Jim's Journal

After listening to the testimonials of the former players/students of Columbus Academy football coach, Mark Barren, I reprised this tribute to my old coach. Mr. Barren died yesterday night. He was 51.
My football coach was Tom Ehlert. He was an inspiration to me as the late Mark Barren was to his football teams; as Anne Horton is to her lacrosse and field hockey teams; and as Brian Anderson was to his fast-pitch softball teams.
Coach Ehlert was an assistant in 1971 and this is how he got his job as head coach:
In 1971 on an October afternoon at James Ford Rhodes High School on Cleveland's west side, the host Rams were being manhandled 18-0 by arch rival West Tech. Our team had basically quit. At halftime, the then head coach walked into the Rams' locker room and screamed, "You guys make me sick. I don't even want to look at you." He then did an abrupt about face and walked out. Likewise, one after another the assistant coaches stood before the team, said pretty much the same thing and then each walked out in disgust, slamming the door behind them. Finally, only the JV coach remained, Tom Ehlert. The scene grew increasingly desperate and hopeless. Only the muffled sound of the brass of the Rhodes High Marching Band interrupted the silence. Coach Ehlert surveyed the faces of a defeated team, slowly walked to the chalkboard, grabbed a piece of chalk and calmly said, "Gather around me boys. Here's what we've gotta do." The Rams came back and won the game 19-18 with a touchdown and an extra point kicked by a Malaysian foreign exchange student in the final minute of the game.
The next season, Coach Ehlert was the head coach at Rhodes High School. I look at this story in light of God's story. When God had every right to turn away from us in disgust, he instead sent his only begotten Son, Jesus. Then, as now, Jesus says "Gather around me."
Coach Ehlert put a lot of tremendous ideas in our heads. Only the passing of the years have fully revealed what treasures they were. I thought of him as a fiery coach grabbing my face mask and screaming, "LEICKLY, you Candy Ass! You gotta block somebody!", but he really did talk a lot about life and the fundamental values that made it worthwhile. He’d say: “Excusers are accusers and excusers are losers,” and “The team that prays together, stays together.” The only one that I still haven't figured out is his aversion to cake. He used to call us "Cake-eaters" when he was displeased. At film sessions – never much fun – when he'd see one of his Rhodes Rams passing up a chance to make a big, bone-crushing hit, he'd mutter something about cake and then his patented: "Ahhh... the nice guys from Rhodes." In football, "nice guys" is a pejorative term.
In my senior season, we had a game against favored Lincoln-West (a team that had just beaten eventual city champ St. Ignatius and was sitting, at the time, a top the West Senate standings). My little sister Nancy's funeral was that morning. She had died of leukemia at the age of 14. My buddy Hal Santos and I were the captains and Coach Ehlert dedicated the game to my precious Nancy. That was extreme pressure since you're supposed to win the games that you dedicate to people and we had just lost the previous two games, including a 42-7 embarrassment at home to John Marshall High the week before.
It was cold, even spitting a little snow, and our student managers were huddled on the bench, neglecting their duty to bring us water during the breaks. Water was pretty important, especially since nine of us played offense and defense and therefore didn't often leave the field. I complained to Coach Ehlert when I came over during a timeout. His eyes widened when he turned to see the managers sitting there next to the unused water. You could almost sense the earth shake as he exploded at them: "Shame on you!!! Our boys are crying for water!" Our tight end Tony Zemla leaped at least 10 feet vertically (or at least it seemed) to catch a pass from quarterback Dave Martanovic to keep our game-winning drive going and fullback Joe Gigante kept powering in behind us offensive linemen as we battled from an 8-7 deficit late in the fourth quarter to win 15-8. It was phenomenal. We held on Lincoln-West's last drive and the offense took over in the last seconds to run out the clock. We held hands in the huddle and watched the scoreboard countdown. As the clock stuck "0" we all simultaneously raised our clasped hands into the air in victory. For me, at the time and even more so in retrospect, it's fitting that center John Jannazo was on one side of me on the offensive line and in the offensive huddle and right tackle Hal Santos on the other. They are still two faithful friends who I speak with, see, pray for regularly.
The game ball, signed by the team and coaches, still sits in the house I grew up in near W. 73 and Camden in Cleveland. My step mom Lenora still lives there and is guardian of that precious memory of my Rhodes teammates and Coach Ehlert. W. 73rd and Camden is just 15 minutes walking distance from West Tech field where that memorable game was played. When Coach Ehlert gave me the ball and shook my hand and gave a gracious tribute to my family (mostly my parents). "The Leicklys are givers," he said.
Now when I call Coach Ehlert, he blurts out: “Jimmy! You stinker! Good to hear from you.” He is now in his 80s and still harassing Mrs. Ehlert.
I thank God for the people he often puts in the lives of our kids.

I was successful in getting a judgment against my client overturned by the Franklin County Court of Appeals. The case is described in the “Decisions” section of my website. It involves what happens when a written contract expires and the parties trade email messages to establish a month to month relationship afterwards. We successfully argued there was at very least, arguably no “meeting of the minds” going forward since the parties agreed to use something called the “base rate” going forward, but have totally different views of what that term means. If there was no “meeting of the minds” but that services were rendered, then the trial court will be left with ascertaining the value of the services rendered. As the recipient of those services, my client – who hired me after having a $107,000 judgment rendered against it – would be content, because the provider had doubled the rate that existed under the previous written agreement. It would be hard to envision the new, doubled rate being equitable when the two combatants were content for a year with providing the services at half that rate and when my client ended up paying far less for replacement services with another company.

Lenten study: Inerrancy of scripture

Years ago my wife Debbie and I went out dancing with another couple. We started out on the dance floor and Deb and I danced to a couple tunes and sat down and relaxed and talked. Our friends, Keith and Sharon, stayed on the dance floor, dancing away. The wife, Sharon, was an aerobics instructor and the two of them danced and danced and danced – they truly never left the floor for two hours. Deb and I would go back and forth: dance a little, sit a little, talk, sip some wine. Toward the end of the evening I was amazed at my buddy’s passion and danced my way up next to Keith and asked, “Keith, do really love dancing this much?” Keith kept boogying, nodded at his wife, and said, “Jim, I have to love dancing this much.”

I think of that when sometimes when I’m asked about various areas of scripture that might be hard to fathom or may seem inconsistent with other parts of scripture. “Do you believe that Jim?” a friend might ask, and I would answer: “I have to believe it.” You see, I’m not surrendering my mind, but neither do I believe that just because my mind can’t wrap itself around some notion doesn’t mean that it isn’t so. As a lawyer, I know the failure of someone to understand or acknowledge the law won’t stop the wheels of justice from grinding fine. Also, I can’t wrap my mind around quantum physics, but its laws continue unabated by my ignorance. I can’t wrap my mind around God’s love and grace, but yet it rains down despite my ignorance and protestations.

I can’t understand why in the Old Testament God ordered a king of Israel in a certain instance to destroy everything associated with the enemy, even women and children. How does that square with Jesus’ commands that we love our enemies and do good to those who persecute you? But look to the most oft-quoted scripture in the New Testament: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” Anyone who watches the extra point kicks after a touchdown at an NFL game knows that is John 3:16. That verse talks of God’s love and then points to him sacrificing his Son. How do we get our educated minds around that? Does God love the world more than he loves His Son? Is God unjust since he’s trading His Son’s innocent life for us? Does God commit patricide? With the help of our teacher, the Holy Spirit, we hopefully see that as a God-sized unfathomable act of love and mercy toward us with the marching orders, “… that whosoever believes in Him (Jesus) shall not die, but have everlasting life.” Hopefully we also see it as not only His grace, but His justice in that the punishment for sin is death and Jesus accepts that for us.

When there is something I don’t understand in the Bible, the Holy Spirit should lead me not to, as Thomas Jefferson did, take the scissors to the Bible and whittle it down to what I can accept based on my 53 years of earthly observations. Rather, I should be moved to realize that there may not be things I totally comprehend about the God who created the universe and who has His own ways and purposes. That’s part of the spiritual journey. Still, I have faith in Him and in His scripture and I’m not perplexed because about a Israelite king because I know Jesus’ commandment to us is to love God with all our minds and hearts and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That seems pretty clear.


What also seems clear is that we live in the age of grace. God’s grace toward us and our grace toward each other and the world. While God is unchanging, this world is not. We weren’t always in the age of grace and we won’t always be in the age of grace. Usually after much patience, God’s justice and judgment came down hard against sin prior to Jesus (the Old Testament). The Bible promises it will be so again during the future times described in the New Testament book of Revelation and which Jesus also describes in Matthew’s gospel. No, God hasn’t changed. He has always been a God of love and mercy and has always been a God of justice. It’s just that His incompatibility with sin was solved by Him through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

One day I’ll get to ask him face to face about the destruction of all the men, women and children by the ancient Israelites. Maybe, as He did with Job when Job asked why the innocent suffer, God will say, “Where were you Jim when I created the universe?”, meaning I’m just not going to understand, but like Job, I will keep my faith in God and His love (Job: “Though he slay me, I will worship Him still”). Maybe, He’ll say innocents often die for the sins of the many (Jesus, for instance), but maybe He’ll also say: “Remember I have their eternal souls – the souls of these innocents – close to my loving heart and they will not have suffered in vain.” Just maybe. Maybe even in my narrow mind I’ll think about how Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address in 1865 (3 months before his death) suggested that America’s catastrophe, the Civil War, may have been God’s judgment upon a nation for the great sin of slavery (the Bible shows many examples of national punishment and redemption). Lincoln said that perhaps it was God’s will that every drop of blood caused by the lash be equaled by a drop of blood drawn by the sword. There were a lot of innocent families that never condoned or had slaves that suffered for that national injustice. But even Lincoln admits that this is all supposition – another “maybe” – because, as he says, “The Almighty has His own purposes.” Lincoln – an average lawyer, but the greatest of presidents – acknowledges, as I must, that God has his own purposes and sometimes we just don’t know but that we have faith that God is and in who He is and that “He so loved the world”.

It’s been correctly pointed out that the Bible is a collection of 66 books (72 in the Catholic Bible) with many different authors. II Timothy, written by Paul who intimately knew the Old Testament as a scholar and a Jewish religious leader, says that “all scripture is inspired by God.” It would be error to suggest that it is like a library where a patron would be considered a lunatic if they complained about one book being 180-degrees different than the one next to it on the shelf. Libraries are phenomenal because they operate in typical, consistent way: Unless a book contains pornography or a how-to plan to build a nuclear device, the library’s job is to procure as many books on as many subjects and ideas as possible. That’s the ethic of a good library: to be the ultimate marketplace of ideas. On the other hand, the Bible is a canon. It is a group of books and letters put together by a large council, inspired by the Holy Spirit, three centuries after Christ based on their prayers, history, scholarship and the consistency with other books and letters in the canon. Some writings were included in the canon of scripture, some were not. The exclusion of, say the Gospel of Thomas, for example would be based on standards of truth and reliability.


There is no doubt about the writer of Paul’s letters being Paul himself (an actual historic figure as was Jesus) and he refers to the older scriptures (as did Jesus). There is an incredible amount of internal consistency in the canon. As a trial attorney, I’m frankly amazed and inspired about how consistent it is, not the opposite. If we see God as a God of love, mercy, grace and justice, then we see it all. We limit Him if we see Him as only love and then we restrain Him to what our conception of love is. If we do this, then here’s the logical conclusion: If we, in our limitations, can’t conceive of a loving God doing something, then He must not have done it. The next step is that we can’t conceive of a loving God allowing such an evil thing to happen, then, logically, He must not be all-powerful. Under this logic, we keep creating God in the image of what we want Him to be. Eventually, we’ll need to capitalize the “We” and lower case the “him” because our intellects and notions of morality are what molds God. It is supposed to be the opposite: God’s wisdom and love and His morality should mold us. Paul said in Chapter 4 of Philippians: “I may not have apprehended, but this one thing I do: leaving all else behind, I stretch forth toward the higher calling of Christ Jesus.” We love Jesus and He says, “If you love me you’ll obey me” (John Ch. 14) and He tells us to love. We can stretch forth to this higher calling.

We don’t “substitute our intelligence” when we read the Bible, but we are told to let the Holy Spirit fill us so that we speak and act through the Spirit. We still love our wives, family, Buckeye football, Kansas basketball, cheeseburgers. But a Spirit-led life puts God at the center of our lives, makes us better husbands and fathers, puts Buckeye football/Kansas basketball in perspective, causes us to thank the one who provided cheeseburgers and whatever food we eat. Paul goes so far as telling us we “have the mind of Christ”, meaning that his Spirit (Christ and the Holy Spirit are always in accord) and love is available to us through the Holy Spirit. How else do we love someone who is constantly busting our chops and who is always in the wrong? How do we forgive someone who doesn’t even want to be forgiven? On our own, or through the Spirit?

Paul tells us in I Corinthians that the wisdom of God is “foolishness to the world”. Therefore, Christian, get used to it. Some in the world will respect and love you because of or in spite of your acceptance of Jesus and frankly some are going to think you’re flat out stupid. You won’t correct that by moving closer to the wisdom of the world. You just show love and hold to the higher calling of Christ. We’re supposed to love the world, be in the world, but not be of the world. This is because we were bought with too high a price. And guess what? Having been an atheist through 37 years of my life, I’ll tell you that the world has less respect for Christians who are only lukewarm to their own dogma. I remember a lady telling me years ago she had converted to Judaism, but didn’t believe the miracles and thought God is really akin to the “Force” in Star Wars. I pondered on why she converted to a religion that she didn’t believe.

When we get to what Jesus called the “hard sayings”, we need to drive further into scripture, prayer, testing and questioning, rather than shrink back into a “that can’t be true” dismissal. We can’t shackle God to our standards. We all have standards of morality in our heads and we, for some reason, can’t live up to even those standards, let alone God’s. That’s why most of us have an innate feeling that there is something amiss in ourselves that causes us to veer from the course that even we know we should be on. Therefore, again, thank you Jesus.

There are also practical concerns when Christians challenge the inerrancy of the holy scripture. Which inconsistency do you go with? Pick one? Discard both? What standard do you use to determine what you go with? If Paul says in the New Testament that all scripture is Holy breathed, but then you choose not to believe something in the Old Testament, then you have to conclude that both Paul and the particular offensive Old Testament story are wrong. Can you use this “Philosophy of Discard” even when something is not inconsistent with something else in the Bible, but it just doesn’t make sense to you? (Remember, the standard is that it has to make good sense to you, so why not take it to the logical end that Jefferson did?)

If we are uncertain on where we stand on the inerrancy of scripture, wouldn't the prudent thing always be to err on the side of believing it all to be God-inspired? I know the objective of those attacking the inerrancy of scripture is to bring more people to Christ by discarding the tough stories and hard sayings in the Bible. I understand the motive, but is there also a danger by masking other aspects of God (His justice and dislike of sin) that can cause someone to continue to walk in habitual sin? On the other hand, even if I were unsure about the way to go on the inerrancy of scripture question, would it hurt me at all if I say, akin to my dancing buddy Keith that I have to believe it all? Believing something before you understand it -- kinda like faith. If I’ve read even a little of the Bible, I know that conquering the Promised Land or stoning an adulterer are not activities even remotely available to Christians. Recognizing that something different occurred before the Christian age doesn’t invalidate the history, the lessons, the scriptures or God. Nor does the fact that people contort religion to justify all sorts of heinous acts. Indeed, it seems that those folks actually suffer from the failure to take it all in and place it all in proper context.

Another practical problem exists when we have few people even reading the Bible at all in the Church. How does it inspire us to read the Bible when it’s allegedly full of inconsistencies? Do we typically read or listen to things that we know are inaccurate? Usually not. We usually consider it to be a waste of time. Obviously this would never be an argument to accept fiction as truth just to get people to read, but I’d argue that if you’re not sure on the inerrancy of scripture issue, why not encourage people to read and trust the Holy Spirit to instruct them on the truth of the scriptures?

Indeed, my advice to someone who isn't a Bible reader yet is: don't even take a position on this issue, just earnestly and regularly read the Bible and pray for the Holy Spirit to teach you. Then make up your mind later. I think you'll be taught of the remarkable inter-connectedness between the books and how you'll see Jesus as well as God's love in the Old Testament (that's right) and you'll see justice and God's judgment, along with love, in the New Testament.

In the end the issue is not so much about what someone else believes about scripture as it is about what do you believe and are you reading it and making it part of your life – allowing the Holy Spirit to teach you through the scripture so that it not only informs, but rules your life.

As Shakespeare said, “Ah, now there’s the rub.”

Performance adviser Elko speaks

Phenomenal event! On 3/10/11 psychologist and performance motivator Kevin Elko spoke in Columbus recently. It was a talk sponsored by my friend/neighbor Dwight Montgomery’s financial planning/wealth building group, Montgomery and Associates.
Here’s a composite of my voluminous notes of this inspirational talk (My comments or additions are in parenthesis):

Self-talk:
It’s all about how you talk to yourself. For instance, keep saying to yourself: “Let peace be the umpire” and you’ll more likely be at peace.
How do you talk to yourself? Positive or negative?
Enjoy life – learn to have joy. If you’re not enjoying life, you’re a burden to someone and that someone is probably sitting next to you now – like a spouse. It’s like the name of the old country song, “My wife left home with my best friend and I sure miss him.”
We need to surround ourselves with positive friends and positive people.

Live above and beyond your circumstances:
You can’t hide the real you: either you’re living with vision or living in circumstances. Proverbs says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Adversity can be your friend: In a town in Alabama in 1910 the boll weevil wiped out the cotton crop and economic disaster was about to hit. The people of the town started growing peanuts and prospered more than ever. There’s a statue now in the middle of that town of a bug, with the inscription: “Thank you boll weevil!”. The name of the Alabama town is Enterprise.

Attitude is a muscle. If you don’t use a muscle for 48 hours it atrophies. Same for attitude. In life, you’re not a born loser, but a born chooser. You get to choose your attitude. Elko said he constantly works on his attitude, as should we, because our kids and others read us like a book. (JRL: I once read in Sports Illustrated about the Rev. Jesse Jackson tell Memphis freshman guard Derrick Rose, after he lost the NCAA basketball title to Kansas: “Don’t cry here like a pathetic freshman. Smile through the tears. Speak above the pain.”)

Instead of “I’ll believe it when I see it, we need to adopt the motto: ‘I’ll see it because I believe it.’” Elko came in to talk to the eventual Super Bowl winning Green Bay Packers after they had just lost to the lowly Lions and their all-pro QB, Aaron Rogers, was knocked out with a concussion. The Packers were heading to New England and their playoff chances were dimming. He told them that Thomas Jefferson took a pair of scissors to the Bible and every place he saw Jesus walking on water, raising the dead or healing a leper, Jefferson cut it out. When he saw the story about Moses parting the Red Sea, Jefferson cut that out. Jefferson cut out every miracle to create the “Jefferson Bible”. As smart as he was, he couldn’t conceive of the miraculous. Elko told the Packers they didn’t need any scissors. Put the scissors away because, unlike Jefferson, they knew that anything was possible – even getting up off the ground and making the playoffs and winning the Super Bowl. It all happened.

Time is a blessing:

Time – your real wealth is your time - what you do or an do today. Have no regrets. That was the Packers’ rallying cry after the devastating Lions defeat. Elko joked that later, when they played the Bears, President Obama said he’d go to the Super Bowl if his hometown Bears won. So the Packers at that point changed their rallying cry to: “If he won’t come to see us, we’ll go to see him at the White House (Super Bowl Champs get invited).” So the Pack would break their huddle with the words: “White House!”

Without a vision, the people perish:

Elko said he prays that he will “live in vision” -- a positive vision full of possibilities. He said put into your head what you want and get out of your head what you don’t want. The thing you want is already there and you just don’t see it. He used an example: When you buy a car, suddenly you start seeing that same make and model of car everywhere. It’s the same with what you grasp in your mind. Think “peace” and pray for peace and positive things and you begin to see them everywhere.
Elko, told about a coach who had won a huge upset victory. The coach watched the film over and over again. The coach said others saw an upcoming opponent that couldn’t be beat, “I kept watching until I saw an opportunity.”
“Deliver practice” – Elko said the great ones play the game before it’s actually played. His name for this was “deliver practice”. You play the game, give the speech, give the presentation before actual game day.


Don’t ask for a blessing – be a blessing:

Don’t look for a blessing today. Look to be a blessing.
He told the story of the mom of a 6 year old son being told the boy would die of cancer in 2 months. She asked her son what he wanted to be when he grew up. The boy said, “a fireman.” So the mom asked the fire chief if her boy could hang out at the station a day or two. “I’ll do better than that,” said the chief, “I’ll make him a fireman.” So they fitted the boy with a hat and jacket and when they went on runs, the boy went with them. The boy, against the prognosis of his doctors, lived another 7 months. Toward the end, the mom called the fire chief and asked him to come see the boy at the hospital. She said she was sure that his time spent as a real “fireman” was what caused him to hang on so long. True to form, the fire chief said, “I’ll do better than that. You warn the hospital that there will be fire sirens coming, but there is no fire, I’m bringing 14 firemen to see your son.” So the squad arrived with sirens blaring. As the sickly boy looked out the window at the commotion he was delighted to see that his firefighting comrades were climbing up the ladder several stories to his room. Each one would climb in through the window and give him a bear hug. That’s being a blessing. We should pray: Lord let me be a blessing to someone today.

Elko said: Clean up your mouth – speak positively: “The issues of life and death come from the tongue.” Train your eyes to see good. Use both to be a blessing. We were put here not to be blessed but to bless others.

What? Me worry?:
Worrying is praying for what you don’t want. Eliminating worry and gaining peace is not achieved by adding on, but by taking away things and focusing. Elko told the story about the 110-pound mother was able to lift a Packard car off her son. A miracle? What was she focused on? She was focused on saving her son.

Marlo Thomas had a story in her book “The right words at the right time” about Paul McCartney. After the Beatles put out their classic White Album, McCartney wanted out of the group. He always obsessed with connecting with his late mother, whose name was Mary. Then he had a dream where his mother tells him to let it go or “let it be”. The next day McCartney wrote a song that starts out: “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom: Let it be.” Elko said that after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 “Let It Be” was the most requested song on the radio for several weeks. People wanted their minds and hearts to be at peace.
He told a story about going to the beautiful Smoky Mountains, but it was raining. An older fellow was watching it on a the porch with a huge smile on his face. “How can you be smiling in weather like this?” he was asked. “Son, I decided along time ago that when it decides its going to rain, I just let it.”
Elko said that we need to rid ourselves of the need to always be right and pick up the need to be at peace. Let it be.

Focus:

No more clutter. (JRL: Retired NFL coach Tony Dungy once said: “In times of stress, we tend to think we need to do more when in fact what we really need to do is less and to do it with more excellence.”)

Work the cut -- Elko said good boxers, when they make a cut on their opponents, work that cut throughout the fight. Focus on it. Hit it. By analogy, we need to be able to focus and keep that focus.
Be prepared. Hall of Fame Steelers coach Chuck Noll said: “Pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what you’re doing.” QB Peyton Manning has that quote in his locker.

Love is kind … it holds no accounts of wrongs:

Satchel Page said, “I will not let another man have the power to shrivel my soul by making me hate him.”
When the Berlin Wall was put up. East Berliners brought garbage and dumped it on the western side of the wall. Elko said our inclination when people throw garbage at us is to throw it back. Instead, what the people of West Berlin “threw” back were valued food and supplies.
(JRL: My father built a dog house for a stray that had puppies in our yard and would’ve died without shelter. As he was building the dog house, the stray dog, confused, ran into the yard and bit him -- hard. An old Marine, Dad winced hard, cursed something under his breath and then – like an old Marine – went right back to building the dog house. The fact that it was that stray’s nature to attack, wasn’t going to change my Dad’s nature to save. That stray became the nicest pet we ever had.)

Elko said love is hard and it does come at a price – many times that price is grief, but “blessed are those who mourn.”

Community – we need each other.

University of Miami Hurricanes football coach Randy Shannon was fired after the season last year. Known as a remarkable person of success and integrity, Shannon called his friend Kevin Elko and gave no excuses, “I did this to myself. I thought I could do it all by myself, but I learned that you need people.”

Humor is the best medicine:

He told some great jokes:

Arnie and the blind golfer: Every year there’s a golf tournament for blind golfers and one year Arnold Palmer was the guest star. One of the great blind golfers explained how they’d ring a certain kind of bell at the hole and he could hit the ball directly to it. He challenged the great Arnold Palmer, who said, “Are you sure?” The blind golfer said, “Yes, I’m sure.” Arnie then asked, “Well, when do you want to play?” and the blind golfer said, “10 o’clock tonight.”

The creative pharmacist’s assistant: A kid working the pharmacy store while the pharmacist was at lunch. A guy comes in for cough suppressant. The kid can’t find any, so he sells the guy a laxative. When the kid tells the pharmacist about this, the pharmacist scolded him saying, “a laxative won’t stop a cough.” The kid then points through the window to the bus stop across the street. He says, “See that man there, he’s trying with everything he has not to cough.”

Why we hire an expert: Alabama coach Nick Saban hired Elko talk to his team. “What do you want me to tell them?” Elko asked Saban. “How the heck would I know!” Saban bellowed. “If I knew what to tell them, I wouldn’t need you.”

(JRL: Thanks to Dwight Montgomery and Montgomery and Associates for a fantastic evening.)

"Always be prepared to give an answer, to anyone who asks, regarding the hope that resides within you. Do so with gentleness and respect." 1 Peter 3:15

On the Da Vinci Code:

What follows is a argument I came across recently about the errors in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. I thought this was worth sharing:

The entire premise of The Da Vinci Code is based on a false “fact.” On the first page, Brown claims that a secret European society called “The Priory of Sion,” which supposedly preserved the secret “truth” about the “real” Jesus, was founded in Jerusalem in 1099, when, instead, it was officially registered in France in 1956. Another example would be what Brown calls the “relatively close vote” at the Council of Nicea endorsing Jesus’ divinity (233). In fact, the vote was 300 to 2! Probably the worst error in the book is the claim that “the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. In the temple, no less” (309, emphasis in original). Not only is this a horrendously unfounded claim, but it is also a blasphemous affront to both Judaism and Christianity. There are dozens upon dozens of such falsehoods throughout the book.

On the very first page of the book, the author claims his novel is based on fact. Can you identify even one serious scholar, writer, professional authority, historian, or theologian anywhere in the world who agrees with Brown? The New York Times certainly does not, since its February 22, 2004, book review aptly referred to his novel as “The Da Vinci Con.”

“The main plot of the book has Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene. What’s wrong with that?” If Jesus had married her, it would not have been wrong, but there is no evidence whatever that Jesus ever married. Conversely, there is powerful evidence that He did not. In fact, Paul defended his right to have a wife (a prerogative that he never exercised) when he wrote, “Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas [Peter]?” (1 Cor. 9:5 NIV). If Jesus Himself had ever married, Paul would surely have cited His marriage as the greatest precedent of all, after which it would have been unnecessary even to mention figures subordinate to Him. To claim that the church covered up the “fact” of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene because this would have humanized Him out of any divinity, so to speak, is outrageous, but this is exactly what The Da Vinci Code maintains as its central thesis.

The opposite of integration isn't segregation -- it's disintegration.

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I'm reprising my orignial blog entry of 4/20/07. Debbie, our daughters and I visited Dr. King's Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama a couple years ago. We were fortunate to get into the church on that date because the church was closed. Luckily, a group that was being given a special tour invited us to come in. That group was visiting Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham and other places as part of a civil rights tour. When the tour guide suggested a short video on Dr. King's life and spiritual walk, our new tour friends balked and declined to see the video. They just weren't interested in a video about Jesus and Jesus' influence on Martin.

My family stayed for it and were amazed by the impact of the faith walks of Dr. King and each of those pastors that met in that church so many years ago to organize the Montgomery bus strike that started with Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white man. For these pastors, their faith in God informed their beliefs and firmed up their resolve. Their prayers to God buttressed their courage. Their calls to the Holy Spirit gave them hearts that loved their oppressed brethren and, also, their brethren's oppressors. Their reliance on their wise heavenly Father taught them that hate and ignorance could be combated with love and knowledge. Surely, many other factors motivated many others of all backgrounds who bravely fought the good fight during the civil rights movement; however, there's no denying the influences on these men and on the man who's life we celebrate today.

I couldn't imagine examining the non-violent independence movement in India led by Gandhi, without studying the forces that shaped his life. So, I guess, I wish the rest of the tour had hung around for the video. It would've given insights just as valuable touring a church building, a famous bus stop or a bridge in Selma. I'm glad we hung around.

Here's the 4/20/07 blog entry:

“The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity…”
-- William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”

In the April 9, 2007 issue of Sports Illustrated, I was struck by an incredibly insightful story of the 1957 Little Rock Central High School football team – voted that year the best high school football team in the nation, but whose photograph – all white faces – does not even appear in the halls of that school nowadays. That’s because almost exactly 50 years ago the historic story of the “Little Rock 9” began. Nine courageous African-American children integrating a school by walking through angry mobs throwing things at them and threatening to lynch them. It was so bad that President Eisenhower sent the 101st Division’s “Screaming Eagles” to Little Rock to protect these new students and keep the peace.
In the midst of this history in the Fall of ’57 was the mighty and undefeated Tiger football squad, ordered by their coach that getting involved in the turmoil would cause them to have to face another living hell – him. (An ex-Marine, even the Screaming Eagles jumped at his command. He had told the team on the day before preseason drills began: “Boys go home and give your souls to God tonight, because tomorrow your butts are mine.”) The Tigers also knew that those from the Central student body who had befriended or merely shone the decency to talk to their new African-American classmates were branded traitors and worse.
So the Tigers went out every Friday and demolished teams from as far away as Louisiana, Tennessee and Missouri. They were heroes on Friday nights, but from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. they did nothing more than keep their collective noses clean.
The SI story tells of a marvelous reunion where the ’57 Tigers met their ’06 counterparts (the majority of whom are African-American) to talk about their history.
One of the current Tiger players asked, knowing that high school football players are also leaders in the school: “Didn’t you do anything?” The answer was the explanation: “You had to know the circumstances and the times we were in.” To their credit, the current Tigers sympathized, mentioning times when they did not stand up, such as when the school’s only male cheerleader was being relentlessly abused.
The writer puts this into wonderful context. Not an easy issue. Not easy to judge teenagers just doing what they were told. He muses about what understanding could arise from the ’57 and ’06 Tigers sitting “elbow to elbow” and talking about what happened 50 years ago in Little Rock:

No, not Hollywood’s or history’s version. Not what happened to the heroes or the hatemongers, not the black-and-white version. The story of the gray, the people in between, the majority that ends up drifting toward one side or the other and determining history, often without even knowing why. The ones we need to understand most, because they’re us – the kids we likely would’ve been had we grown up white in the ‘50s in the South – and because we, too, might drift when our moment comes. Just teenagers, so absorbed in their search for love and identity that they hadn’t even begun to take stock of the injustices swirling around them, to understand the forces about to sweep them off their feet. Teenagers just hungry to feel part of a group, the one that gave their town its greatest pride: its mighty football team.

-- Gary Smith, SI
(Emphasis added.)

“Following the line”, “staying out of trouble”, “not creating waves” kept the team in tact for their historic championship run, but it still weighs heavily on many of the ’57 Tigers, now in their late-60s. Their silence then bothers them a lot now.
What do we do when our moment comes? When we can stand for what’s right. When we can stick out our necks a little because someone else’s rights are being trampled. When the stranger, robbed and beaten, lays by the wayside, do we cross the street and act like we don’t see or, like the good Samaritan, stop and show what it means to show love? What it means to be what Jesus called a neighbor? How do we not “drift when our moment comes” – and our moment will come.
Albert Camus wrote a book, The Fall, in which the man who tells the tale is haunted by the memory of just walking and doing nothing as a stranger jumped off a bridge into the River Seine in Paris, committing suicide. As the story ends and the person hearing this story is getting ready to leave. As he does, he is warned by his host: As you venture home, do not go near the river because if you do, there may be someone getting ready to jump into it to take his life. If that happens you will be faced with the impulse that you should jump in and save the man – but then you’ll reason that if you do, maybe you too will be taken by the waters and drowned and you’ll decide not to do it. The author tearfully concludes:

“… and there’s something about a suppressed jump that leaves a heart strangely aching.”

Sometimes it takes a “strangely aching” heart to prepare us for a future crisis. When Debbie and I had our son Nathaniel in 1988 and were told he was dying, we never left his side. He was almost constantly in the arms of one of us, looking into the eyes of those who loved him most – finally, after several painful days, his brave struggle ended. As it did, he faded off to meet Jesus while in the arms of his sobbing mother. Friends and acquaintances opined, “What are Jim and Deb doing? Don’t they know they’re making it worse for themselves? They’re becoming so attached, it would be harder to let go.” True, but in the crisis it was about our son, Nathaniel, not us. Just like in 1957, it was about the courageous and abused Little Rock 9, not anyone else. Gratefully, I learned to be strong for my son after having a heart that “strangely ached” from past failures when my moment came and went. (Deb’s courage came more naturally than mine. She’s a mom.)
In the movie Radio, the Ed Harris character tells a story to his teenage daughter that explains his stubborn inexplicable love and faithfulness to a strange town misfit, nicknamed Radio, who hung around the high school football practices. Harris, who played the football coach, remembers when he was a kid delivering papers and saw a dirty little boy locked in a pen beneath his parent’s front porch. “After that first day I saw him I walked by him again day after day, week after week, month after month and did nothing – told nobody,” he recalled.
Hopefully we will be girded for such times. That we will pray for the opportunity to make a difference to someone and God’s strength to offer a loving right hand or an encouraging word when it does. He’s put a hero’s spirit in us. Dennis Craft in his latest book recalls from the Lord of the Rings -- The Two Towers movie, King Theoden, at his darkest hour as he is holed up and outnumbered at battle of Helmsdeep. The King laments:


“The days have gone down in the West
Behind the hills into Shadow.
How did it come to this?
The fortress is taken. It is over.
So much death.
What can men do against such reckless hate?”

Aragon, calmly replies: “Ride out and meet them. For your people”. Gimli, the heroic dwarf warrior, notes: “The sun is rising.”
Theoden, gaining courage from the words of his allies and sensing the coming of a new day, leads his men out on a desperate, but victorious charge against the enemy, crying out:

“Yes.
Now for wrath!
Now for ruin!
And a red dawn!”

(FOOTNOTE TO THE LITTLE ROCK SI STORY: In 1958, to thwart the federal court’s racial desegregation order. The governor of Arkansas came up with the “brilliant” plan to close all Little Rock schools, depraving all kids – white and black – of an education that year. The Sports Illustrated writer observes adroitly, “The opposite of integration isn’t segregation. It’s disintegration.”)

Below is the junior speech of my daughter Clarissa, an 11th grader at Columbus Academy. Brian Anderson, who she honors in this speech, was able to make it. His challenge to C after the speech: "If you think I did something to help you, then you go out and do the same thing for someone else."

Here it is:


I always thought of heroes as people who can fly. Or people who seemed to fly. They were superhuman: “My spidey sense is tingling.” “Up, up, and away” “I am Iron man!” “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Those heroes saved the world. Those heroes had supernatural powers. Those heroes’ entire existence was dedicated to protecting the world against danger. But those heroes aren’t real.
Then there are the real people in history who are heroes; such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Gandhi was an influential leader in India who led the country to independence. And while basing his philosophy off of non violence, he led his life simply. Instead of using weapons, he fasted as a way to protest against tyranny. Likewise Martin Luther King, Jr. used civil disobedience to bring about huge change. He also helped to transform our country and challenge it to live up to its creed: That all men are created equal. Heroes like Gandhi and King are larger than life. Real, but still distant.
I’ve come to appreciate the heroes much closer to me: These are the everyday heroes. These heroes inspire us. These heroes are humble. These heroes lift up the lives of other people. These heroes don’t count the cost. These heroes don’t worry if their efforts knocked down a wall or created a superstar. These heroes just serve. My life was touched by a hero who was all of those things: An everyday hero.
My hero was a person whose life had been touched by great tragedy: the loss of his only child. Such a heroes name was Brian Anderson. In fourth grade, I was a rookie softball player when I tried out for Brian’s softball team, the Gahanna Lady Lions U-10 fastpitch team. One of my teammates was Brian’s daughter Brittany Anderson. Although I made the team, I was the third string catcher and the worst player. All I had was some potential, a coach that believed in me and a desire to get better. We began as a below average team, but Brian never gave up on us. Because of that, we never gave up on ourselves or each other. He coached me and my team mates for the six years we stayed together and we went from sad sacks to tournament champions.
During our second year as a team, Brittany was diagnosed with a brain tumor. We didn’t understand how bad it truly was. This brought our team together and created a family. Brittany still showed up to many of our games, but you could tell she was slowly changing. It was horrible to see that someone my age was slowly losing her hair and her ability to walk. Even through the cancer, she was always smiling – always lifting up her dad. Brian would also never show his pain and sadness at his daughter’s sickness. He would leave all of that inside when he showed up to practice or to our tournaments. Brian always joked around and kept us upbeat. But as time went by, and games were played, we began to see less and less of Brittany.
Although his daughter was no longer able to play due to her illness, it amazed me how Brian still coached us. He even worked with me alone off season to help me improve.
Brian showed me how on the field you need to leave everything behind you and focus during the game, having a short memory and remembering that the next pitch, not the last one, is the most important. He taught me that we hitters love to smash an inside pitch, but that smart pitchers will pitch away, on the outside part of the plate and away from our strength. He taught me the discipline of waiting on the outside pitch just a split second longer and powering the ball to the opposite field. In other words, being patient, taking what’s been given to you, and making something good come of it. I eventually earned a starting position.
In the Robert Heinlein book, Stranger in a Strange Land, two characters are debating the meaning of a Rodin (row-dan) sculpture of a woman being crushed by a tremendous weight. One of them argues she’s a hero, more than she is a victim. He says:
“Victory in defeat, there is none higher. She didn't give up…; she's still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her. She's a father going down to a dull office job while cancer is painfully eating away his insides, so as to bring home one more pay check for the kids. She's a twelve-year-old girl trying to mother her baby brothers and sisters because Mama had to go to Heaven. She's a switchboard operator sticking to her job while smoke is choking her and the fire is cutting off her escape. She's all the unsung heroes who … never quit.”

During Brittany’s 3-year struggle, Brian was the rock of our team. It wasn’t by coincidence that our team was known for never quitting and winning many games in the final inning. If a player was down Brian would pick her up, and he always supported us in our events outside of softball – and still does. Eventually, during my eighth grade year, Brittany took a turn for the worse and was confined to her bed. She died at the end of May, 2008. She was 15. That summer Brian decided to continue coaching our team. I didn’t understand until after the season how much he meant to our team and how much we meant to him. We were all a family. He was like a second father.
When we won the Gahanna tournament that year, we went to Brittany’s gravesite after the championship game and put our trophy on her grave. Brittany’s death and Brian’s persistent commitment to other people’s kids had a huge effect on me. He was crushed but not defeated.
He taught the importance of “small ball”, winning by selflessly concentrating on moving your teammates along the base paths. Hitting a sacrifice bunt or deliberately getting caught in steal, just to get a teammate across the plate. “Moving the runner along” is a metaphor for selflessness and a path for victory.
In the first year of Brittany’s illness, we were on a bus to head to Oklahoma City for a big tournament. Brittany was with us. Before the bus ever left the parking lot, Brian told us of the amazing victory the night before by the University of Michigan over UCLA in the final inning of the college softball national championship. He said Michigan’s senior captain came to the plate in the last inning with the score tied. She struck out. Instead of moping back to the bench, she put her hands on the shoulders of the freshman coming up next from the on deck circle. She shouted words of encouragement: “You can do this. You can hit this pitcher!” The freshman hit a homerun. Her team won the national championship. Brian wanted us to be that kind of team.
Brian believed in every one of us. From being his player for six years I learned that you need to quit thinking that you have to win the game, a tournament or save the world by yourself. If everyone chips in, then together we can all save it.
I love everyday heroes because, like Brian, they actually do supernatural things.
As Aunt May tells Peter Parker in Spiderman, “There's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most."
Thank you Brian.

The year in review:

Another blessed year for the Columbus Leicklys. Debbie still works as a preschool teacher at the Stonybrook Early Learning Center. Ten years of putting up with the incredible cuteness of the kids. Example: “Can Ms D’bbie come home and play with me?” Or (on Jim Carrey’s “The Grinch”) one kid said, “We saw ‘The Grinch’” to which his smarty-pants friend replies, “That’s not real, you know.” Art Linkletter was right: Kids do say the darnedest things.


Miranda and Ben have moved to near Charlotte, NC. Ben is in his 3rd year of medical school, and Miran is a 1st grade teacher. Ben & Miran went to their first NASCAR race in October at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. They also went to see Ben’s school Va. Tech beat Fla. State in Charlotte in the ACC championship football game. Miran turns 26 on the 21st. On that day we’ll run down the 10 cutest moments in Miranda history, including the time she reminded me, “Dad, I’m past the cute stage.” They arrive here on 12/21 – Miranda’s 26th birthday and will be here for a couple weeks with their 2 sweet doggies, Mahalo and Brutus (aka “Cletus”).


Tash (19) is majoring in elementary special education at the University of Louisville. She finished her second season as a starting defender on the 13-7 Cardinal field hockey team. When she was 4 we were at a Buckeye Football game and cheering “Defense, Defense!” She was so loud and enthusiastic, but then she turned to me and asked, “What’s ‘defense’ mean again Daddy?” She knows what it means now. She went to her very first Kentucky Derby last spring and loves living in the Ville. There are some eclectic restaurants there that nobody goes to anymore because they’re always too crowded.


Clarissa (“C”, 17) is a junior at Columbus Academy. She wants to be a Dentist. She’s taking ceramics and making beautiful pots on the wheel. She gives her junior speech on January 6th in front of the entire school. She was all-Ohio & MVP on a phenomenal field hockey team that went 19-1 and made it to the state Final Four. She had a winning goal in the final minutes to beat Upper Arlington 1-0, and last spring during lacrosse season, she scored the winning goal with just 3 seconds to play in a 10-9 thriller over Dublin Jerome. I told her that she was dropped at our door steps as a baby by aliens from a distant planet where all the inhabitants play field hockey incessantly in order to survive. It is called Eastern Pennsylvania. The aliens wanted her raised by a kindly couple, but the intended "144 Misty Oak" address was mistakenly written as "114 Misty Oak" and they found us instead.


I’ve had a great & busy year in the law practice. Even was hired as an expert by a bank to evaluate and opine on the attorney’s fees of the prevailing side in an $18 million case. Nothing like undergoing 3 hours of cross-examination to keep you humble. (“Now, come now Mr. Leickly, surely you’re not saying….”, “Now Mr. Leickly, isn’t it true…”, “I have no further questions of this witness…” – All those lines I’ve used before.) I also negotiated & bought a new Nissan Versa this year. As usual, I drove a hard bargain and refused to pay one dime over the sticker price.


New to the fam this year: Nephew Jonathan and fiancée had a girl, Addyson. Nephew Brandon and his wife Amanda just had their first born, Calvin Leickly. Niece Bethany and her husband Larry had their second child Miles. Congrats also to grandparents: Danny & Carol Saunders (to Addyson) & Fred & Linda Leickly (to Miles & Calvin).
As the Gaithers song goes: “How sweet to hold a newborn baby; and feel the pride and joy he gives. But greater still, the calm assurance, that child can face uncertain days because Jesus lives.” Merry Christmas and remember it’s His birthday (not yours) – do something for Him to celebrate it.

Son in law Ben Bring takes his medical boards (following his 2nd year of medical school at Virginia Tech) on Tuesday 7/20/10. He and my oldest daughter Miranda (Ben’s wife) then immediately move to Salisbury, N.C. near Charlotte. Ben will do his 3rd year of medical school there. Miranda was able to land a first grade teaching position at a local school district. She’ll be a fantastic addition to her new school. My prayer for her is that she keeps the administrators and the 2 other current 1st grade teachers happy by working as a team. If she does that, then there will nothing impeding her ability to effectively teach her kids.
Natasha (19) has returned to U of Louisville to take two summer classes and to train with the trainers there. She wants to go into elementary special education. She starts at left back for the Cardinal field hockey team. U of L has virtually everyone back from their 12-8 team last year and plans on making some noise in the Big East and maybe beyond. Tash has our mini-van with her and has a bike as well to get around that large campus. My prayer for her is that she use her voice and trust in her voice since she’s got great instincts for doing the right thing at the right time.
Clarissa (17) left this morning on a mission trip to Leslie County, Kentucky with the Appalachian Service Project. She’ll be there until next Saturday (7/24). I told her that my pray for her and the gang is that they not think of it as work or earning anything, but rather as a chance to reflect the love that Jesus has shown her. That’s it – simple as that: blessed in order to be a blessing.
Wife Debbie did some traveling this summer, driving to Amherst , MA (UMass) for a College Connection field hockey event for Clarissa and then driving to Williamsburg, VA for a field hockey competition in late June. Brother Dan and I drove Clarissa to St. Louis over the 4th of July weekend for a field hockey tournament there. We met old friend Bob Gelchion (in the photos) who was on his way from Denver to Bethlehem, PA to help his brother’s family while his brother was having surgery. Also saw Pastor Hal (in photos) and his wife, Pam, who came over for the tournament. Hal and I played high school football together. He was right tackle and I was right guard on the Rhodes High School football team in Cleveland. Hal could never remember the snap count and would always ask me at the line of scrimmage. Once, against St. Ignatius, we were at the line and he asked, “James, what’s the count?” Trying to talk through my mouth piece and also not be obvious, I mumbled “It’s on two”. Hal said “What?” I mumbled out again, “It’s on two”. Again, Hal asks . “What?” and the Ignatius linebacker across the line says, “He said it’s on one.”
A photo I took of Clarissa on July 3rd at the St. Louis tournament is on the web page in the Athlete’s section. She hopes to play in college.
I’ve also updated the “Decisions” section of the web page to reflect a Franklin County Court of Appeals section that I won earlier this year. I represented a property manager sued by the rental property owner that he worked for. The plaintiff sued because there were more tenants in the house than were on the lease and the tenants ended up trashing the place. We prevailed on summary judgment on an exculpation clause in the management agreement that stated that there was no liability by the manager to the owner unless there was intentional misconduct or gross negligence. The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s decision. This one was interesting because: 1. The opposition was an old friend from Church (Stonybrook); and 2. My client was my former property manager for my rental properties. I had replaced him several years ago in that role. I’d joke to him, “Hmmm…., if I lose this case, then maybe I can sue you?” I argued through the case and to opposing counsel, “Isn’t the proper remedy when the manager isn’t doing his job to just fire the manager?” I’ve never heard of the late George Steinbrenner, Yankee owner, suing any of the many managers he fired.
I had a client/businessman say to me a few weeks ago, “Yeah Jim, you may think outside the box, but for us there is not box.” A great comment on creativity. I’ve written that on my refrigerator white board in a place of honor right next to “Pay mortgage 8/5”, “Don’t just play Church, be the Church” and “Muscles love water.” That last one came about because I’ve been battling a pulled rhomboid muscle in my upper back since Memorial Day weekend.
Finally, went to Comfest a couple weeks ago with my friend Lou Jannazo. Lou and I worked security at the annual 3 day festival several years ago. It’s kind of a hippy, tie-dye, “give peace a chance” kind of a theme. I hadn’t been there for many years. Lou wanted to buy a Comfest cap and I noticed the logo is now a series of circles with no doubt some deep meaning, but it wasn’t the yin and yang symbol that I remembered being on the caps and T shirts below the word “Comfest”. I had fun with the vendor and told him that I’d heard that they had to get rid of the old logo because the “Taoists had sent a cease and desist letter that threatened litigation”. What’s this world coming to?

Welcome Miles Maximilian King to the family! Born Wednesday, April 28, 2010 to niece Bethany (brother Fred’s and sister-in-law Linda’s daughter) and her husband, Larry King.
College freshman daughter Natasha is now home after her first full year at the University of Louisville. At the U of L, the spring semester ends right before the Kentucky Derby. The kids typically stay for the Derby celebration and then head home. Tash experienced for the first time the Americana that is the infield at the Derby – mudsliding, mudwrestling, mosh pits, mosh surfing.


Oldest daughter Miranda Bring and husband Ben will be moving in late July to Concord, NC near Charlotte where Ben will do his third year of medical school. Miranda is trying to find an elementary school teaching job there.


10th grade daughter Clarissa has been named lacrosse athlete of the week in the Columbus Dispatch. The photo and story appear this coming Saturday. She has 20 goals for the 9-3 Columbus Academy Vikings. She got to see U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder who spoke at the school yesterday. All the questions were preapproved and none of them included asking the controversial, but highly interesting question: Why is the government going to try the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a Federal courthouse in New York City as opposed to by a military tribunal elsewhere (anywhere else, like, perhaps Gitmo). C said the AG was very funny and engaging and really enjoyed his talk.


Our new senior pastor at Stonybrook United Methodist Church, Michael Bowie, gave his first sermon last Sunday. Dr. Bowie was phenomenal. He is from Texas and is Stonybrook’s first ever African-American pastor. He now is shepherd to a nearly all-white congregation. There’s been talk about both sides adapting to each other over time. I disagree. I hope any new pastor can come to a fertile field of unconditional love and just do what he or she has been anointed by God to do. I would hate to see Pastor Mike operate on less than all cylinders just to appease all the many factions of a large congregation. I’d rather him operate at full throttle in the areas of his spiritual gifts. The Story of Leickly Chili: I was an adult when I finally learned that chili was not eaten on a plate with a fork (not in a bowl and with a spoon) or that it included anything other than just 3 ingredients: ground beef, kidney beans and tomato paste. That’s what chili was to us growing up because that’s what it took to satisfy the varying tastes of a family of 7. You end up with mediocrity. Even more interesting is that fact that we all actually looked forward to chili night. We liked the three-ingredient delight. That’s what average does – you develop a taste for it instead of for the excellent. I could be wrong but I don’t believe any of my brothers have probably eaten Leickly chili in decades. The only exception would be Dan.

Natasha returns home for 2 months on May 3rd, completing her first full year at the University of Louisville. Debbie and I saw the spring field hockey tournament at Louisville last weekend. Tash looked great, taking a big step since we last saw her play in November. Can’t wait to have her back.

Miranda and Ben were here for Easter. Miranda set me up on Face Book. Miranda’s teaching year will be a little extended (she’s a Title I teacher) due to all the school cancelations in eastern Virginia due to the snow.

Clarissa, a sophomore at Columbus Academy, scored both the tying and then the winning goal with 3.2 seconds left in the game as the visiting Viking lacrosse team beat Dublin Jerome 10-9 in an important Division II matchup last Thursday. The team is 6-1 and C has 12 goals on the season.

Wife Debbie, daughter Clarissa and I visited daughter Miranda and her husband Ben the weekend before last in Blacksburg, VA. Had a wonderful time with them and their two cute pooches. We visited the Anatomy Lab at the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (“VCOM”) where Ben’s a 2nd year med student. We saw the incredible engineering of the human body by looking a the cadaver of an 80 year lady. Truly remarkable how all these body systems and specialized organs exist in such close proximity to each other in a tiny 5 foot, 90 pound body. Miranda and Ben will be moving to the Charlotte, NC area in late July. Ben will be doing his 3rd year of med school at a hospital in nearby Salisbury, NC.

Daughter Natasha just returned from a trip with the University of Louisville Cardinals’ field hockey team to Buenos Aries, Argentina. They played for club teams there. Tash wrote a blog entry that’s on the U of L field hockey web site. They saw the gauchos and visited the gravesite of Eva Perron. Tash said nobody else on the team knew about or had heard of any of the songs from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Evita”. I had asked Tash if she and her friends were going around singing: “What’s new Buenos Aries…” or “Don’t cry for me Argentina”. She officially starts spring practice now and has a scrimmage at the University of Indiana this Saturday. Classes at U of L end the week before the Kentucky Derby, so Tash should be home all of May and, hopefully much of June.

Clarissa is at lacrosse camp this week with her high school team. So Deb and I empty nesters for a few more days. They start their season 4/1 against Thomas Worthington. C’s been playing a lot of field hockey through the winter with the Coyote Club team. The Coyotes finished 2nd in a National Indoor Tournament (“NIT”) qualifier in St. Louis in late January and then competed in the NIT in Virginia March 5-7. For playing in a highly ranked pool, they did very well. They finished 3-4.

Grandma and Uncle Dan, Ben and Miranda are planning on being here for the Easter weekend.

I get the honor of leading the next two Saturday morning Bible studies. We’re in chapters 2-3 of Ephesians. Been losing some weight. Down to around 240 from about 255. A lot of exercise and a lot of eating produce.

The blog's been down. GoDaddy did some updates and caused it to get knocked out. At least I'm back up, thanks to my webmaster Uncle Tim Quinn.

Youngest daughter Clarissa asked me to do a "Marine" story about my Dad, her Grandpa, for a project she's doing in American History. Below is my story. I was honored to do it and am honored to restart the blog with this remembrance.

My story about Clarissa and her sisters Miranda and Nataha’s grandpa:




My story about Clarissa’s grandpa

My Step Mother, Lenora, who was married to my Dad for 33 years before his death in 2003, always maintained that he was a strict old Marine. She’d say that Edward Leickly ran his four boys like a platoon. I never really quite saw it that way. Frankly, we weren’t overly rambunctious kids, but I thought that we pretty much did what we wanted. When we went too far, that’s when the strict Marine came out. An example was my solo 6-hour bike ride one evening throughout the near west side of Cleveland without any contact with home. Returning home after avoiding Dad’s search detail, I found that punishment was quick and severe. He’d explode, dish out some Marine justice, then it was back to the same old loving dear old Dad. After you paid your price by maybe taking a slap or two and getting yelled at (no one could yell as loud as that old first sergeant), then everything was back to normal as far as he was concerned. If we wanted to sulk for hours over our punishment, that was our prerogative, but he was back to normal immediately: giving out hugs, kisses, good natured teases and a corny, but lovable, sense of humor. We always knew we were loved. We always knew not only that we where in a family, but that he was thrilled we were part of his family. It was that way no matter how badly we ran our paper routes or how lazy we were with the chores or how disrespectful we were of the neighbors. Dad was semper fidelis: always faithful.

I was born 13 years after he and his Marine comrades won the battle of Okinawa, the last major campaign of World War II. His fighting days were long over, but not the toughness he had. I mentioned when I had the privilege of offering a eulogy at his funeral that my mother died when I was nine, my younger sister Nancy died when I was 16 and my Dad had lost his job for a period during my childhood. This was his wife, Lucille, dying in 1967 at the age of 46 to cancer. This was his little girl, Nancy, his only daughter, dying at the age of 14 to leukemia. This was his job, his mortgage, his bills, his family. Being a dad now, I’m not sure how I could react to all that. I do know that in spite of it all, I’ve never seen my childhood as anything but happy. That was God’s doing, but God did it by giving me a old loving Marine for my earthly father. Food was always on the table. We got to go to high school football and basketball games and then MacDonald’s or Arby’s or the Red Barn thereafter. There were always sports. He paved over practically the entire backyard in order to put in a basketball court for his four sons and the neighborhood kids – He cared more about raising boys than grass. Christmas always came and he was Santa without the red suit and beard. (I think there was something from his Marine background that would never allow him to abide facial hair.)

During the tragedies that struck him and our family, there was never a feeling of desperation or hopelessness or defeat. We felt loved and we were happy. He’d always joked that Marines never retreated, “they just advance to the rear.” He certainly never retreated on his family and whenever a Marine “advances to the rear” it is because he’s covering someone else’s back. Semper Fi.

I think he and a lot of what Tom Brokaw call “The Greatest Generation”, showed their love a lot more than they talked about it. Their love came from doing their duty – doing the things they’re supposed to do. He helped a lot of people that I know he didn’t particularly care for on a personal level. “Like him? What does that have to do with anything?” -- that was his attitude. Just like taking care of your brothers in arms during the heat of battle – protecting each other by doing their duty. Sometimes duty was ugly. He told me that while a main invading force of Marines slammed into Okinawa in a frontal assault. The Navy delivered a smaller force, including my Dad, where the island narrows behind the enemy lines in order to cut off the retreating Japanese. The desperate defenders found themselves between the classic Marine hammer and anvil and were desperate to plow through the Americans to avoid death or capture. Dad said the lines were confused and there was no opportunity to take prisoners. He took no joy in this, but he had to fight ruthlessly in order to protect himself and the men around him who counted on him. He was willing to battle and do whatever it takes to do his duty and to accomplish his mission. That is something that never changed for him long after he fought his last battle in the Pacific. The battles that the Marine Corps prepared him to fight after his return from the war were of no less significance than the battles of Tarawa and Okinawa.

Edward A. Leickly died April 5, 2003 at the age of 80. There was a Marine Corps honor guard at his funeral. The flag draping his coffin was folded and presented to his widow, Lenora Leickly, on behalf of Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush and on behalf of a grateful and free nation.

Oldest daughter, Miranda Bring (25), was hired at Dublin Elementary School yesterday to teach the remainder of the school year. Dublin Elementary is in a community close to where Miranda lives with her husband Ben in Blacksburg, VA.� Ben's in the 2^nd half of his 2^nd year at the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (�VCom�) affiliated with Virginia Tech. They will be moving to another town after this school year in either Virginia (possibly Newport News) or in the Carolinas (possibly Spartansburg, NC) for his 3^rd year of study.

Niece Bethany King and husband Larry of the D.C. area are expecting their second child, a boy, on or about 4/30/10. Bethany is the daughter of my oldest brother, Fred, and his wife Linda. Bethany and Larry had their daughter, Stella, in 2008. This will be the second grandkid for Fred and Linda.

Our middle daughter Tashi (18) is back at class at U of Louisville, taking among other things, chemistry and biology. She starts the dreaded winter conditioning Monday for field hockey.

Youngest daughter Clarissa (16) was selected to an indoor field hockey club team called the "Coyotes" and will play in a National Indoor Tournament qualifier in St. Louis on the last Sunday of this month.A week later she heads to Orlando for an outdoor festival to play before college coaches.She's a sophomore.

Wife Debbie and I saw Sherlock Holmes last week. First movie in probably 9 months. It was good. Sherlock says something about not being interested in a theory, but in facts. Having a theory, he reasoned, caused one to only pursue facts that fit that theory or to color the facts to fit. Good advice.

Saw the NCAA national championship football game last night. U of Texas QB Colt McCoy, one of the best QBs in Texas history, prepared his whole football career for this moment. He was injured on the game's 5^th play with his team leading 3-0. Without their star and leader, the Longhorns fell to Alabama. After the game, McCoy fought back tears, saying: I'd given anything to be out there with my team. I don't know these things happen, but I do know that I will still give God all the glory. I'm still standing on the rock. Could be that his faith in face of such a devastating setback will resonate louder than winning the championship.

Christmas 2009 was wonderful.  Oldest daughter Miranda Bring, who turned 25 on 12/21/09, was home with husband Ben and their two dogs, Mahollo and Cletus.  The dogs make our partially crippled dog, Teddy, feel young again.  Although Miranda was not in Columbus for her actual birthday on the 21^st because of work, Mom baked a cake and we had beef stew and celebrated Miranda’s birthday on Monday the 28^th.  As is customary, we went through the “10 Cutest Moments” in Miranda history, one of which was her pronouncement many many years ago that “Dad, I’m past the cute stage.”

 

Step Mom Lenora and brother, “Uncle Dan” were here for Christmas.  Mom cooked the ham, layered cheese potatoes, pies and cookies.  Saturday night, all of us ate at Cain’s (chicken fingers) courtesy of daughter Clarissa’s Columbus Dispatch Athlete of the Week that she earned with the game-winning assist in the regular season game against arch rival Watterson.  Athlete of the Week winners get a certificate for 8 free Cain’s meals.  Middle daughter Tash earned that honor last year and we took advantage of that at Christmas time 2008.  We’re hopeful Dan and Lenora can return for New Year’s Day and the Ohio State v. Oregon Rose Bowl game.

 

On 12/23 we saw high school buddy ret’d Air Force Lt. Col. John Jannazo and his kids, grandkid as well as John’s brother Lou, wife Annie and their two sons.  We played a touch football game on the tennis courts of nearby Bishop Watterson High School.  Lou and Annie live just 2 blocks from Watterson in the Clintonville area of Columbus.  It was great to see John, Lou and the families again.  We sat around, ate and talked of old times.  John went through a rough, rough year going through a divorce with wife Cindy.  Cindy was also a friend of ours from the James Ford Rhodes High School class of 1975.  They had been married for over 25 years.

 

Clarissa has finished her classes at driving school and is getting close to getting her license.  Tash goes back to the University of Louisville Tuesday for her 2^nd semester.  We got her a temporary fitness pass to Lifetime and she and I have worked out every other day. 

 

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that friend Denny Roe had died.  His wonderful wife, Sally, lost her battle with cancer and was buried this morning.  She was 82.