PB (4/13): NBA Playoff Openers - The Game Inside The Game : Nominated Post

[RMFT]

Originally <a href='https://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/showthread.php?p=27728599'>posted</a> on 04/19/2018:

Today I am hoping for a great day....as I pray for the Professor, I look for wisdom and understanding of what he was pursuing....bristlecone pines and ecopychology appears...and a beautiful message from the professor himself:

Daring to take a path towards what may be unknowable can be among the most noble pursuits of the human spirit. Known targets bring tangible opportunities for achievement, but also limitations; even a well-aimed arrow is forced to halt its arc, having reached a bullseye. Allow the arrow to be what it is, a tool for a particular purpose, but after your fingers release the bowstring do not let the confines of the arc define you. It was what you did, but only a small piece of who you are.
Without narrowing the focus on the bullseye, there can be so much to see, much that will be missed if our sights are too confined. You do not have to reduce all of this to a single place; there is room in your consciousness for all of it, if you allow it in.

It is in taking a path beyond established targets that you begin the journey of yourself, a path whose first steps may appear as though on the way to a “Where”, but as you venture will almost magically turn into as much a “Who”, person and place becoming one. When you feel something inside of yourself growing with each step, and your developing senses appreciating what surrounds the path even more, then you are on the verge of the most important discovery you can make, and any notions of maps can be discarded. Your path has no end, for both you and Nature are constantly evolving, and it is in that trust of Nature that you can place yourself, and explore the labyrinths ahead filled with the joy of anticipation, instead of trepidation.


Once you develop that trust, both of Nature and of yourself, when you come across what appears to be a darkness you do not fear. That darkness is only a place that is currently without illumination, and should you venture forward with an open spirit, your path may well take you to where it was intended to all along – the place where it is you that are the light.

You could have told me this was written by Frederick Buechner and I would have believed you - great philosopher and theologian...

Regardless the outcome here, Dave has stamped a mark on people that follow his writing because when you ‘read between the lines’, we found a man that offered something much deeper than analysis of the ‘bounces of the ball’ and the daily exchange of the sports markets. I was talking to my Mom tonight and told her of a man I’ve read daily for many years on ‘sports handicapping sites’ and that his impact was far beyond getting additional insight on the games ahead - the moral being that life brings inspiration from places we least expect it sometimes.

As Buechner said:
“When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost”

Lets hope and pray we hear Dave’s voice again, but regardless, within this community he built and in family and friend circles he has, he will never be entirely lost.