Men's Night Out -- Recap -- Dr. Jerry Punch

Men's Night Out last night was a great success based on feedback from those who had the opportunity to attend. For those unable to attend, here is a brief re-cap of the nights events.

Marty Velas graciously hosted the event at Calhoun's in Bearden. Marty also offered samples of his beverages and gave us an overview of the science behind beer making. Marty relies on his technical background as an aeronautical engineer to assist him in his passion. MASH is working with Marty and his generous offer to have another Men's Night Out related to the history and making of beer.

Jerry Punch led the group of over 30 MASH members in a discussion about sports. Jerry's focus was discussing the many often untold stories in sports. The stories were not focused on a great play or great athlete or on an athlete being arrested or using performing enhancing drugs. No, instead Jerry told many stories of people overcoming struggles, demonstrations of faith and courage, humility and the virtue of sports which is often lost in today's coverage. Jerry had great stories from the likes of June Jones, Lee Corso, Brian Piccolo and many others. These stories touched on the men behind the sport, what they stood for and how they demonstrated true faith in sport.

One great example Jerry discussed was the Rudy Awards. This award is given annually to recognize character, courage, contribution and committment in college football. This years winner was Drew Combs from TCU. Drew was born with a left arm that ended at the elbow and yet he started on special teams at TCU. His story and those of the other finalist can be found at http://www.rudyawards.com/. I would suggest you check this out.

After reflecting upon Jerry's discussion it really left me rather surprised. Surprised that so many stories that Jerry highlighted and remembered really had little to do with a great pass or play but rather with relationships, faith and character. As we are often swept away into the world of crazed fanatacism and frenzy related to wins and losses, I would encourage us all to reflect on the true virtue of sports and why we encourage our children to play sports. Is it to get to the next level, or is it to gain some insight and knowledge into the human spirit? Is it to win a championship, or to become a true champion in life? Is it to become the message, or simply be a messenger of God's word? Not only for our children, but we could also ask the same questions and reflect upon our own lives, our own business, and our spiritual life?

Fr. Al recommended a book to me that I shared last night and I would encourage you to check out. It is called "The Book of Sports Virtues: Portraits from the field of play" by Fritz Knapp. This book utilizes great athletes in the past and highlights the virtues that each represents. You can find it on Amazon or at the Paraclete I believe.

I would also recommend Tony Dungy's book, Quiet Strength. Tony talks about his Christian beliefs and how they helped him throughout his coaching and personal life. Tony also highlights some interesting NFL statistics that I shared last night such as;
***Sixty-five percent of NFL players leave the game with permanent injuries.
***Twenty-five percent of NFL players report financial difficulties within the first year of retirement.
***Fifty percent of failed NFL marriages occur in the first year after retirement.
***Seventy-eight percent of NFL players are unemployed, bankrupt, or divorced within two years of retirement.
***The suicide rate for retired NFL players is six times greater than the national average.

Pretty startling numbers....

So as we think of sports and our own children, I asked Jerry what he would recommend for Dad's today. Jerry's response, was simply to allow the kids to "have fun, enjoy sports, and stop pushing them so hard."

Thanks to all who attended and special thanks to Marty Velas and Dr. Jerry Punch.

March for Life

Today is March for Life in Washington DC. Here is a picture sent to me by my daughter who went with several buses of kids from Catholic High.

Her text message said,

"It's awesome."

Welcome and Tour

Gents,

Here is another tool to help us spread the work of MASH and to engage our fellow men in discussion related to anything and everything related to fatherhood, spirituality, sports, etc....

I hope you find this a helpful site and please feel free to send any good books, sites etc.. and we can add them to our links.

Here is a brief tour of this blog page.
First, this is the section where posts by hopefully a variety of authors will be posted. These posts will be topics with any and all relevance to being Christian men and fathers. If you have ideas or topics you would like to write or see please let us know.
Below the posts, you will see "comments." Just click this and a pop up will allow you to add and/or read comments.

To the left, we have our disclaimer, that we are here to inform, express opinions but they should be taken as our own. Below the disclaimer we have several addition items.
Links -- click on these and they will take you away from our page and to the websites listed. We will try to update this list as we come across new helpful sites. Check them out..
Recommended Reads -- we will try to change/add to this list frequently. Got a good back please send on.
News/Pray -- this is fed to the blog by Notre Dame with daily prayer/readings.
Add MASH Blog -- this will allow you to receive any new posts on your home page ie my yahoo. Not sure how that works but pretty cool.
Archive -- check out all old postings and comments.

Finally at the bottom of the page, you will see our upcoming events which we will keep updated. Also, you will see our mission statement to continually remind us not to veer off course.

I hope you find this blog helpful. I would love any comments or suggestions.

Peace and Goodness to you and your families

Mick Connors