Chip Ueltschey Family

Here are some great pictures from the Rose Parade that runs through downtown Portland. We really enjoyed our time with the kids and my mom who was visiting. They put on quite a show.

Yo-yo’s and turtles are my favorite friends.
I keep laundry in my basket brain pantyhose holder.
Try not to let the light blow you away.
The only thing we have is having things.
That is sad.

These posts our post up post it notes
On the edges of our self reality
Not going places that we avoid
Naturally
It keeps us going back and back and back
To the haunts
The hovels
Our dirty little secret mother’s involatile stamp
We are the same
We are the same as we were
Only different.

Life comes in from the outside
Even though it is inside
And the press of that foriegn reality
So immutable, yet always changing
Compresses our ego centric views
And forces us into the molds that we held in distain
Are we become the very thing we hated
Well weren’t we always so?

I cannot keep it back, this self depreciation
This self loathing that is so common and yet so denied
There are two kinds of people in this world
Me
And everyone else.
Don’t go away from your own freedom.
It is your own mind.
Don’t lie to yourself.
Right?

-chip
5.22.2008

I just read an interesting article on financial bubbles.
Surely people are getting tired of all the talk of economic woes, and yet I think the ongoing economic crisis will take and even more central position in our lives over the next months.

Here is a web album with some pictures from around our new abode, it snowed.

Like so many cool people we are using picasaweb now. It is cool, let me tell you.

I love games. Board games, computer games and sports if I wasn’t so lazy. I like to play and I am good at competing.

I don’t always win, though; and this has been a source of some trouble. Life has a way of putting us in our places, and I have had my share of opportunities to reflect on what it means to lose, either to an opponent or to one’s self.

Performance
Over ten years ago I chanced to read an article on The Ideal Performance State. I have found much general truth in this idea that there are four mental states relating to performance:

• Tanking - Characterized by an effort to avoid losing by not trying.
• Anger - Usually connected to an attempt to show that the present performance is the anomaly. “Of course I am better than this. You can see how angry I am about this poor performance.”
• Choking - When the pressure to compete causes performance to fall below the true capabilities of the performer.
• Ideal Performance State

Choking is most often associated with fear, but fear is the basis of the other two mechanisms for diffusing the psychological pressure to perform. For tanking it is mostly the fear of losing that prevents someone from engaging in the competition. For anger the self image of the performer is inconsistent with the performance, and this is a fact that the performer fears facing. This anger-fear is most directly concerned with the performer’s image of self, but may be exacerbated by the observations of others. When choking the performer is essentially intimidated by the opponent or the situation. Choking readily devolves into anger or tanking, and it should be noted that this is the worst thing that can happen. It is far better to choke than to engage in anger, just as it is far better to be angry than to tank.

Pride comes before a fall. Humility is often contrasted with confidence, which is the wrong contrast. True confidence grows out of humility. At its root humility is being honest with yourself. My parents used to tell me not to lie to myself, and I didn’t understand it. You are as good as you are. You should never wish to be viewed as any better than that. If you embrace humility you will have no motivation to tank because you can lose, and you will not get angry because you will have a right judgment of your own ability.

Choking is a little more involved because it usually implies a degree of competence. You can’t really think of poor performance as choking if you have not mastered the basics. To be confident you must first be competent.

Sportsmanship
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. One of the hardest things about playing games is giving victory. I don’t mean letting someone win, I mean when they have won giving them the victory that they have earned. Tanking is poor sportsmanship because is robs the other of victory. Anger is poor sportsmanship because is robs the other of victory. This is not how we want to be treated. When we win we want victory, and that is exactly how we should treat others. We should do nothing that diminishes their victory during or after the game. People will often try to give you an emotional out by suggesting that you are not playing your best today or that you must be distracted in some way. Even if it was true you can never allow them to think that their victory is in any way diminished.

Mixing games is not allowed. In life we mix games all the time, but in sportsmanship there is no place for it. The victory given is for the game played and in no way diminishes the person giving it. It does not mean that one person is better than another. That is mixing games, if you bring a game about who is the best person into a game of basketball or chess that is poor sportsmanship. In general gamesmanship involves bringing elements of play into the game that are not supposed to be parts of the game.

Chance

I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.
Ecclesiastes 9:11

The fact that chance exists is a constant reminder that we value the wrong things. We are called to believe that all things to work together for good to those who love God, but what are we to think when chance works against us. I think that the answer to this is that we value the wrong things and that we fail to pray.

From the functional point of view the answer doesn’t matter. It is important to factor chance into any game and realize that you will loose to those less skilled and things will fail that should have succeeded. Managing chance is one of the things we have to learn to do, knowing that we will all lose sometimes.