Between Jest and Earnest

The God Show Ep. 5 Religion in Sports with Professor Arthur Remillard.

It is WAY easier to interview than to be interviewed.

It's also easier to hear yourself as the interviewer.

All that being said, my conversation with veteran broadcaster Pat McMahon was positively delightful. Before we started recording, we had the chance to talk. I was nothing short of impressed by how prepared he was. He knew exactly where Saint Francis University is, and he even knew one of our most noted basketball players--Maurice Stokes.

He had also taken the time to read my blog, which only slightly horrified me. After referencing my review of Jesus Christ Superstar , he indicated that he had sent it along to his "personal friend" Alice Cooper.

Oops...

No mean tweets from the the Godfather of Shock Rock yet.

Anyway...

I cringed a few times listening to myself, wanting to go back and revise some of my answers. I also picked up on my own series of verbal ticks. "Well that's a great quest…

Get Off My (Snow-Covered) Lawn!

My irrational weather-related anger is getting worse.

I was pretty ranty back on the first day of spring, when snow covered the ground as well as my hopes for sunshine and happiness.

I cheered (emphatically) when learning that the Monroe County Sheriff's Office filed an arrest warrant for a certain weather-predicting rodent.

Alas, the snow has kept falling into the early days of April.

So it's time to take this up a notch.

Saturday mornings are my standard time for long runs. But this Saturday morning, I awoke to a fresh coat of snow on the ground and twenty degree temperatures.

If this was January, I would actually be excited. You read that right--excited. In my decades of running, some of my favorite memories are of long runs in the winter. My ideal winter run is one where the white snow glistens from the sunlight, while the darkened roads are clear and open for business. The cold crisp air is refreshing, life-affirming.

I really love these sorts of runs. In January.

In Apr…

Writing Alone, Writing Together

Say it out loud. To people. Live humans, not just digital ones, who will help keep you accountable (but not in a judgy way).

This was my Michael Pollan-ish advice to a group of colleagues for maintaining a steady writing schedule during the semester. As a group, we all face similar challenges when it comes to writing. While summer and Christmas break might give us blocks of time, it's far more difficult to keep the scholarly fires burning during the term with classes, committees, and everything else.

My particular advice stemmed from my own experience of committing to write 30 minutes a day for 30 days. When I announced it to friends, family, and Twitter, my internal commitment went "out there." Suddenly, I had that necessary nudge on days when finding those 30 minutes was the last thing I wanted to do.

Because writing is hard. But writing can be rewarding.

Never once did I finished my 30 minutes and regret it. In this way, it's quite like running. There are morning…

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