The Tiniest of GladiatorsWritten by Rick Beneteau
I stared into those biggest of navy blue eyes and felt power of his fighting spirit, despite pain and week long raging fever. Most of time my heart was in my throat and my mind was awash with counter-productive thoughts like, "why him?" and "this isn't fair!"This wasn't helping him to be sure (my daughter was much stronger than I), but in spite, he not only survived arduous ordeal, but he emerged victor! I am talking about my infant grandson, Corbin Nicolas, clobbered with a serious infection of lymph glands. This tiniest of gladiators toughed out what few adults could have and not only amazed his wonderful pediatrician and hospital staff, but I feel profoundly and positively impacted them. My precious bundle of joy is not a superhuman little being. He is simply a child, like any other, who knows no different than to fight fight and win! Now I ask you: what if YOU knew NO other way than to just go out and win? Well, that's how true achievers of this world think 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Further, it is lack of this thinking process that is most often sole difference between success and failure. When failure is perceived as a possibility, it will most likely become your reality. However, when we envision success as only option, just as natural as gravity itself, success is achieved. Not without sacrifice. Not without setbacks. And certainly not without pain. But, it IS achieved!
| | The Muffed DanceWritten by Rick Beneteau
Teri was 5. As younger siblings do, she looked up to her older sister, dancer, in a big way. Sara was 4 years older and was excelling in ballet, tap and jazz.So we enrolled Teri in same dance school and she really seemed to enjoy lessons and her new friends. She was now, of course, a dancer, like her sister. And Teri very much looked forward to climax of her first dance season, year-end dance recital this school put on. If you’ve ever been a dance parent, you of course realize that obligation is quite large. Aside from weekly lessons, scheduled on different days in our case, there is extra investment of time and money preparing for ‘big event’ - extra lessons and rehearsals, fittings for completely different head-to-toe costume required for each dance number and a parents meeting for each dancer to make sure everyone was on same stage come recital night. Baseball parents have it easy! As fate would have it, Teri had surgery to lengthen her heel cord a few weeks prior to her dancing debut. But that didn’t stop her from lugging around heavy cast trying keep up with other performers. That’s my girl! The big night arrives and in a flurry of hurried activity, we deliver our girls backstage complete with special hair do’s and a full coat of stage war paint and we take our seats in auditorium. The place darkens, curtain rises and show begins with performances of some of advanced students. They beam with pride showing off stuff they had worked so hard on all year long. Two of Sara’s dances were slated and as always, she didn’t miss a step. Then, to “ahhhh, aren’t they cute”’s of packed house, curtain lifts to reveal Teri’s class of little tykes all in a line looking nervously around under bright lights. At one end of line was Teri, with her bulky cast in plain view and her hands tucked in white muff in starting position for “the Muff Dance.”
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