Not by Accident

Not by Accident: Scott Ruskin and Heroes -Episode25

Scott Ruskin is a hero of the devastating and tragic central Texas floods of July 2025.  His story is inspiring but somewhat unexpected.  He helped save 165 victims in his first mission as a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer.  He volunteered to get out of the rescue heicopter so there would be more room for the crew to load survivors they would dramaticall rescue in the flood waters.  He found himself as the only rescuer to organize, triage, administer first aid, protect and coordinate the evacuation of scores of children from Camp Mystic.  In the chaos and hell of an unfathomable disaster, Petty Officer Ruskin was salvation to scores of children and adults. We need heros in our society.  Sometimes the work they do is not hanging from a cable connected to a helicopter.  Sometimes they swim through raging waters and sometimes they run into burning buildings.  But more often heroes quietly do less dramatic work or simply keep committments or consistently show up and bear heavy burdens that others walk away from.  Scott Ruskin was unknown before this event.  He was not hitting home runs or donating millions to a charity, on the front page of newspapers or a social media influencer.  He was quitely and thanklessly preparing, training and learning first aid and protocols for disaster response.  He, like teachers, parents and many obscure people was doing the hard work so that they might be ready to make a difference.  We have a mistaken idea that heroes wear capes, are super-human, win the super bowl or world cup for their teams.  No, some of the most amazing super people quietly do a hard, thankless job, or fight through chronic pain or are kind even when others are mean to them.  You can be a super hero but it demaands having character and doing some hard things, preparing yourself and making good decisions.  Story told by Kagan Dunlap (Instragram site)

Not by Accident: Changing a Losing Culture -Episode24

People like to win and to be associated with winning teams or efforts.  But the truth of life is that we will often fall short individually and as part of a team.  What happens when that team can't seem to come out on top?  What happens when one loss becomes two, then ten then fifty?   This is not uncommone either for the girls under 10 youth soccer team I coached or for the Detroit Lions of the NFL.  The point is, it can (and as I suggest, will) happen to many of us.  One important think to keep in mind is that there is a HUGE difference between losing and being a loser.  Our wins or losses don't need to become a reflection on us.  They definitley do not need to define us.  There are great things to be learned in the losses we encounter in life.  Loss is actually what makes us stronger, smarter and more committed to winning.  When trapped in a cycle of loss sometimes it takes a coach who sees in us what we may have forgotten.  Sometimes an individual player or participant can spark a change that impacts the entire organization.  YOU can be that spark.    Episode story taken from Joan W. Young's BYU Devotional speech, "Seeing as Far as Forever", June 24, 2003.

Not by Accident: The Dark Side of Education -Episode23

Education is one of the top 5 factors that not only transforms an individual's life (including their spouse, children and generations to come) but also to improve the world and mankind's condition.  As access to learning (education being the formal system to facilitate learning... at least that is the objective) swept across society like a wave with the invention of the printing press and other monumental changes that took place in the time period we generally know as "the enlightenment", life on earth began to change.  For the previous five or ten thousand years life was lived within 20 miles of your birtthplace; locomotion remained walking, running or domesticated animals and simple carts; technology was generally static; daily life consisted of subsistence, illness and death (of infants, children and what are now minor diseases).  Education changed all this.  I encourage education.  I run a college. I have no hesitation championing the virtues of education.  Even with all this, education has a dark side.  This is largely because human nature has a dark side.  Education is little more than a gun, knife or car.  All are tremendously valuable but can be wielded to great harm, opppression and brutality.  Too often educated people think they are better than the less educated.  They presume to have some moral superiority over those without letters (MD, Ph.D., MA, BS, Esq.) behind their names.  Thy trade education for arrogance among many other things.  This episode explores this tragic and dangerous propensity.  Education and learning should always lead to humility and compassion, especially for people of character..But like so many things, this does not happen by accident.

Not by Accident: Leadership -Episode22

What is leadership and being a leader?  While it involves many things -knowledge, judgement, persistence, discipline, motivating others, humiliy- it is fundamentally about serving those you lead and being willing to do the hard work alongside the lowliest follower.  In fact, as a side note, one of the best ways to prepare to be a great leader is to be a great follower.  In so many aspects of life, experiencing the opposite informs and qualfies us.  Those who endure sadness and disappointment really comprehend joy and achievement.  Those who are once lonely become the best and most loyal friends. The most successful usually expereicned great failure. The best bosses are those who were at one time a regular employee and worked their way to the top from position to position.  So it is that great leaders spent much time  perfecting themselves as a follower  -learning the good and the bad from those who led them. Leadership is not in a title like manager, captain, vice-president, boss, oldest child; leadership is in behavior.  You don't need a title to lead, in fact you don't need your peer group or society to recognize you as a leader.  You just need to get your hands dirty doing the hard work, mix that with active concern for others (meaning actually setting your wants and comforts second to the needs of others) and you are well on your way to being a leader.  It may not happen right away and you may not have a title commonly associated with leaders, but true leaders don't need, in fact they don't care about a title.  They care about others.  This episode provides a couple examples of famous leaders and their behavior.

Not by Accident: Holidays and Holy Days -Episode21

Valentines day, Veteran's day, the 4th of July, Presidents day and Martlin Luther King, Jr. day are all holidays where we celebrate the sacrifice and character of a person or a group of people whose lives illustrations of the things (virtues and actions) we honor in our society.  Unfortunately most of these days have devolved into recreation and leisure.  We don't really comprehend the courage and scarifices of those at the core of the holiday.  The word "holiday" itself has transformed  -and not in a good way- from its original meaning.  Fortunately it has not alltogether lost its meaning.  We can still hear the original:  holy day.  Holidays are supposed to be holy days where we recognize that which is sacred, of infinite value and the highest level of "special".   These days, the people after whom they are named, should not just be honored.  We would have fallen way short of the reason for holy days  if all we do is remember... we should be emulating, replicating and tying to be like them.  That is, making a study of their character, of their sacrifices and of their objectives.  We minimize and mock their amazing lives when Independence day is only about hotdogs, baseball and the beach or when Valentine's day becomes flowers, jewlery and sexual expressions.  Declarations of love and long weekend camp trips are clearly not bad things, I enjoy both, but if that is all holy days have become, it is not a great sign for our society.  What we do and give, important as it is, does not even compare to the critical question of who we have become: a person, a family, a community and a nation of courage, virture and character.