Coach Jose

Let me take a moment to explain my awe with Coach Jose. Coach Jose is my son's T-Ball coach. T-Ball, remember that? 5 year-olds and 6 year-olds (with a couple of 4's thrown in just to keep it interesting) on a ball field spinning around, kicking dirt in the infield, pulling up grass in the outfield, poking each other, and watching baseballs rolling by them.

If it's a boy or girl's first year, they know nothing about the game, especially if they have a non-baseball dad like me. They have few skills and a six-minute...tops...attention span.

Coach Jose has a background coaching baseball, real baseball, I think, high school kids. He is very knowledgeable. He told us he had never coached little kids before. Over the past several weeks, I have watched Coach Jose do drills, run bases, and explain the game to these kids. He is ever so patient. He goes over and over the fundamentals. Most of them don't remember. They will drill for an hour: catch the  ball..step...point...throw it to first base. The next practice, they have to start all over again except for maybe one or two that have a vague memory of doing something like that last week. Coach Jose doesn't get upset, he simply starts over again...catch...step...point...throw. I honestly don't know how he does it. It seems like somewhere deep inside he is 100% confident that each of those kids is going to get it, going to be a star, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

I get so agitated when people don't get it...when I don't get it. I have been on this spiritual path for so long and yet I feel like i never even get the basics down. I screw up, I don't pay attention. Then I look around at those I lead and, I hate to say, I get even more frustrated. "C'mon! We have gone over this time and again and it still hasn't sunk in even a bit!"

For myself and my fellow sojourners, I am going to follow my new idol, Coach Jose. "Alright Yankees, let's do it again: catch...step...point..throw"