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A true miracle.

The autistic young man who was lost for over a week was found on the last search operation of the night on the last day of searching. What an unbelievable story.

Congratulations to all the searchers, what a great job you did. Thousands of man hours were devoted to finding Mr. Kennedy and everyone who searched should feel proud of what they did.

It is cliche to talk about how people come together in times of crisis, but cliches become that because they are true. And it is true that hundreds of people came together to find a helpless man get out of a life-threatening situation.

Today’s game could’ve gone better for the Grantsburg Honkers; they dropped it 4-0 to the Haugen Knights in a bit of a pitcher’s duel, but that’s not what I want to write about today. It was also the first Honkers game that I’ve been able to broadcast on the radio.

I played one season with the Honkers about three years ago and it was a blast. I am not very good at baseball, but that didn’t stop them from throwing me out there at third base. I had plenty of errors and some good plays. I struck out a bunch, but a couple solid hits. I remember some plays, but most have been lost in the cloud of the history of my life.

The things I do remember…

…the feeling I got putting on the uniform before the game. The ritual for me goes back to when I first started playing ball in third grade. My dad taught me how to turn the pants inside out and how to put them on so that my socks wouldn’t fall down. The uniform made me feel like a big-leaguer, even just for a moment. And yes, even as a twenty-something, I felt that.

…the sound of a wood bat crisply cutting the ball in half. That distinct sound can transport you to a different place, maybe it is a preview of heaven. You are sharing a treat with those legends from the past and the boys of summer of today.

… the personalities of the guys. The jokes and goofing around (generally not repeatable for a G-rated blog) will bring a smile to my face for years.

I can understand why those guys keep going. The Honkers have been in existence for about ten years now and in the beginning, it wasn’t the winning that kept them going out there. It was the intangibles of the game. Ted Gerber, Dan Hinrichs and Ben Peterson have been there from the inception and they are still going strong.

If you haven’t experienced a Honkers game, I suggest you make your way down to Peper field some summer afternoon and watch those guys play.

Every small town has their thing. Siren has their Lilac Festival, Luck has Lucky days. Grantsburg has Big Gust days.

Big Gust is a true legend in Grantsburg. His statue can be seen along Pine Street and he’ll talk to you if you push the button.

I visited his grave site for the first time in my life today. I won’t say it was a super emotional thing, but it was pretty neat to be standing over that legend. His grave is marked by a simple stone, nothing above the ground, nothing gaudy or eye catching; just a head stone that simply read:

Anders Anderson

1872-1926

“Big Gust”.

It was an interesting moment as I turned my head to the left I caught a glimpse of another headstone. As I walked over to this headstone, which was situated about twenty feet away on the opposite side of the road; I couldn’t help but think of the poetry of the situation. I was soon standing in front of the headstone of another legend of Grantsburg; it was that of Carlyle Sherstad.

Carlyle was another guy that could have a festival named after him someday. He already has a 5k race named after him, which, fittingly, is run on the Saturday of Big Gust Weekend, and the track is dedicated in his name at the High School.

Carlyle was born in 1921 and passed away in 1998. He was five years old when Big Gust died. It makes me wonder what Carlyle must have thought of Gustav Anderson (assuming Carlyle was around Grantsburg all his life). It also makes me wonder who the next legend of Grantsburg might be. Who is making a difference in the community like these two pillars have?

We started our first soccer experience this year with our 5 year old daughter. I was surprised to find out that they don’t keep score at all, at this age it’s not a huge deal. My question is, at what age do they start keeping score? My 5 year old pays attention to how many games of Candy Land she wins, so it’s not a lack of a competitive edge for the age. I am a strong supporter of good sportsmanship and positive cheering, but I also strongly believe that competition helps drive us to improve. It teaches us how to win and lose gracefully and can be a good lesson in self-control when we don’t like the outcome of our game. I worry that when everything is “for fun” we settle for mediocrity in skill and that we don’t teach our kids at a young age that things don’t always go our way; that sometimes, someone else comes out on top. I believe that sports are an excellent place to teach our kids how to deal with the frustration of losing and to teach them how to celebrate positively without “hot-dogging”. I’ve found that I have to start teaching my kids things early; listening the first time, using please and thank you, and being kind to other people; so it makes me think that learning the art of winning and losing graciously should be taught early also.

I have really enjoyed our first year of soccer and am glad that at the U6 level it is fairly laid-back and unstructured. I hope to see that as the kids get older part of the fun includes some competition and teaching our kids how to be good winners and good losers.