Connections
Don MacGillivray, who is on the board of Street Roots (see post below), sent me a link to this Renée Mitchell article from today’s Oregonian. It talks about the Arbor Mobile Home Park in the Cully neighborhood, covered here on my blog. Renée tells how Dana Barbarick, her family, and her church have helped the residents of the park – illustrating that there are already many good synergistic relationships between Neighborhood Associations and other citizens and groups within the community …. even before Mayor Potter’s “Community Connect” project issues its findings on how to further enhance these partnerships. Renée also mentions Dana’s recent battle with cancer, quoting her as saying, “It was an eye-opener, a wake-up call that said, ‘Wow, life is short, and I need to be living life at its fullest and not be waiting for things to happen.'”
Dana Barbarick’s husband, Brad, is the men’s basketball coach at Concordia University. He is the director of Rip City Hoop Camp, teaching boys and girls both basketball skills and work ethics. For many years, this day-camp was the highlight of my sons’ summers. And Coach Barbarick taught them much more than how to set a screen, or bend the knees while taking free throws.
The following is part of an essay Maxwell wrote for his application to Princeton:
in knowing that you did your best
to become the best that you are capable of becoming”
“When I was eight years old, the director of my summer basketball camp offered a free McDonald’s cheeseburger to any camper who could recite these words back to him at the end of the day. From speed multiplication tables to slam dunk contests, I have never been one to turn down a challenge. I was not sure at the time what the quotation actually meant, but the burger was delicious.”
“That was certainly not the last time knowledge of this quotation proved beneficial. I used to base my entire philosophy of sports, and of life, on the premise that a win means success and a loss means failure. It is easier to avoid challenging an entrenched method of thinking regardless of how blatantly it conflicts with the truth, but true peace of mind requires more than that. Instead of declaring Wooden’s advice to be a worthless cliché from a poor motivational speech, I have learned that doing so would be stubbornly clinging to a flawed ideology. There is far more depth to success than two numbers on a scoreboard.”
Or whether the vote at Council goes 3-2, or 2-3. Sometimes, success isn’t even surviving cancer, it is what you do with your life after that, connecting with people around you. I love seeing connections between people in Portland.