Van Halen’s second Sammy Hagar-sung album, OU812, opens up with a song titled “Mine All Mine” that pokes critically at culture, politics, and religion. In ripping religion, rightly so in a couple of lines, the Red Rocker sings,
“Give me truth, give me something real. I just want to feel that it’s mine all mine. Stop looking up, start looking in. Be your own best friend. Stand up and say, ‘This is mine!'”
Remember, as a teenager, how you used to justify to your parents the lyrics to your favorite songs? “But, mom, they’re married!” or “He’s talking about kissing!”
Part of me wants to say Van Halen’s song is intentionally pointing out the irony of searching for something that doesn’t truly exist. But most of me knows Sammy and Eddie and the boys really believe they own everything they have. And they’re spending most of their thoughts and energies chasing to own the things they don’t yet have.
And parts of us (me) fall into that trap all the time.
We own nothing. And the minute we realize that and embrace that, our lives will change dramatically.
Listen to Screwtape in letter #21: “Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied. The more claims on life, therefore, that your patient can be induced to make, the more often he will feel injured and, as a result, ill-tempered…You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own.’ Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright.”
Screwtape goes on to advise his young devil nephew that the man has this tendency to believe he owns everything around him—his time, his house, his boots, his dog, his wife, his country, his God—and that the longer he continues to think that, the better the chances of the man progressing to hell. Screwtape finds it hilarious that people believe they even own their own bodies, “those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of Another.”
Randy Harris says most people are born on third base and go through life believing they hit a triple.
Jesus says “apart from me you can do nothing.”
The last paragraph of this favorite letter is chilling. Chilling to the core.
“All the time the joke is that the word ‘mine’ in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything. In the long run either Our Father (Satan) or the Enemy (God) will say ‘mine’ of each thing that exists, and especially of each man. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies belong—certainly not to them, whatever happens. At present, the Enemy says ‘mine’ of everything on the pedantic, legalistic ground that He made it. Our Father hopes in the end to say ‘mine’ of all things on the more realistic and dynamic ground of conquest.”
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I’ll be watching with great interest the Mavs-Hornets game tonight from New Orleans. The Jason Kidd trade looks a little better in this final form with Stackhouse staying. But I’m still not convinced this makes Dallas better suited for a run at the NBA title. Kidd is ten years older than Devin Harris. Harris plays much better perimeter defense. Kidd is prone to pouting and even sitting out games with a “headache” if things aren’t going his way. Losing Diop hurts the Mavs inside where he was always a threat to block or at least alter shots. Dampier can bang inside for a while. But he doesn’t scare anybody. Come playoff time, Dallas is going to need a second center to harrass Shaq and Duncan and Ming. So maybe that piece is still to come.
Cuban and Avery are sacrificing a lot for this little window to win it all. Nothing less than a championship will justify this crazy trade. It almost looks like desperation to me. There’s no look to the future here at all. Kidd’s gone at the end of next 
season. And the Mavs have given up their top picks in the next two drafts.
It’s an all or nothing deal. And making that deal right now is also strange. As tightly packed as the Western Conference is, a three game losing streak knocks you out of the playoffs. So immediate chemistry is crucial. Is Kidd that good? He starts tonight in New Orleans. How good can he be that fast?
Regardless, the move means Dirk never drives to the basket ever again. That leaves only Josh and Jet to take the ball aggressively to the basket. And if one of those guys goes down……..
I don’t like it. Hopefully I’ll be as wrong about this as I was about the Cowboys.
And the first full squad spring training practice for the Texas Rangers begins in a couple of hours in Surprise. That means that by lunchtime today they will be officially mathematically eliminated from the AL West race.
Ian Kinsler said yesterday that every player in the clubhouse is more excited about this upcoming season than they’ve ever been. (????) Scoring a ton of runs and losing 10-8 every night is not exciting.
Peace,
Allan
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