Ask Cowboys Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer, who unexpectedly lost his beautiful wife to natural causes in 2009 at age 50, how to master challenges like the sudden death of a spouse.
Ask him how he coped when he got a phone call that his son and best friend, a talented NFL coach himself, was found dead on his couch alone in his apartment at age 38.
The sudden death of a spouse or a child ranks number one as life’s most significant stressor.
Ask Coach Zimmer how football, the game he loves, knows, and coaches is a metaphor for handling life’s toughest challenges.
Robert Fulghum may have found peace and purpose for us all when he posed a question to Alexander Papaderos, PhD Philosophy, during a lecture at the site of a Nazi massacre in Crete during WWII.
“What is the meaning of life?”
Fulghum queried Papaderos, the founder of a peace institute built on the site.
Alexander Papaderos was taking questions after his lecture attended by Fulghum.
The famous author, like the rest of the crowd, was horrified after hearing how the Nazis . . .
decimated Papaderos’ village
executed hundreds of the villagers
threw Papaderos into a concentration camp
And now he stands before this crowd, calmly lecturing and taking questions about this unspeakable murder.
As Fulghum asks about the purpose of life, nervous laughter engulfs the daring question.
Every great movement in politics, faith, or business is open to change.
“We possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule or managed our resources and time so as to insure their fulfillment.” John F. Kennedy, Speech to Congress, May 1961.
Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon by the end of that decade.
What are political leaders inspiring us to do now?