New Father and Son Podcast

I have a new podcast where my son Ryan and I are doing a show about sports, politics, everyday happenings, whatever. Ryan is becoming quite the broadcaster at the age of 13.


The web address is: thoughtsfromwisconsin.podbean.com


Podbean is fun and I would recommend it to anyone. You can get a free account just so you don't go over the assigned space. I usually record the show at a low BPS, like 56, to conserve as much space as possible.

Reading and Writing: Emerson

by George Sheehan

"Wisdom comes after information and knowledge. Books providethe scaffolding that allows us to build our own system of thought."
"We are too civil to books," writes Emerson." For a few golden sentences we read 400 to 500 pages." Still he opened every new book with anticipation. He spent his life searching for sentences. Most, of course, came from within. The original thoughts of an original thinker. But he was always ready for any person or book or lecture to open his mind to a new perception. Even the great books, says Emerson, fail to deliver on their promise. "Come, they say, we will give you the key to the world." Each poet, each philosopher says this. But we never get to the center. What we must draw on is our own experiences. Write our own sentences. And read Emerson. To open Emerson is to plunge into a raging surf of ideas. One must stop to get one's breath, to restore the points of the compass. The ideas come like huge powerful waves that threaten your previous placid existence. You must stretch yourself mentally to stay afloat. You must be at the top of your powers to survive. "Books are for nothing but to inspire." Emerson's do that. His message: to make the most of ourselves, to trust ourselves and to be ourselves to the uttermost. Emerson looked for that inspiration himself. He found it in Shakespeare, Plato, Plutarch, Montaigene. But his thoughts ultimately were his own. And so it should be. The golden sentences in Emerson should inspire us. They will help us understand our own experience. They may express it better than we ever will. But we cannot stop there. We must have our own thoughts, make our own sentences. "These novels," writes Emerson, "will give way to diaries and autobiographies--captivating books if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly." This is why writers have a love-hate relationship with books. We read books looking for that sudden revelation of truth and by doing so delay revealing our own. "To put away one's original thought in order to take up a book," writes Schopenauer, "is a sin against the Holy Ghost." Fine for Schopenauer whose mind apparently teemed with thoughts and had the talent to express them. But what about us who doubt we have any original ideas. And in any case, lack the skills to set them down. Is not reading our salvation, not our damnation? We need books. First, to be educated. Emerson knew Shakespeare by heart, and read widely in the classics and Eastern philosophers. He knew his world and he principles that governed it. The great thinkers begin by knowing what others think. Wisdom comes after information and knowledge. Books provide the scaffolding that allows us to build our own system of thought. In the end, our lives depend on that. We must think for ourselves. There is no precedent for you or me. Each of us is different from anyone else. So others can be no more than guides. They tell us what is successful for them. We must find what is successful for us. Emerson expresses our own ambivalence toward books. In one essay he tells us we must read. He even gives us a list of the books he finds most valuable. Then on an equally convincing essay he tells us there is no need to read. In one piece he has quotes from other thinkers in virtually every paragraph; and in the next he says, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you think." That is what writing is. Telling people what you think. Telling other people certainly, but primarily yourself. That is why we must write. To find out what we think. To discover what we believe. Until we say it or write it down we are unaware of what is actually at the root of our lives. Good, honest, frank speech goes a long way, but writing is best. Writing permits of revision and revision aids precision. Spontaneity is good. Sincerity is better. But what we want to attain is veracity-the truth as best we can put it into words. This is by all accounts hard work even for the best. We should know that the catalyst for this process is often someone else's writing. How many a man had dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. Perhaps not so much from reading a new book but from coming upon a person who sees life in a slightly different way-and that way a sudden opening to your own hidden or unexpressed thoughts on the matter. We must be civil to books. It is worth reading 400-500 pages to find a few golden sentences that can change our lives.

My Brother In-Law Bob---We're Proud!

You'd think that being an Olympian in the pursuit of a medical degree would overshadow whatever else you had done, but Dartmouth graduate Bob Kempainen made an impression in another, more embarrassing, manner.
In the track world, Bob Kempainen is most famous for something he would probably rather forget.He threw up six times during the 1996 Olympic Trials Marathon, an event which was replayed numerous times on the evening news. Kempainen finished first -- actually pulling away from the field -- while vomiting.This, and the fact that he attended medical school during Olympic training, made him known for mental toughness and intensity. About the Olympic trials he says only that "I certainly felt better after I vomited."Kempainen dominated American distance running in the 1990s. He won the national cross country championship in 1990, and was the nation's premier marathoner until he retired from running after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. At the 1994 Boston Marathon he set the U.S. record. Since then only one American, Khalid Khannoucci, has run faster.Growing up in Minnetonka, Minn., Kempainen followed his brothers into running, first tagging along when as a fourth grader. He starting training in the seventh grade, and went on to win the Minnesota state 3,200-meter championship as a high school senior.His oldest brother, who attended the University of Vermont, suggested Dartmouth. Kempainen wanted a school with strong academics that had Division I track and cross country. He wanted to leave the Midwest but avoid big cities, and though Dartmouth's running program was good, "it wasn't one of the elite programs in the country so I felt I eventually had a chance to make the varsity squad."At Dartmouth Kempainen ran for the legendary Vin Lananna -- who would remain his coach until 1996. Lananna spent 12 years at Dartmouth before moving to Stanford in 1992. While at Dartmouth his cross country teams went to the NCAA championships every year, and finished second in 1986 and 1987 with Kempainen. Lananna and Kempainen also helped Dartmouth to a track and field Heps title in 1988. It is Dartmouth's only such title in 72 years . Kempainen took a year off from the University of Minnesota Medical School to train with Lananna for the Olympics, and later took six-week breaks from medical school to train in Palo Alto. According to Kempainen attending medical school during marathon training was easy because "Minnesota allowed me to take six years to complete medical school. This allowed the extra time to train properly for marathons."While at Dartmouth Kempainen majored in biochemistry, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He found that balancing athletics and academics wasn't a problem, saying "it's difficult for me to study for sustained periods without becoming inefficient. Getting out for runs provided a needed break."He feels he missed little as a result of his running because his team provided its own social life and he studied about as much as he was able -- running or not.The high point of his Dartmouth running career was "when our team took second place in our first appearance at the NCAA cross country championships. The team exceeded expectations and I ran well (fourth overall)."Lananna took his teams of good, but not highly recruited, runners and "had a way of getting us not only physically prepared, but also sufficiently motivated and confident to compete with any program in the country."After college, Kempainen feels the high points of his career were the national cross country championships and his two U.S. marathon trials in 1992 and 1996. His disappointing, injury-plagued Olympic efforts do not make his list. He enjoyed running cross country the most, but feels there is something special about a marathon because "it merits a certain amount of respect regardless of whether one is fast or slow."Currently Dr. Kempainen is at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine in the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine, where his research interests are the care of cystic fibrosis patients and post-graduate medical education.Curiously, he feels that the two-year delay in completing his medical education was a good thing for him. "As a competitive athlete I was pretty self-absorbed" he remembers. "By the time I retired from racing, I was ready to focus outward and medicine is a good venue for doing that. I also think the discipline of being an athlete is similar to the discipline it takes to be a good physician."Reminiscing about his running career with Lananna, Kempainen says, "Vin certainly has an edge to him. Running for him was simultaneously hard work and a good time. I'd like to think I have some of his passion, high expectations, and enjoyment of work embedded in me."It's a fair bet that Lannana is proud to know that Kempainen sees him as the source of these qualities. And more than one young athlete with medical aspirations must wish he or she had never heard of Kempainen, because while they're putting off medical school until after their athletic career -- Kempainen was able to do it all at the same time.

— Suzanne Eschenbach

New Sports Blog

This blog is for sharing sports talk. Once in awhile we will refer to this blog on Thoughts From Wisconsin on thoughtsfromwisconsin.podbean.com

For the best local sports, go to www.kfiz.com


Predictions:

The Brewers will be 82-80 this coming season.

The Packers will be 9-7 in 2009.

The Bucks will make the 8th seed in the playoffs but will lose in the first round.