Two Thoughts on Life

Robert Redford and Rob Reiner were two of my favorite actors turned directors.  They both passed away in the last 4 months of  2025 and as a result I've been thinking about them and their work.  Yesterday, quite by accident, a movie quote popped into my mind.  I could not place the movie at first, so I googled it and soon this scene was on my phone.

 

 

This quote from The Natural, although said to Redford's Roy Hobbs rather than by him,   informs and leads  the protagonist to the decisions that makes up the film's climax.

Thinking of Redford naturally made me think of Reiner. Thinking of Reiner led to thinking of the Princess Bride, which led me to this brief scene.  

In reviewing the context of both of these scenes, the hard fact that life is painful cannot be denied.   Both characters were denied (albeit temporarily)  true love due to circumstances beyond their control. The quotes are both delivered to their respective true loves when at each point of the film a happily ever after doesn't seem to be in the cards.  

Hope and bitterness both carry transformative powers.  The concept of hope in the line "the life you learn with, and the life you live with" says to me, yes life is pain, but much like pain you endure in a fire swamp you can learn from that pain.  Thinking that life is only pain can create a bitterness that is hard to overcome.  I am glad  that the 4 characters depicted in these scenes found their happy endings.  When I think of Redford and Reiner and all the stories they told through their acting and directing, it makes me sad that their lives have ended (especially in the tragic way Reiner's ended ) but glad that I am still learning about life through their work.  

Close Only Counts in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and placing 0-2 Notre Dame in the AP top 25

Today, is my last post of the year.  I originally started this one  September 14th after the AP writers release this, their 4th college poll of the year.  The University of Illinois was 3-0 and they got ranked 9th to show that,  The University of Tennessee was 2-1 having just lost 44-41 to the University of Georgia  in overtime so they were rewarded for their loss by staying put at 15th.  This may seem unfair to some of the 17 other teams along with U of I ranked in the AP top 25 who started 3-0  especially the 8 3-0 teams ranked below TN all because the Volunteers played the Bulldogs close.

However one team dropped inexplicably in the rankings and they certainly had a bigger axe to grind than the 3-0 teams who felt slighted by TN.  This team had started the year ranked 6th in the preseason poll .  The next week they dropped from 6th to 9th.  They had a bye week in week 2 so they were able to jump us from 9th to 8th but then the indignity of plummeting, freed falling, dropping from 9th to 24th.  

This of course was South Bend Indiana's gift to Football itself, Notre Dame.  What did Notre Dame do to deserve this national embarrassment?  Failure to achieve any of the goals they set for themselves?  No, I think that might just be too on the nose for the AP writers.  Notre Dame had lost their first game and then after 2 weeks to think about it lost their 2nd game.  Now, they only lost by a total of 4 points, so that was plenty of reason to place them above undefeated U.S.C. (who beat their 3 opponents by 115 points),  and BYU (+93 point differential in their 2 games). 

I mean that's crazy? How entitled can BYU get complaining thinking that their 2-0 start should be rewarded and place ahead of a team that could at that point  in the season  count all their victories with no hands.

I meant to get that out much sooner than today, but Notre Dame started winning and my original post got relegated to draft status.  I always like to resurrect a post or two from draft status near the end of the year and I thought the title of this post, alone, merited an end of the year reprieve.

Yesterday Illinois and Tennessee met for the first time on the gridiron in the music city bowl here are the highlights.

If The Playoffs Were Today + 7 Game WHYDFML Index Last Reg Season Week Edition

 4 weeks ago I made this post about a weekly feature I was introducing until the end of the football season.  As often happens on this blog, I did not deliver on the feature.  This was mostly due to situations beyond my control, so I won't dwell on them but will go ahead and pick up the segment where I left off.

With 1 week left in the regular season  here is the NFL Playoff Schedule if the Playoffs Began today...

AFC

1st Round Bye #1 Denver Broncos (+1 seed ) AFC West Division Champion (13-3) +16 

#7 Buffalo Bills (Same seed ) AFC Wild Card3 (11-5) +8 @ #2 New England Patriots (-1 seed since 12/2 AFC East  Division Champion (13-3) +18

#6 Los Angeles Chargers (-1 seed)  AFC Wild Card2 (11-5) +10  @ #3Jacksonville Jaguars (Same Seed) AFC South Division Champion (12-4) +28

# 5 Houston Texans  (Previously  unseeded)  AFC Wild Card 1 (11-5) +29 @ #4 Pittsburgh Steelers (Previously unseeded ) AFC North Division Champion (9-7) +4

NFC

1st Round Bye  #1 Seattle Seahawks  (+4 seeds) NFC West Division Champion (13-3) +26

#7 Green Bay Packers (-1 seed)  NFC Wild Card 1 (9-6-1) -8  @ #2 Chicago Bears -1 seed) AFC North Division Champion (11-5) +6

#6 Los Angeles Rams  (-4 seeds)  NFC Wild Card 2 (11-5) -4 @ #3 Philadelphia Eagles (Same seed)  NFC East Division Champion (11-5) +10

#5 San Francisco 49ers  (+2 seeds)  NFC Wild Card 1 (12-4) +26@ #4 Carolina Panthers  (Previously unseeded ) NFC South Division Champion (8-8) -4

Instant Analysis:  There is not a lot of movement expected or possible for outsiders looking in.The AFC North champion will be the winner of the Steelers Ravens game and the Tampa Buccaneers will only get in the playoffs if they beat the Carolina Panthers and the New Orleans Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons.  Otherwise, the Panthers win the NFC South.

I'll

Tom Howard / Randy Stonehill, live concert, December 30, 1978

Beltin' Melton The Bill Melton Story

Wes King on Bob Bennett

I found this message from Wes King in a FB chat room. It is from CCM musician Wes King about Bob Bennett.  Wes does end the post pass it on.  So I took this as permission to copy and paste it here:

Per my last post about the great Bob Bennett. 

I think, for some reason, that we get little glimpses of heaven here on earth. 

The obvious ones for me are my wedding, my kids being born, surviving cancer are big ones.
I do remember well, the first time I heard Bob Bennett. I lived in a little town in Georgia, Winder; there were no bookstores or music stores in my blessed hometown. I had to drive to Athens, GA to a place called The Carpenters Shop, I think. I would drive there every weekend to see if the Pat Terry Group had released anything new. I obviously had no idea how the music biz worked. I was simply starving for Jesus music. I would make the weekly 35 minute drive and would go and ask the cashier if Pat Terry had put anything out. He would do his best not to roll his eyes and say that, no, they haven't. 

So I would wonder as I wandered over to the music section and see if I could spend the $9.99 in my pocket on something else. I was as curmudgeonly back then as I am now about music, so often I would come home ten bucks richer minus a penny. 

That is how I found Bob Bennett. I must have been around 16, maybe 17, because I was getting pretty good at guitar. I put on his record in my room and I knew there was a heaven. I can still see the glossy wood floors of my bedroom and the chest my record player sat on. I put that record on and I was alive.

I was more alive after the first song. 

I was intrigued. The lyrics were captivating, his voice was butter, his guitar was... what the heck was HE DOING!!! QUICK, WHERE'S MY GUITAR. WAIT, I CAN'T PLAY THAT, WHAT KIND OF FREAK IS THIS? WHO IS THIE GUY? WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD OF HIM YET? 

Footsteps in the Garden changed my life. 

It changed the way I play guitar. This guy is a unique talent that only a few people fall in, in my opinion.
I won't tell you who I think doesn't fall into this category, but I will a few who I think do.
(I have other categories, btw, but this is the singer, songwriter, poet, philosopher category),
Here is a sampling of those for me.
Mark Heard.
Pat Terry.
Well, it kind of stops there for me. 

So many songs of his I love. One that was mentioned was Mountain Cathedrals. 

One of my favorites. I got to sing in a few amazing cathedrals in my day. Bob's song was ringing in my head as I played.
As an artist, Bob is a cathedral to me. His music is a beauty clothed in humility and brokenness.

As much as we all hate facebook, and are freaked out by the big brother thing that is happening. It was a Facebook post that made me go down memory lane and remember a slice of heaven in this poor fallen world. 

Oh, and I agree with the post that someone mentioned about Andrew Peterson. Listen to his new song Is He Worthy, maybe you will think of heaven with me. 

Pass it on.

I added all the music referenced from Spotify.