So something pretty impressive happened yesterday on the campus of UCLA (apologies to Dr V. who is such a diehard Trojan). In 1965 Pauley Pavilion opened up, a place the Bruin Basketball team could call home. Of greater note is that their coach was one John Wooden, widely regarded as one of the finest teachers of all time and one of the best coaches to have ever graced this earth. Coach Wooden passed away last June at the age of 99. You should try and read some of his books, or books written about him, to see what a great teacher and leader of men he was. I am reading his latest book on his Pyramid of Success for the second time now.
After 46 years of Bruin Basketball it is time for Pauley Pavilion to have a face lift and yesterday was the last home game for the next 18 months. Arizona, which was ranked 10th in the country was in for a visit and UCLA played one of its finest games of the year, so good that the scrubs were playing the last few minutes. With 25 seconds left a UCLA player shot an air ball which was caught by one Tyler Trapani. In three years as a walk on player at UCLA he had never scored a point, and in fact he had only taken 2 shots. He put in the ball for the last 2 points to be scored at Pauley before renovations started. Tyler is the great grandson of one John Wooden and when I saw the story it just brought a tear to my eye. And for the first time ever Tyler, someone who never gets into the game, was being part of the post game interview. And Ben Howland, the UCLA coach openly cried about it in the locker room. As Bill Plaschke of the LA Times wrote “IT WAS AN ALLEY-OOP FROM HEAVEN”
Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success does not have a single brick that says personal responsibility, but after reading the book I think it would be safe to say that he was all about it.
Last week I wrote that the best I can do is take responsibility for all I think, say and do. For the last year I have been trying to live a healthier life style, eating better, exercising more regularly and the like. And my concept of Conscious Prevention does work. I have lost weight, I have more energy than ever and I had great results in my lab work at my last physical. I went on a website and put in the numbers from my physical and it said even though I am almost 53 years old, my tests and workout regimen put my biological age at 44.2
But let me share a little story for this past week. Someone came into the office that had a cold two weeks prior and was sick again with a cold. When asked why she got sick again her answer was that it was the weather. I was able to have a nice talk with her and asked her why everyone else was not sick since we were all living in the same weather. I educated her to that there was something about her body that was allowing her to get sick. Maybe she was not sleeping enough (2 small kids at home) or maybe she just wasn’t taking as good of care of herself that she should. But somehow her immune system was low and that was all it took for her to get sick again.
I truly believe that with proper eating, exercise, hygiene etc we can affect our health in a way that makes our immune system stronger. That prevents us from getting as sick as, or as often as, others who do not take personal responsibility. Prevention is so much better than the cure.
After the Superbowl, then Valentine’s Day, followed by the President’s day we end this weekend with The Oscars. Enjoy