When I say my son August plays Quidditch for the University of Southern California, one of two things seem to occur. Either the person looks at me like I am carnival side show freak, or they ask, “Does August fly?” Both responses deserve a bitch slap.
However, now I can announce that the International Quidditch Association (IQA) selected August, out of thousands of players, to represent the United States at the Olympics in London! He is one of 21 athletes chosen to be on the first Quidditch Team USA. The USA will play Australia, France, and the UK in exposition games before the Olympics in July.
A surprising number of collegiate players grew up reading about the once fictional sport of Quidditch in the Harry Potter novels. The rules of Muggle Quidditch are fairly complicated, but it is described as a full contact cross between basketball, tag, rugby and dodgeball. The players don’t fly on broomsticks as J.K. Rowlings dreamed up, but the players do have to have a broom between their legs at all times.
Like in the novels, there are seven players on the pitch per team, three chasers, two beaters, one keeper and one seeker. Chasers run down the pitch passing a volleyball that serves as the Quaffle, and try to score in any of the opposing team’s three goal hoops. Beaters use dodge balls acting as bludgers to try to stop the play of players from the other team. When hit with a bludger, players must run back and touch their goal hoops before reentering play. The keeper acts as goalie. The seeker tries to catch the snitch. The snitch is a neutral player dressed in all yellow with snitch handing from his shorts. He or she can leave the pitch boundaries, and use any means to avoid capture.
Adapted seven years ago by students at Middlebury College in Vermont, the sport is now played at more than 600 universities and high schools in the country, which play throughout the year in leagues and at invitational’s according to the IQA. I went to see USC in the World Cup in New York City last November and 94 college teams from around the country attended. With growth and participation statistics like this, it is clear that Quidditch is not just a fad.
What is probably most surprising to observers, after the brooms between the players’ legs, is that Quidditch is a co-ed sport. There is a gender rule in the official handbook that states for every five players of one gender there must be two of the other. When females have a chance to equal males in a sport, they rise to the occasion and some of the best Quidditch players I have seen are female. These gals are not afraid to get tackled and all the players on the field are evaluated on skill not gender. It seems like magic or a miracle that longstanding stereotypes are being broken down so quickly in a nationally recognized sport. Maybe it is due to the origin of the sport or maybe this sport attracts a type of open-minded athlete. Either way, the gender lines are blurred in Quidditch.
When Quidditch is internationally recognized at the Olympics this summer, the world will witness the athleticism of Quidditch’s finest, and understand that this sport takes concentration, determination and skill. I am thrilled to be able to witness this historic event and honored to say that my son August is among the best in the world at this sport.
August received a full academic scholarship to USC, and I never dreamed that the summer after his freshmen year he would be selected to go to the Olympics in any sport, much less a sport that appears within the pages of fiction novels we began to read together when he was in the first grade. Now who says there’s no such thing as magic?

Is it just my husband or are other men angry, confused and depressed? I can’t walk down the sidewalk without bumping into a man who might be suffering from alcoholism, workaholics, hypertension, or chronic stress. It is as if there is massive middle-aged fraternity, and these self-destructive actions are the requirements for recognition.

It’s obvious that men are in a lot of pain.

However this pain is becoming a catalyst for countless numbers of men to explore the emotional and spiritual geography of their lives as well as create a new vision for what it means to be a man. Workshops, retreats, and men’s groups are providing safe havens where men talk from the heart instead of the head. A commonly held perception is that men express their spirituality in more primal, aggressive modes like beating a drum. Rather, what seems to be emerging in men is a more reflective spirituality that focuses on cultivating inner qualities such as compassion, intimate connection, and mutual respect rather than power and authority. Some are saying their spiritual work is helping them find inner peace, live more authentic lives, and have more fulfilling relationships, especially with women.

During the industrial revolution of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, a seismic shift occurred economically, socially and culturally. For men and their sons, and consequently for society as a whole, this shift proved catastrophic. Men left their homes to seek work many miles from the common thread that historically united grandfathers, fathers and sons. This was a tribal thread that had once woven the males into the fabric of lineage of men that had come before them. Older men had always initiated the younger boys into the ways of men, guiding them to find a balance point deep within their masculine souls. Today, ceremonial rites of passage are all but extinct in our society. As a result, most boys are not spiritually awakened. They do not grow up to feel competent around other men and with their own manhood. They then have sons of their own and the cycle continues. If we are to find new ways to initiate our boys and share with them their spiritual and masculine legacies, it will only come after we all do a great deal of soul searching. This search can lead to spiritual insight and a movement towards embodiment, transformation, and service.
The challenge many men are encountering now on their path to spiritual awakening is how to integrate these more sensitive qualities into their lifestyle without losing touch with their masculine warrior energy. The goal, it seems is not to become a sensitive, tie-dye wearing new age guy but instead embrace one’s wholeness. For many men the greatest fear they have to overcome during their spiritual passage is facing prolonged uncertainty. The void that all spiritual warriors pass through between the disintegration of the old unconscious self and the emergence of the new conscious self is terrifying.

Slowing the pace, listening more attentively, and cultivating inner awareness are ways men are making healthier and more conscious choices. Men are also seeking spiritual guidance and inspiration from the various wisdom traditions around the world. What they are learning from their search into the sacred text and teachings of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, mythology and Native American culture is that they are experiencing what every spiritual warrior has experienced through out the history of time – the loss of self. As horrifying as this is for many men, they are also realizing that not having a fixed identity is helping them discover their more true empowered selves, moment by moment. Slowly, one by one, men are going through the transformational fire of death and rebirth and coming more fully into their wholeness, into their power, and into their humanity. And, because of this the world is becoming a better place for everyone.

The news that Jerry Sandusky was arrested and is now standing in a court room should not come as a shock to anyone. With the sickening allegations of more boys and more rapes, it is just a matter of time before Sandusky will do jail time.

I wonder if he wore Penn State blue? How is it possible that someone…ANYONE.. from the university hasn’t asked him to hand over all his Penn State attire? Where are the Penn State leaders in this deal? Again, no where to be found.

Sunday is my birthday and I ordered myself two birthday cakes, red velvet and a coconut. I bought two because I couldn’t decide which one to buy. When they arrived yesterday my husband got angry and said it was too extravagant. Maybe that is true on some level. But, it occurred to me that my husband and actually most of the people I know live from the outside in.

My husband is concerned about costs and he is striving for security, and who isn’t? However, this “security” that my husband and most seek means that they have enough money to pay the bills. It does certainly include that, but there is a deeper security, one that comes only through a deep and abiding faith, a faith in life, a faith in ourselves, and a deep abiding faith in God. There is no security in life without faith. There is no gratification of feeling of safety without faith.

I don’t think there is anything in us that is separate from God, except our belief. We seem to have that freedom. And if that is true, how can we hope to have security unless that security is based on our own unity with God and our own Divinity?

But how can we hope to have a sense of security if we separate ourselves in belief from that which alone can give it?

Your mind is God’s mind in you, as you. Your spirit is the Spirit of God in you, as you.

Here and here alone is security; here and here alone is peace. It is the wind, the waves, the laughter of my son Sam, the beauty of West Texas sunset, and maybe, just maybe in the joy I will get out of eating two birthday cakes.

I met Steve Jobs in the mid 1980’s and to me; it was like meeting a rock star. I bought all the Apple stock I could afford years ago, thank goodness, and I bet it will be the first trillion-dollar company.

Here are some things you may not know about Steve Jobs. He’s dyslexic. So is my son Sam, so I have Steve Jobs photo in Sam’s room along with Walt Disney, Steven Spielberg, John F Kennedy, and many more successful dyslexic people. From Sam I understand that dyslexic people see ideas in complete pictures. Albert Einstein was said to have “seen” the theory of relativity in a download picture version while taking a shower. What this tells me is Steve Jobs had to overcome a great deal while growing up in our traditional thinking US school system.

Steve Jobs was adopted. His graduate student parents decided they weren’t ready for a child. The biological parents had one request; that Steve be adopted by college educated people. Steve’s adopted parents lied, his mother never graduated from high school, but they got Steve anyway.

His same biological parents had another child, Mona Simpson, who is a famous novelist. Wow. Those parents have some incredible genes!

One semester at Reed College is all the college Steve had, ONE semester!

He’s a Zen Buddhist, he even considered becoming a monk.

Steve Jobs used LSD, something I will not share with my freshmen at USC son August.

The tag line for Apple’s advertising campaign for years was “Think Different.” Steve Jobs certainly has, his whole life.

Thank you Steve Jobs for sharing your ideas and vision with the rest of the world. I will be keeping you close in my thoughts and prayers as you make your new transitions.