John Wooden

This weekend I ran 17 miles and finished two books. Not a bad toll for a hot summer weekend. The last mile I ran seemed to be a steady and steep uphill for more than half the way. And at that point in my run the sun was completely out and it seemed like the heat was starting to get to me.

Anyways, thefirst book I fnished this weekend was Jesse: the Man who Outran Hitler. My recommendation of the book still stands, although people who are hostile to Christianity or religion might not like it.

That caveat goes for the second book I finished this weekend: Wooden : a lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court. Now, Wooden was a good book and it's clear Wooden was a great coach and an even better man. But he's not quite the character that Lou Holtz is. That's part of Wooden's philosophy though. Being a character can be counter-productive sometimes. One thing he said that made sense was how we can never be perfect. We really can't give 110 or 120 percent. We almost never give 100 percent. But we can get as close to 100 percent as we possibly can. For Wooden, that's what winning really is. Sometimes you win even though you get outscored, he said. I'm not sure I completely agree with that. But his point holds true: there's absolutely no shame in losing to someone who is better than you if you gave your all and the other person simply has more talent.