We cast the nets to find the freshest links and grilled them up so they’re steaming. Come and get ’em while they’re hot:
A fall in the 5,000 delivers an uplifting moment – (Usatoday.com)
The Olympics are a time where athletes show their true colors and this year we’ve seen some great moments and some bad. Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand showed her true colors in the 5000m event; after tumbling with another competitor Nikki helped the injured runner finish the event:
It was a moment that forged a friendship between two athletes who had never previously met, an accident that preceded an extraordinary gesture to warm the hearts of a global audience and spoke to everything that is good and righteous about international sports’ grandest competition. Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand and Abbey D’Agostino of the USA didn’t know each other and had never spoken before they stepped onto the track, both seeking a place in the final amid stiff competition. With 4½ of the 12½ laps remaining, confusion struck. D’Agostino fell while running amid a pack of athletes, causing her to clip Hamblin, just ahead of her. The pair tumbled spectacularly. It was an ugly, disappointing mess.
Doctors Are Urging Parents Everywhere To Keep Their Kids’ Baby Teeth – (Thelittlethings.com)
Baby teeth may be worth the money we pay our children for them. Scientists have found that the little hunks of calcium contain adult stem cells that can be used to make helpful tissue if problems arise later in your child’s life:
A study in 2003 showed that baby teeth are a rich source of stem cells, which are like protocells that can be grown into multiple kinds of cells if needed. That means that if later in life, a child needs replacement tissue for whatever reason, the stem cells from their baby teeth can be used to grow the needed tissue. Pretty amazing!
Adele Turning Down the Super Bowl Teaches All of Us a Major Lesson – (Inc.com)
Adele declined an offer to headline this year’s Super Bowl haltime show. It is important to know your limits and what makes you feel uncomfortable, but it takes a very strong will to decline such a lucrative opportunity:
“I know I’m not Beyoncé,” the pop superstar went on to say. The matter-of-fact manner in which Adele acknowledged her weaknesses and why she didn’t feel like a good fit for the show have only further endeared her to fans. (Incidentally, the NFL and halftime show sponsor Pepsi said in a statement that they had not yet extended a formal offer to any artist.) But beyond that, her words contain a bit of wisdom for all of us: It’s important to learn when to say “no.” This isn’t the first time the superstar’s strategy included turning down an opportunity that her peers would jump on.
Moral Leadership in Action: All Lives Really Do Matter – (bellevillemessenger.com)
Bishop Braxton writes about the Black Lives Matter movement and the need for moral leadership from our nation’s leaders and our neighbors:
I do not believe that “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” are necessarily incompatible. “All Lives Matter” is not necessarily a way to divert attention from the urgent concerns of African-American people. In order for there to be some compatibility between the two expressions, however, it is necessary to acknowledge the legitimacy of the particular concern for the lives of People of Color. This is not something all Americans recognize. If I am secure in my comfortable home with my family on a cold winter night with the fireplace burning and more than enough to eat, my life matters. But the doorbell rings and there is a shivering, starving homeless family at the door in dire need of food and shelter. I tell them to find a shelter. They respond, “Our lives matter.” I say, “So does mine and my family’s.” But I quickly realize that, in that instance, it is their lives and not mine that are in peril.
And today we celebrate...