Believe Yourself

 I had recent opportunity to tell someone to BELIEVE YOURSELF. This is not believe IN yourself. This is a very different and (to me) ultimately more important nuance.

Believing IN yourself, to me, connotes that you believe you are capable of something. You believe you can run the distance, complete the work, get on stage, play the music. Perhaps summed up by "perform". You believe you can perform.

Believing yourself, without the little word "in" implies, instead, integrity. This means when you tell yourself "I tried", do you believe yourself? Or are you hedging? It is often said (perhaps to the point of annoying cliché) that all that can be asked is that you gave it your best. 

So. Believe yourself, do not doubt yourself. Tell yourself you tried or did your best - if you believe it, then you did. If you have doubts or come up with excuses, you are doubting yourself, not believing. Perhaps you have not earned "I tried". Perhaps you need to try again, more honestly this time.

If you DO believe yourself, well done! Keep it up. Always put yourself in the position to believe yourself.

Come and see.

Over the course of my life (so far, may I live long and prosper...) I have seen politics go from contentious to violently caustic. I do intend to keep speaking my mind, but one of the things that surprises me is that I believe politics has actually passed religion in its ability to incite reflexive, blind, toxic behavior. 

This does not mean religion does not cause arguments. 

I am not a traditional Christian. I would not be accepted by any of the major sects, my beliefs have actually caused volatile arguments with people who have spoken to me about them. I have little use for religious institutions, but religion itself? I consider myself a very spiritual man. 

That said, this series called The Chosen is smashing all my assumptions, all my fears, and astounds me. I may not be a movie fanatic, or a TV hound, but I have seen my share of masterpieces from Hitchcock to Avengers, Law & Order to M.A.S.H., Spielberg, Abrams, even Cameron. There is an almost unfair magic in the technical ability of a movie - sometimes horrifying stories are made more compelling by their production quality.

The Chosen is so well produced I think it is now my benchmark for the craft of film. It is the story of the disciples of Jesus. While you cannot help but put Jesus at the center of his story, it is the lives of the people around him who were affected, from followers to enemies, from Sanhedrin to Roman - you can really feel what it must have been like to face challenges in that era and what an impact Jesus had. 

The Chosen is free to watch. There is an app for mobile devices and a website (https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen) where you can stream everything. It is 100% crowdsourced, with no compulsion to donate. 

I have never needed so many boxes of Kleenex.

22-23 Boston Bruins

 THE BRUINS GOT FREAKING ELIMINATED IN THE FIRST ROUND!!!

Okay. Phew. Got that out of my system. Terribly frustrating (especially for a fan who lives just outside of Miami - tip, the team that eliminated the Bruins is from Miami) but it is what it is. I think I know why they lost, but not going to dwell on that unless asked.

This season the Bruins busted through just about every positive team record on the 99-year NHL books. It was a magical year to be a Bruins' fan. 65 wins. 135 points. Our two goalies had (obviously) spectacular years. The team was a team and heartwarming to watch. 

If you'd asked me, at the start of the season (with two key players out recovering from surgery) if I'd rather have the historic regular season they were going to have, or win the Stanley Cup this year, I would have to admit I'd rather have the historic 65 wins across seven months with record after record smashed. The Stanley Cup is more important in any given season, but not compared to this achievement.

Of course, I wouldn't have wanted it to be an either/or. 

If asked, I suppose I'd kind of like to see the Toronto Maple Leafs take it this year. I like Austin Matthews (possibly because he looks so much like Freddie Mercury) and it would be neat for a Canadian team to win. I also like the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and though I absolutely loathe the Carolina Hurricanes (ironic as I will be moving to their territory) I wouldn't mind them getting the Cup out of their system this year. 

Plenty of other teams to like, though none of them are my Bruins. 

See you next season, boys. 

A Round Dozen

Well here it is. Twelve years later. 

It's certainly not as though there wasn't stuff worthy of blogging. It did seem as though a lot of effort went into a very personally cathartic exercise that almost nobody was going to see (though, thankfully, those that did were important!)

Anyway, instead of "catching up" here is a summary:

I'm now 54. I live in South Florida (Boca Raton) though that is going to change shortly.

I own a boat. I guess I did during this blog - I'll have to check the posts to see if that boat showed up anywhere. I bought her only a few days ago and I intend to live aboard by September of this year (2023).

My profile is still applicable, I still like all those things.

I hope to change my format to shorter, observational posts. Some may still be directly political, but I'm hopeful most of my posts will be about living aboard a boat, the games and friends I have (I'll keep it ambiguous so as not to give away personal information), family (I am a grandfather now! Though not for a full year yet), and my favorite team, the Boston Bruins. 

I don't know who is still monitoring this blog 12 years later. I certainly haven't been following anyone personal, though I do like Bill Whittle and subscribe to his website. Maybe I'll meet him some day.

I'm not even sure the name will still work. I am Chameleon on here (my brother was kind enough to suggest that is my spirit animal or guide or both, and I've liked it - maybe I'll have one on the boat!) but the login account seems to have changed - was blogger.com always a Google property or did they get bought while I was gone?

Let's see how this goes and put a few more posts up.