Football Rules

Coming this Summer