Unmeasurable Sacrifice

"Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God" - The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier



I am in Washington D.C. as a "sort of tourist" for the first time in 20+ years. I visited back when I was a freshman in high school and I thought that I understood the magnitude of this incredible city. I really didn't. While I feel I was a unique kind of kid, one that grasped a greater sense of things in the world at that young age, nothing strengthens beliefs and feelings in someone like age and having a family of your own. But well get to that later on.

Boo on the Capital city for its parking. It sucks! I drove aimlessly looking for a place to park and stop and eat. We tried to go to the White House, nuh-uh, Lincoln's Memorial, nah, how about the Washington Monument, nope, okay the Smithsonian, didn't want us! Trying to escape the city and feed ourseleves, we lucked out as someone left a parking spot open on a corner. Our little SUV rental fit perfectly inside the parking lines just outside a Fuddruckers, mmm mmm. We got out examined the signs and could not see anything illegal about parking there. The DC police saw otherwise and promptly issued a parking ticket four minutes later as I was enjoying my delicious burger :(












Useless Tyler trivia knowledge knows that the city of Washinton D.C. was designed to confuse and demoralize visiting dignitaries. Let me tell you something... they absolutely succeeded. The streets might as well be upside down for cryin out loud! I think the smartest people in the world must be D.C. cabbies to know how to navigate through the maze that is the ridiculous combination of one way streets, twisty, bendy, roundabouts, and wagon wheel circus drives that is the District of Columbia.

After making numerous wrong turns, even with the GPS, I suddenly found my way on Arlington drive and was quickly moving over the beautiful bridge crossing over to our nations cemetary. I decided to stop and walk the grounds. What an amazing display of everything that is good and pure about this wonderful country that I live in. I am so proud to be an American and honored by the men and women who have served my country for me. So that I may have rights and choices and raise my children with the same freedoms and blessings. God bless our troops.

Over 320,000 soldiers are buried on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetary. Please stop and think about that for a moment. Although the largest, Arlington is just one of 130 maintained cemeteries in 39 states. The silence and reverence of the place is incredible. Oddly, I am glad that I was able to be without my wife and children present and feel the incredible weight of wanting to share the experience with them and prepare them to visit this city.





I have two incredibly powerful images forever imprinted on my brain about this city and they came racing back today. I was 13 years old and it was Memorial Day. I stepped out of the tour bus into a chilly drizzle rain and onto the grounds of Arlington. The cherry trees were in full bloom and their flowers were like drifts of pure white and light pink snow. The thousands and thousands of hand planted flags waved gently at each grave site. From the top of a rise I watched as a soldier was lowered into the ground... the guns sounded, taps played... a widow standing strong next to her children was handed a vivid American flag. Its colors seemed so incredibly bright on that gray and dreary day. I cried.

Idelible snap shot number two took place not even 1.5 miles away at the Vietnam Memorial. Being a young adolecent I tried quite hard to keep the young ladies from seeing me in a less than macho state and I thought I was emotionally under control as we again exited our trasportation. I was okay for a whole 10 minutes. I was always fascinated with the war in 'Nam. G.I. Joe, Army/Navy surplus, war novels, you name it I was into it as a kid. I knew it was not a glamorous thing but the full severity of the war didn't hit home for me until that morning. The rain stopped momentarily and as I quietly strolled along the Wall admiring its beauty and irony of it being designed by an Asian, I came upon a women and a young boy who could not have been much older than I. They were embracing one another and then slowly retrieved a piece of parchment and black crayon and began to make a roughing over a name on the wall. His fathers name. I cried.



I am honored to have been present that day 20 years ago to help me understand the lengths to which others gave of themselves to found and forge this great country. I am glad to have been here today to feel such love for my own family. I am grateful and thankful to each and every soldier that has given such unmeasurable sacrifice so that I can now have a beautiful wife, daughter and son of my own, living in the country that I love. God bless America and keep her free.

Praying for safety and sunshine

To anyone out there that loves racing and all types of motorsports please join with me in a moment of silence to give well wishes and prayers for the safety of racers everywhere as we kick off the 2009 racing season. Yes, I know I am a few weeks late since there have been a few races going for the past few weekends but I say this as unselfishly as I possibly can, none of those racers on tv are really my friends. My friends get set to start racing this season with the NMRA season kick-off event in Bradenton, FL. and other sanctioned events with other people will follow shortly after.


What brings on this very grounding post? I have unfortunately been at the starting line twice when people I knew were involved in tragic endings and I never want to feel that horrible knot in my stomach ever again. The way I felt this past Sunday when I received a message. I lost a friend this past weekend in a motorcycle accident. His name was Danny Mourning and he will be missed. I knew Danny for almost 15 years and although we have not had the opportunity to see each other very often, his warm smile is frozen in my mind for all time. He loved to play hockey with the gang back in the day, laugh and ride his bike.





Sorry about the picture pal but it just made me break into a big smile when I saw it. You were always looking like such a tough guy but we knew better, you big ‘ol softie, lol. Thank you for the great memories friend!

So here is to 2009 and a great race season. May the weather be great for all the race events so that the hard work and dedication of the race organizers can be turned into success for not only them but the companies that support them as well. Fans and enthusiasts get out to the race track to spend a day with the family enjoying the fantastic camaraderie and excitement at a motorsports event.

So no matter if you like drag, drift, speed, turns, jumps, whatever… here is to a great 2009 racing season. May the records fall and peoples spirits be lifted!

You know when times are tough when...

You send in a drawing of a spider to pay your bill, lol!

With all of the doom and gloom going on lately with the economy it is refreshing to learn that some people, though down, are not out at least their sense of humor. I came across this absolutely hilarious story about this guy who made a drawing of a spider and submitted it as payment for an overdue bill.

I can do nothing to increase the humor of this event so just click on the picture or follow the link and enjoy.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/11/good_idea_man_submits_drawing.php

Human beings, not human doings...

This is a short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California

Rick Warren -

"People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-----but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay; getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter
how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your problems, you Ire going into self-centeredness, which is 'my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to
do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, 1/ Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

In the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, "God if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better". God didn't put me on earth just to fill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings."

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

What's Tommy's got to do with anything

I love my dad. Hopefully just like every other son does, I love him more today than yesterday. Now that I am an adult I am just not very good at conveying that feeling towards him like I should. I somehow get filled with anxiety when he calls or we are around each other. He is a little crazy, in a good unique dad way but crazy nonetheless. He can ask me the same question three times in the span of an hour, then change up the delivery and it's good for another couple go arounds. I worry about my pop more and more lately that it's not just the memory fading but other things upstairs are going away too. But that's not why we're here at all, please read on.

My father and I had a special bond that is shared by many around the world. Sports. I think that my mother resented the fact that it was a happy place the two of us could venture off to anytime we wanted. Soccer, baseball, hockey, it didn't matter what sport to us then and it still lasts to this day. Learning how to turn two in my upstairs bedroom at 10 pm (while mom is downstairs underneath us trying to sleep), talking ball distribution (I played center mid-fielder) at the dinner table or speaking with amazement at Gretzky's incredible performances that year, we always had sports to bring us together.

Jennifer told me the other day how sad she was that college football was over... "Wow, really" I said with surprise. "Yes, that means some new sport will be starting soon that you will be all excited about and I will have to suffer through". What a jokester but at the same time yikes, I have definitely filed that one away in the memory bank. What she doesn't know is that I am actually quite tame for a sports enthusiast. NOTE: I did not say "fan" which we all know stands for fanatic. You know zealot, nut-so, crazy person, OCD, etc. etc. Sheesh I have friends that sit in their underpants all day eating Friday's leftovers with the curtains drawn, screaming 8 hours straight at the TV both days of the weekend during the NFL season. Heck you can't even talk to my boy Reggie 'til Tuesday afternoon if the 49'ers lose on Sunday. She really has no idea how bad men can be with sports. I like to think of myself as a Medium-Well on the scale of sports guys. It's not my fault I grew up playing high level athletics and like virtually every sport known to man, lol. Not that you can blame her growing up in a house with no TV past the age of 12, a mom born in Korea and a dad who thinks a hat-trick is performed by clowns and a bunt is a funny shaped cake.

Sorry I digress. Tonight while on my way home late from teaching my AWANA kids I had a craving for Tommy's. Ya, I am on the Wienerschnitzel "chili dog diet" but I thought the switch in carbs and fat would do me some good. Anyways, I pulled through the drive-thru and opened up one of the burgers, smelled the chili and onions and was strangely overwhelmed with emotions. Happy memories of sports, my dad and exiting the 101 freeway at Rampart all came flooding back to me.

Let me explain a little more in-depth here. The Rampart exit in Los Angeles off the 101 freeway is one of the most rough and tumble areas around the LA area. Sure Compton and South Central and all that gangsta hip-hop stuff are crazy too but for a 7 year old kid back in the day it was the roughest neighborhood I had ever stepped foot into. At the corner of Rampart and Beverly stands the Original Tommy's Burger. Complete with bars on the windows to lock the staff inside. You see Tommy, the founder, used to get his employees on work furlough from L.A. County Jail! So anyhoo, my dad being the fine connoisseur of all good places to eat in SoCal would take me before or after our sporting adventures to get an Original Tommy's and it was special since that was the only one around. Now I know the chili can be used as a substitute for brick mortar and there is enough grease to lube up a lathe but I can't remember anything tasting so good as a kid. It is easy to see now that there was something extra special about them... the joy my dad got from taking me there.

The whole experience of the times we spent talking while standing up against the counters outside, sitting on the low concrete walls watching the police cars roll into the station around the corner and talking about the Dodger game we just attended was priceless. Thank you for the great memories pop.

Yup, that Tommy's burger tonight smelled like it was cooked right in heaven's kitchen but it didn't taste nearly as good as they did those days with dad.

Tasting Life Twice

Hello friends and visitors,

Well this is my first venture into blogging, at least on a personal level. For the past decade everything seems to have somehow managed to revolve around work. I have made numerous posts for my company's blog, written technical articles, press releases and product literature aplenty. Not to mention the countless unpaid hours of hard work, traveling and all the other work related items that turn normal humans into stress cases. The great news is that I truly love my job, more than I should perhaps. I am confident that my wonderful wife would have strong opinions on this topic so I can save that content for a later date. They say that if you can find a way to do what you love for a living you will never "work" a day in your life. I'm not so sure about that one at the moment but it could be due to a crashing stock market, slumping automotive industry and general grumpiness of the entire planet's mood.

So to get to the point of this initial post... I was reading some quotes and I came across one that really struck a nerve with me;

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." (Michael Althsuler)

As we have all heard "time waits for no man". Not for you, I, nor any other person on earth. Now that I have two incredible children (we'll get to those little monkeys in later posts), father time has accelerated so quickly that I now feel the full weight of life's priorities pressing down on me. With more strength and frequency than I care to shoulder. I don't know about your priorities but I think that mine need to be slapped around a little and re-organized. That is the inspiration for this page, be a better pilot and re-dedicate time for God, my family and myself correctly.

I look forward to sharing the important things in my life and using this place to capture and reflect on the amazing things that are all around me each and every day.

As Nin said, "We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection". I can't wait to begin writing.

Regards,

Tyler Tanaka