On a cold, dark evening in November 1974, a football team gathered in the basement of Faith Lutheran Church in Excelsior to celebrate the first undefeated season in the history of the Minnetonka Athletic
Association Football Program.  (It’s now apparently known as the “Lake Minnetonka Athletic Association).   The team was the 6th Grade “Vikings” coached by Dan Lagieski and Jerry Bruner.  This team was a surprise champion because it had only 17 boys and as far as anyone knew, the coaches were both rookies.  Coaches Dan and Jerry drilled the team, drilled them again, and again until the team was really the proverbial well-oiled machine.  There were some close games but when the season was over, the Minnetonka “Vikings” were undefeated and untied.

On the evening of the banquet, one of the fathers had organized a surprise for the boys.  The captains of our Minnetonka High School football team attended the banquet and spoke to the boys and parents.  I’m sure they were introduced by name at the time, but I didn’t learn and remember their names until a few years later.  What I do remember, and really  the only thing about that evening I remember clearly, is something the handsome blond-haired captain said.  The last thing this gentleman said to us was simply:

“Never give up.”

One of my close friends and mentors has often said that the real definition of integrity is simply, Continue reading →

The window exploded in a spectacular visual cacophony of light as the planet and its twin moons broke out of it’s solunar eclipse cycle right before his eyes.  It had been nearly a year since Colonel Chris Smisson had departed his homeworld on this solo exploration of the galaxy and, while he had seen many exciting and interesting things in his travels thus far, the cosmic dawn he witnessed this day from his vantage point in high orbit was like nothing like he had ever imagined.

The view from the spacecraft took his breath away.  In a matter of seconds, he left the cold, darkness of night where he had been shielded from the bright light of the sun powering this solar system.  The planet he orbited had matching twin satellite moons in precisely opposing orbits.  Their orbits were aligned in such a way that the beginning of each lunar cycle was characterized by one moon being illuminated by the light of the sun and casting a shadow of itself upon the planet below while the other moon was cloaked in darkness, it’s light being eclipsed not only by the planet it orbited, but by its sister moon as well.

The planet itself was a rich range of greens, speckled with small blue spots which Chris theorized indicated a rich variety of flora, watered by the many small round lakes he could see from orbit.  The moons seemed to be copies of the planet they patrolled, each with a rich green color and many visible lakes dotting the landscape.  It was as if someone had placed three giant marbles in outer space, two small ones orbiting one “shooter.”

Chris had just finished remarking to himself about the beauty of the terrain below when the light show began.  As the moons each cleared their respective horizons, light from the sun reflected off the lakes and shone on the other two heavenly bodies.  He imagined he could actually follow the rays of light on their first voyages from one moon, to the planet below, and back to the moon again.  Somehow, all the rays of light combined to create a multi-spectral elliptic halo around the formations, encasing the planets, moons, and the perfectly symmetrical beams of light inside it. Continue reading →