Friendship

What qualities make good friends?

I asked this question to both of my 5th grade classes yesterday and both came up with the same answers:

1. Loyalty
2. Honesty
3. Respect
4. Trustworthiness

When I asked what they meant their answers were:

"Loyalty means sticking up for me when somebody else says mean things about me."
"Loyalty means staying friends even after we have an argument."

"Honesty means telling me the truth - even if the truth makes me feel bad."

"Respect is, um, really complicated."
"Respect means not being mean."
"Respect means treating other people like I want them to treat me."

"Trustworthiness means doing what you say you're going to do."
"Trustworthiness means keeping private conversations private."
"Trustworthiness means not talking about me behind my back."
"Trustworthiness means not saying bad things about me just to stay friends with somebody else."

When we started talking about trust, it seemed like everybody had something to say. Without any prompting from me (though I did try to help clarify things), it was apparent that the kids felt that this was the most important quality for a friend to have. In fact, the the first thing a friendship has to have, they felt, is trust. If you have trust, everything else will follow.

What People Think

I have a friend who has a mental illness called Agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is fear of open places.

She is especially afraid to go to places that are unfamiliar or crowded. She is very reluctant to go anywhere she's never been and refuses to get into an elevator or onto a bus. For 18 years, her agoraphobia was so bad that she could not go more than a block away from her house.

Her therapist told her that there were two causes to her problem:

1. A feeling that she needed to control everything around her in order to feel safe.

2. A deep rooted fear about what other people thought of her.

My friend is a little better now, but the lesson for you is: There are a lot of things in life that you cannot control, especially what other people think of you. If you worry about this too much, it can literally drive you crazy.

Inspiration by Perspiration

Two of my nieces, Haley (left, above) and Kristin (right), are into Rock Band and Guitar Hero (the wii versions).


They were also into "High School Musical" and used to spend hours each day singing the songs from that musical. In fact, they were so excited about that show that they convinced their parents to cut short a vacation in Hawaii just so they could get home in time to see the premier of the show on TV.



Anyway, knowing that they enjoyed such things, I gave them a copy of the 08 Park School dance dvd that we made in PE.

They liked it. Now, instead of singing songs from some Disney Channel thing, they run around singing "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" and "Barbie Girl". It's driving my brother crazy.

A True Olympian

From the extraordinary Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt (never have I seen two athletes make setting world records seem so easy) to the incredible, almost telepathic teamwork of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, to the chance to see games you otherwise never see (team handball, badminton, table tennis) and the pure joy of an unknown athlete winning a medal nobody expected them to win (like the guy from the tiny island nation of Tonga winning a bronze medal in whitewater kayaking), the 2008 Summer Olympics have been full of memorable moments. The one person I will remember most from this Olympics, however, is Shawn Johnson.


Shawn Johnson is, of course, an American gymnast. She is an exceptional athlete, as the 5 medals she won will attest, but I'll remember her because she seems like an even better person.

Upon her arrival in Beijing, Johnson was asked how she felt to be there. Instead of talking about how excited or scared she was, she talked about her coach, who is Chinese.

With a huge smile on her face, she said, "It was really cool to be in the Beijing airport and hear him speak Chinese."

"It means I worked hard enough to get him back to his hometown."

Later, during the team competition, the US would lose an intense, hard fought competition to China due, in part, to two critical mistakes by the US team captain, Alicia Sacramone.

After her routine, Sacramone sat by herself, fighting hard not to cry. Johnson sat with her and took her hand.


"It's okay," said Johnson, "we love you no matter what,"

Sacramone is 20. Johnson is 16, but wise and poised beyond her years.

After the individual all-around competition in which she won a silver medal behind her teammate Nastia Liukin, Johnson would only talk about how proud and happy she was for Liukin. When asked what she would say to all the aspiring gymnasts back in the US, she said:

"Follow your heart."

Words to live by from a person seems to have it figured out.

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You Are What You Eat?

Michael Phelps has won 5 gold medals and set 5 world record at the Beijing Olympics and he still has 3 races left. He's one of the world's greatest athletes. So what does he eat? A really healthy, carefully chosen diet? No.

In an NBC interview, Phelps said that his typical day was spent "Eating, swimming and sleeping". He eats "mostly pasta and pizza". When the Olympics are over, he's probably "going to McDonald's."


Phelps eats at least 8000 calories a day (an average adult male should eat about 2500 calories)

A typical breakfast: three fried egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions, and mayo, one five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast with powdered sugar, three chocolate chip pancakes, and two cups of coffee.



So, if you really like high cholesterol, high fat, high calorie foods and want to be able to eat them without fear or heart disease or getting fat, all you have to do is swim about 8 miles per day...

PE Games You Can See in the Olympics

First of all, did anyone see the Opening Ceremonies? Incredible....

Anyway, the Olympics give American viewers a chance to see world class competitors playing games not normally shown on TV. Two examples are Team Handball and Badminton. In case you think that these games are only played in PE (you'll play both of these games at MVMS), try to catch one of these games on TV. They're usually broadcast in the morning or mid-day.



Today I saw a womens team handball game between Hungary and Brazil. Very enjoyable. The game ended in a 29-29 tie after Hungary scored its final goal on a penalty shot with one second left in the game.

Badminton is fun to watch too. It's a very fast paced game. Even though the court is very small, the players work really hard to cover it - they end up drenched in sweat!