Lent

I typically have a hard time with Lent.  I’ve never understood how giving up chocolate will make my heart more in tune with God’s.  Now, before that statement is not taken as semi-satirical, let me just say: that statement is semi-satirical.  What I’m really trying to say is something that many people have said.  The time of Lent has the potential for being an incredible, powerful 40 days and instead, we so often times minimize it to routines and practices that will help us lose weight or quit an unhealthy habit.

Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself.  This has the beginnings of a rant and it’s not that.  Let me start over.

I’m originally from Boardman, OH (talk about smooth transitions between paragraphs).  Boardman is a township of Youngstown, OH.  In Youngstown, most people there can trace their lineage back to Italy.  Aka- there are a lot of last names ending in vowels.   With these wonderful Italian people, there are also a lot of Catholic churches (and incredible pizza chains).  Now that you have this background, insert a young Andy Allen- a young, naïve Andy Allen- a young, naïve Andy Allen that doesn’t really understand culture, or history, or denominations outside of his own.  When I was in seventh grade, I played for the Boardman Center Middle School Spartans’ basketball team.  I was a bit chubby and averaged 4.3 points a game (both “chubby” and “4.3 points a game” are generous descriptions).  One day, after practice, Mr. Serenko was walking through the halls to pick up his daughter and I noticed that he had a grey smudge on his forehead.  Being a far too confident, yet well-intentioned seventh grader, I tapped him on the shoulder and told him that he had some dirt on his face.  He looked down at me and replied, “Andy, it’s Ash Wednesday.”  I looked back up at him and replied, “Oh, okay… You still have dirt on your forehead.”

Needless to say, I didn’t know what Ash Wednesday was or what it meant.  All I knew/thought was that every year, a lot of my friends would dirty-up their foreheads and on Fridays, they wouldn’t eat any of the delicious, meaty pizza and instead, they’d just eat fish.  As I grew up, my friends started to abstain from more during Lent.  Certain foods were off limits.  My smoker friends didn’t smoke any more.  People didn’t go on AIM or AOL anymore and instead wrote clever away messages.  It was during this time that I can remember thinking, “Wait, what? ….why are they doing that?”  Now, I was a well-churched young man.  I went every Sunday, in fact.  I even knew about Jesus being tempted in the desert while fasting for 40 days.  And yet, I didn’t have the mental capacity to connect Jesus’ time in the desert to what my friends were doing.  So naturally (and ignorantly), I questioned everyone that said they were giving up chocolate because of Jesus. 

For my entire high school career and even into my college years, I resented that people participated in Lent.  I was positive that Jesus never told us to give anything up for 40 days, that Lent was really a poorly disguised weight loss plan/self-guided intervention, and I didn’t see anyone’s life “spiritually transformed” after Easter (nor did I see anyone give up smoking).  All I saw and believed Lent to be was a sham. 

All of this to say, for the longest time I bashed Lent because I felt like people were doing it for all of the wrong reasons.  In fact, I mastered the snarky response, “I am under the impression that Jesus would only want us to participate in Lent if the main intention is to draw our relationship closer to God.  I don’t think that we can equate ‘fasting for 40 days and intensely praying to God in the desert while being tempted by Satan’ to ‘not going on facebook.’”  I told you it was snarky.   And unfortunately, unlike what I said in the beginning of this post, I never meant to be satirical when I responded like that.  I somehow felt like that response would change the ways of my blind and ignorant pagan-worshipping friends (make sure to read that last sentence in a super-dramatic voice).

Okay- The sad truth of all this is two-fold. 

First, I still believe my snarky response to be true.  However, a good rule to live by is never start a sentence with “I am under the impression that…”  It makes you sound like a jerk.  Regardless, I don’t believe that Jesus necessarily wants us to sacrifice something that we “really like” for 40 days because it’s a good exercise.  Lent is about giving up something in our lives so that we can grow closer to God.  It’s about re-examining how we live, what we do, and the things that consume our time and energy- and instead focus all of those things on God.  When Jesus went into the desert, he wasn’t looking to just clear his head.  He was giving up everything that he did on a daily basis, even teaching his followers, and instead spent all of his time with his Father.  I’ve come to understand that it’s okay to give up chocolate and smoking and facebook and fast food and coffee and television and whatever else we do- providing that we use the money and the time and the energy that we normally give to those things and instead, give them to God.  Lent is a fantastic, wonderful, pursuit after God that requires sacrificing something- be it time, food,  entertainment or even people- and then it’s the focused attention on listening and speaking with your Father.  We screw it up by deciding to go into the desert and then forgetting to pray.

The second sad truth is this- I have never participated in Lent.  Not once.  I haven’t even tried and failed.  I’ve always been so bitter and stubborn towards Lent that I have even used my unwillingness to participate as a form of protest.  So what’s sad, is that I have all of these past ill-feelings towards Lent and oddly enough, I’ve even had this recent understanding of what Lent is supposed to be and how beautiful its design actually is- and I’ve never experienced it.   And because there’s no greater Metaphor, it’s the closest I’ve ever been to being the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. 

So.  With all of this said.  This year I am going to participate in Lent for the first time.  I am going to follow the 40 day Experiential Calendar that Mars Hill set up.  I’m not going to give up a habit or beer or comfort food.  I’m not going to give up technology or worrying or certain people in my life.  I’m just going to follow the calendar (that can be found at this link: http://marshill.org/teaching/files/2012/02/LentCal2012.pdf ) and I’m going to see where it takes me. 

So in all honesty, I know very, very little about Lent.  In fact, I probably know the least out of every person that has ever commented on the subject.  But what I think I know is this: it’s possible to commit to something for the 40 days and never truly experience or even participate in what Lent is really about.  My hope is that these next 40 days are of great significance to me. 

Here it goes.

Thoughts on Improv

I’m not a very artsy person.  I don’t often speak dramatically unless I’m doing it for effect.  I most often am very direct and to the point.  I answer emails within 30 minutes typically.  I’ve been known to not “sugar coat” much and that sometimes has gotten me in trouble.  I don’t usually reminisce and if I do, it’s almost never in a fantastical fashion. 

This is going to be a little different.  Recently I’ve had a resurgence for my “love of improv.”  So much so that it has even encouraged me to write my thoughts down and share them on the “Information Super Highway” known as the internet.  If this gets to be too much, I apologize.  If it doesn’t get to be too much, I really hope it helps convey to you why I love improv so much.

*Please note that a lot of these thoughts aren’t new.  Nor do I pretend to be an expert on the topic of improv.  These thoughts are simply what have been running through my head as of late.

In 2005, I tried out for the improv team at Calvin College.  I didn’t have a real reason to other than the fact that I saw some of my soon-to-be peers do improv for the first time during freshmen orientation.  I was fascinated and intrigued- but mostly I thought that I needed to do that.  I had no idea what it was about, if there was structure to it, or if it was just a bunch of people trying to be funny- but I knew I wanted more of it.  So a couple months later when school started, I tried out… and didn’t make it.  To be honest, I wasn’t too crushed.  Not being accepted isn’t ever a great feeling but as I was being cut from improv, I gained the lead role in Shakespeare’s As You Like It and at that moment in my life, theater was my major.  So I figured the better of the two options won out. 

Months passed, the play I was in came and went, I dropped my theater major, and life continued.  Let’s fast forward to March or April, I can’t remember which one, but one of those months was when second tryouts to the improv team came.  Usually that didn’t happen but this year, there were an uncharacteristically large number of seniors graduating so they needed some young blood.  Surprisingly, I was asked to try out.  So I did.  And I got on the team.  Little did I know, that one night would change so many things in my life for the better.

It’s been 6 years now- which is really not that long at all- but since that March or April night, my life mantra has changed in ways that I had no idea it even could.  I won’t go into the details of improvisational comedy because most people have heard of the concept of “Yes-And” and the basics of how improv really are fundamental in succeeding in your life.  If you haven’t, pick up Tina Fey’s book, “Bossy Pants,” read it, put it back down, and then continue reading here.  What I will go into is the biggest basics of improv because that’s what I want to focus on.

Improv at its simplest form is story-telling, and sometimes joke-telling, by a team of people that generate their ideas from suggestions from the audience.  That’s it.  And it’s beautiful.  Because that means that the thousands of hours that I have spent in improv practice or on an improv stage in front of an audience mean absolutely nothing when you speak of any of those experiences without the other components.  In other words, the laughter, the memories, the stories that we contrived or the jokes that we told, were all impossible without the team of improvisers AND the audience.  One of the biggest travesties I’ve found in the improv world is when people say “X was so funny that night” and then X accepts the compliment and bathes in it.  The truth of why X was so funny is almost always because of the team and because of the audience.  Yes, X delivered the line.  And yes, X is incredibly funny and potentially, the most talented.  But the truth is, without the team or the audience’s suggestion, X is nothing.  And this is why improv is so much like real life.  Very rarely is anyone successful, triumphant, or even talented without the help of a supporting cast or an audience to receive feedback from.

Now I’ll stop there because I don’t want to make this about how improv has the most metaphors for real life and how if everyone studied the philosophies of improv, we’d live in a much happier society.  I agree with that, but I don’t have the time to write that right now.  Not to mention the metaphors are going to be so easily made that I won’t have to spell them out for you.  What I do have the time for is to write about improv, and why it has changed my life. 

Recently, I had lunch with a good friend and we spoke about all of the different improv teams we’ve been on.  For the record, I’ve been on two.  He’s been on like 7.  Moving on, as we talked more and more, he touched on something that really struck me.  He said that he found the greatest joy in his improv career when he knew what his role was on the team and how it complemented the other team members’ roles.  On his team of three, there was the witty one that the audience loved, there was the dumb one that the audience loved for a different reason, and he was the younger brother character (his words) and he too was loved by the audience for, again, completely different reasons.  And most importantly, all three guys knew how to work well with one another, how to set each other up for success, and how to carry on if one of them should fail. 

This too is why improv is beautiful.  It accepts everyone.  Everyone has a place.  And everyone can be loved.  But they will also certainly fail.  And so while it’s important to find your audience, it’s even more important to find the right people on your team.  Because that way, when you fail, your teammate can both save you and then hopefully win the audience back over (I told you the metaphors would scream through this thing).  But knowing that this is the case, this is also why it’s important that no one takes full credit for winning or losing.  Because when it’s your night to win, it’s more vital then than ever to remember that your teammate saved you last night from falling flat on your face.  It’s also why it’s vital to surround yourself with people that have the capability to save you.  Note that having the “capability to save” doesn’t necessarily mean they will succeed 100% of the time.  It simply means that you trust them enough to take risks.  The truth is that everyone has a role to fill and sometimes, your number will be called to take charge, sometimes it’ll be called to support, sometimes it’ll be called to say one line and then leave, and sometimes it’ll be to save- and in each of the roles, the success/fail rate wavers.  But surrounding yourself with the right people makes failure bearable and success even more rewarding.

Okay, I think that’ll be the last touchy-feely thing I’ll write.  The rest of this will probably be just fun.  Because after all, when it’s all said and done, that’s what improv is really all about.  Fun.  Laughter.   And Joy.

While the teamwork, the reliability, the creativity and the philosophies of improv fascinate me most, the joy of improv is what sustains me.  For the past six years, I have found joy in the strangest and most wonderful, made-up scenarios.  These scenarios have included:  The most death-defying Tic-Tac-Toe matches that used real life gnomes instead of X’s and O’s and always ended in Cats games, Tandem Sky-Divers that jumped face to face and decided that it was best to jump on “No” and pull the ripcord on “Don’t”, mothers giving birth simultaneously to two children- one via natural birth and one via C-section, listening to the world’s most cynical war veteran give a five minute monologue on “how it used to be”, having two federal agents live in the same cul-de-sac as elementary students who are competing popsicle vendors and watching the antics that ensue, trying to resolve the relational problems that having a uni-breast can cause, avoid falling in love with the White Witch from “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,” coping with those at a therapy session for giving their grandmothers sponge baths, and of course, trying to find a cure to Quad-rabetes  (Diabetes x2).

It’s true that I love improv so much because stories like these can exist and then can be explored.  But it’s more true to say that I love improv so much because of the laughter and joy produced by these ridiculously strange stories.  We live in a world where more and more people are becoming less and less happy.  Improv, for me, is a cure.  It’s a cure because it helps remove people from where they are in their life and temporarily allows them to live and laugh in the stories that are based off their suggestions. 

Recently, I watched a movie called “Happy.”  It’s a movie based off of the new academic trend called Positive Psychology.  In this movie, there’s a part that says we are often taught two things:  that money will buy us happiness and that money can’t buy us happiness.  It goes on to say that both are somewhat true; just ask the homeless man living under the bridge and then ask Bill Gates.  The homeless man wishes he had more money to feel secure and thus feel happier.  Bill Gates will say having all the money in the world hasn’t brought him happiness at all.  The real truth, however, is that while happiness is predicated on some things, it’s mostly a choice.  It’s something that we can all choose to have.  And for me, every time I do improv, I’m choosing happiness.  I’m choosing a role and learning how to work well in it.  I’m choosing to surround myself with people who I love and trust.  I’m choosing to create something new (and potentially abnormal) based off of other people’s ideas.  And I’m hopeful that amidst all of these choices, I can help bring others into happiness as well.  

Giants vs. Patriots

Surprising to some, mostly to me, I’ve been asked by a few folks when my Super Bowl prediction (aka: prophesy) is going to come out.  Well, wait no longer because the moment has finally arrived and just in time for the game.  If you’re a betting person, please thank me later when you’re “Scrooge McDuck-ing” into your bank full of gold coins.

It’s not going to be close folks.  The Giants are going to dominate this game.  I’m sorry, but it’s true.  People are expecting a lot out of the Patriots but they’re not going to win this one.  Before we get into the meat and potatoes of why, let’s just look at how the Patriots got here.  They had a cake schedule all year- they beat Miami, then San Diego (when they were awwwful), then Oakland (bad team), then the Jets, then beat a decent Dallas team, then the Jets again, then Kansas City, then a Philadelphia team when Vince Young was quarterbacking, then Indianapolis, then Washington, then Denver, then Miami and then Buffalo to finish it off.  Wow.  The only teams they lost to was Pittsburgh and (drum roll) an injured Giants team- AT HOME!  Come on folks.  They haven’t proved anything yet.  Not to mention, they haven’t played a single game indoors yet this season.  The Giants were too fast for them in Foxborough.  They’re going to be way too fast for them in Lucas Oil Stadium.

But Andy!  What about the Patriots playoff schedule?  I’m glad you asked.  They beat a bad Broncos team and then they beat a Ravens team that they should have lost to had the Ravens learned how to catch, scratch that, hold onto game winning touchdowns.  While Tom Brady is ridiculously good, he was getting handled by a Ravens defense that is statistically playing worse than the Giants are. 

Your rebuttal now is probably that all it takes is one game.  One Sunday and everything can change.  Sure.  You’re right.  But in the biggest game of the year, the teams usually come to play.  They’re rested.  They’re prepared.  And with exception to when the Steelers played the Seahawks, both teams are usually going to play a solid game (note: neither the Steelers or the Seahawks did well that year). 

Look, a quick comparison in schedules and then we’ll move on.  The Giants lost to the Redskins, the Seahawks, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Green Bay and Washington again.  However, they beat St. Louis, Philly, Arizona, Buffalo, Miami,  Dallas, the Jets, Dallas again, AND THE PATRIOTS.  They’re schedule was just a tad tougher and the most important part about all of this who they played and beat in the playoffs.  They first beat Atlanta- okay, not a huge win but it was important because it was on the road (indoors).  Then they beat a Packers team they lost to previously.  They beat a Niners team they previously lost to.  No one on their team is hurt.  They know how to beat the Patriots.  And they’re going to do it again.

Okay, if the above didn’t convince you yet, I’ll just throw a couple more things out there.  We’ll start with the post season stats because a lot of who wins in the NFL is about momentum.  So you might be surprised that both teams’ defense have played pretty similarly.  The Patriots are giving up 130 yards on the ground and 195 in the air.  The Giants are giving up 120 yards on the ground and 200 in the air.  Both teams have only gotten one interception and the Giants have forced 5 fumbles in comparison to the Patriots 3.  But just like anything, reading this with no context takes away the significance.  While the two teams are comparable statistically, the Giants played against Matt Ryan (indoors), Aaron Rogers (at Lambeau) and well, Alex Smith- so that’s not that big of a deal really.  The Patriots on the other hand played against Tebow and Flacco.  Need I say more? 

Moving quickly to the regular season.  The Patriots gave up nearly 300 yards passing a game and the Giants gave up 250.  The Patriots gave up about 117 yards rushing per game vs. the Giants 120.  The Patriots picked off opponents 23 times while the Giants did it 20 times.  And the Patriots force 10 fumbles whereas the Giants forced 13.  These stats again are pretty comparable although they favor the Giants slightly more.  But once again, out of context, the significance gets diminished.  Remember those stats and then look back at who the Giants played: the Cowboys, San Francisco, New Orleans, Green Bay and the Patriots just to name a few.  New England, on the hand, played the Giants and the Cowboys…. Yup.  The defensive stats look less comparable now, yes?  Yes.

But let’s be honest with ourselves.  We’re expecting an offensive onslaught on Sunday, right?  I know I am.  The defensive stats mean little because both offenses will score.  The question is how much.  Now for the postseason, the Patriots do indeed have the statistical advantage in points, passing, and rushing.  However, that’s deceiving because they Pats put up 45 against the Broncos with 363 yards throwing and 146 yards rushing.  Basically, the Patriots stats are as high as they are because they played a bad Broncos team (that just so happened to beat the Steelers… I know).  And again, the Giants played three games on the road.

In the regular season, the Patriots scored 32 points per game vs. the Giants 24.  Brady threw for 317 a game vs. Manning threw 295.  New England ran for about 110 a game vs. the Giants 90.  Everything is in the Patriots favor.  That’s because they have a really good offense.  It’s also because they played terrible defenses.  In fact, the only good defense they played were the Steelers and the Ravens and they lost to one of those team and should have lost to the other!  Come on folks, the Patriots are clearly very good offensively, but they’re not enough better than the Giants to avoid getting smushed by them. 

Listen- forget all the stats.  Let’s talk about common sense.  The Patriots are a solid team but they’re missing Gronkowski, Coughlin will have an answer for Hernandez, Welker will probably hurt his knee on the turf, Manning is playing out of his mind, the Giants defense are meaner and seem to just need motivation to play well (which they’ll have this Sunday), the running backs for the Giants are much better and stronger than each person on the Patriots defense (except Wilfork), and the Patriots will probably get caught filming the Giants’ practice before Sunday even gets here. 

Folks!   The score will be 38 to 24.  Take it to the bank.  The game will be over by half time.