Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Another Solitary Life

"Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence." ~ George F. Will

Trader Rick, who is a Florida University graduate and a football fan often posts entries about Florida football, and in particular, Tim Tebow, Florida's award winning quarterback.

Today, Rick had a video about Tebow posted on his blog, but because of some kind of problem with my computer, or browser, or something, I cannot hear the video. It plays, but there is no sound. I have this problem on several blogs. In order to hear the video's posted on various blogs, I have to click the video, which opens a window with the original video. But I still get no sound, so I have to copy and paste the title of the video, then open up the first page of Youtube, when finally, I can hear this video:


Interestingly enough, The videos I post on my blogs have sound. Go figure.

But I digress.

Because of the way my mind works, I suddenly became interested in why Tebow chose Florida, of all universities, at which to play football. So I accessed his bio at Wikipediato find out, and I found this:

Tebow was born on August 14, 1987 in the Philippines to Bob and Pam Tebow, who were serving as Christian missionaries at the time. While pregnant Pam suffered a life-threatening infection with a pathogenic amoeba. Because of extremely strong drugs used to bring her out of a coma and to relieve her dysentery, the fetus had experienced a severe placental abruption. Expecting a stillbirth, doctors recommended an abortion to protect her own life. She carried Timothy to term, and both mother and child survived.

All of the Tebow children were homeschooled by their mother, who worked to instill the family’s deep Christian beliefs along the way.


Now, several commentaries came to mind when I read this.

First, I wondered if my brother knew the Tebows. My brother was the business manager for the Southern Baptist Philippine missions at that time. The article didn't say whether they were Baptists or not, but my brother knew many missionaries from other denominations. I've made a note to ask him next time I talk to him.

Next, consider this: If Tim's parents had been Liberals and believed in abortion, Tim Tebow might not have even been born.

If they had been Liberals and allowed him to be schooled in the public (Government) school system because they think public schools are preferable to school choice, he might not have had the grades to get into Florida University. He also might not have had the moral and conservative values that were instilled in him by homeschooling parents.

A public school that teaches these values is rare in today's society.

He could have gotten involved in gangs like so many of his age. Or, he might have simply learned that to underachieve, as long as he passes, is good enough. This is the kind of education that is being received by students in most government schools today.

He might not have had the motivation to pursue such a lofty goal of becoming a nationally ranked quarterback for a national championship team. He might have been encouraged, instead, to underachieve so he could be handed government benefits and assistance paid for by the American taxpayers.

There is most likely no better reason to support the pro-life position and school choice (among other things) than his inspiring story.

If his parents had been Liberals, Tim Tebow's life would have been markedly different. Indeed, his life might not have begun at all.

There are theories around advancing the idea that if even the minutest things that happen in our everyday lives were to happen differently they would change an entire life, and even, by chain reaction, the entire world.

How different would this world be had Tim Tebow's parents decided to abort their baby to save his mother's life?

FYI: When I started blogging back in 2005, I didn't know how to post videos and audio files to my blogs. (I still don't know how to post audio files). Since I now know how to post videos, I spent a considerable amount of time, a couple of days ago, posting videos to my Scot songs blog, a blog I started for myself, which was nothing but the lyrics to Gaelic folk songs. Now, I've added some corresponding videos of the songs.

If anyone's interested in Gaelic folk songs, you're welcome to visit.

3 comments:

Joe said...

Tim is my modern day hero.

Krystal said...

Having been a homeschooler until last year (I really miss it!!!!), I knew some of the Tebow story. Thanks for letting me know it all.

I know the public school people are very unhappy when a homeschooler succeeds like this. They also hate and must spin it when they are beat out in spelling bees or history bees by homeschoolers. Perfect SAT/ACT scores by homeschoolers are also an issue for them.

You did hear about the kid in California who scored perfect on the SAT's a few years back? They were HOMELESS at the time and the only schooling he had came from reading books in the public library. He hadn't had a text book his entire high school career.

Trader Rick said...

Tim Tebow is an inspiration to literally millions of people. He is a Christian Missionary and role model. Go Gators!