Top 10 Reasons to Love Northeast Ohio - Part 2

This blog is all about relationships. It is patterned after the greatest commandment - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:34-40). This is the ultimate enriching life, a life of overflow. Part of home however is where we live.

We live in a community. The gospels are replete with the environment and community that Jesus and the disciples lived. Imagine the gospels without the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Samaria, and of course Jerusalem. So it is without apology that I carry on my top 5 reasons why I love my home, Northeast Ohio.

#4 - The Lakefront

If you had asked me the top 10 off the top of my head, I probably would not have listed the lakefront. I don't have a boat and I live 15 miles from the lake. There is also no doubt that the lakefront is underutilized. But I also know that is changing. Cleveland sits on Lake Erie and that makes it a hub of transportation and commercial activity. It is also a hub of recreation. Last Friday, Deb and I volunteered for the Cleveland Metro Parks at Burning River Fest. The festival was at Wendy Park. A year ago, I did not even know where Wendy Park was. We were promoting the new Water Taxi system coming over the next few years. I was privileged to work on this project as part of Leadership Cleveland II. The lakefront is a great asset and the best is yet to come.

 # 3 - The Park System

In my rankings, I could have easily justified this as number one or two. One of the major reasons we moved to Brecksville is because it is at the fulcrum of three different park systems - Cuyahoga National Park, Cleveland Metro Parks, and Summit Metro Parks. All are first rate and they almost seem to blend together. In fact, I used to think they were all kind of one big park system. Again my ignorance. The CNP is one of the top 10 most frequented national parks in the country. It is up there with the Yosemite's of the world. I have a much greater appreciation of our park systems as both a regular user and because of my friendship with a few leaders in CNP and Cleveland Metroparks. I think it is crown jewel. I love getting on my bike and just riding on the Towpath or Bike n Hike.

 #2 - SPORTS...

Hard to believe that I would put sports teams number two given that we haven't won anything since 1964. I was five years old at the time so I have no recollection of the event even though we lived in Euclid at the time. That makes it even more amazing that NE Ohio is still so sports crazy. I submit as proof that the Plain Dealer, our daily paper is almost always half devoted to our crazy sports teams. Count articles on the front page as indirectly related to sports. We have a definite bias as an area towards football - we will support that even if the team stinks which it has since 1999. Now we have added Johnny football - not sure what that will mean. But we also had 455 straight sellouts in baseball and one of the top attendance figures in the NBA for basketball when Lebron was here. Speaking of which - Lebron is back! If you have not seen Frank Calliendo's rendition of Lebron's speech in Morgan Freeman's voice, it is definitely worth a look.

#1 - The People 

A community is only as good as its people. I love the people in this community. By and large, they are down to earth, genuine, mostly humble people. To that point, I get to interact with some pretty successful people and the vast majority are wonderful people. I could not say that about growing up in the East Coast or what I have observed other places. NE Ohioans care about people. We care about our community. The biggest flaw we have is that we tend to have an inferiority complex but I think that is changing. NE Ohio is on a roll baby and it is about time the world sees it for what it is.

Top 10 Reasons to Love Northeast Ohio

My appreciation of Northeast Ohio has grown over the years just like my appreciation of my wife. Sometimes we have something really good in front of us and we only see the bad stuff. Yes, 1/4 of the year, the weather is gloomy and depressing. But 2/4 of the year, it is as good as any place in the country. What do we see - the good or the bad. There is always the possibility of bolting for warmer, sunnier climes during the gloomy season. This area is so diverse, so full of things that are so wonderful.

In 2005, I bought properties in Georgia and Tennessee thinking we would move one of those two places. I bought a selection thinking that whatever wasn't the place to live, it would be an "investment".  Currently my investments are for sale at 50% off - don't have me make real estate investments on your behalf.  Nine years later, I live in Brecksville and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  We are 13 miles from Cleveland and 25 miles from Akron so we live near both but I would say this post probably has a slight Cleveland bias. I am still learning Akron assets. So here goes - my top 10. Yours might be different and probably is.  First 5 in this blog post and next 5 in the next one.

#10 - Little Bit of Country, Little Bit of City

I really like that I can ride my bike not too far from me (even in Cuyahoga County) and I can be in the country.  I have lived in the Chicago and New York areas and it is a lot harder to find country. When we lived in Aurora, I would bike about 10 miles from our house and I was in Amish country. We had Amish builders on our house. Every Labor Day, we make a trek to the Great Geauga County Fair where we look at pig butts (as Debsue says), eat onion rings and drink 4H milkshakes. We are in the country, yet we are also in a city with all of the city amenities. Best of both worlds.

#9 - A Manageable City

This one is quite similar to #10, but slightly different. Our city is very manageable. What I mean by that is it is fairly easy to get around and navigate. From our house in Brecksville downtown is 17 minutes with no traffic. Traffic here is nothing compared to other cities. Have you driven in LA, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C.  I missed a flight in Baltimore driving from Dulles, VA 30 miles away as I was in traffic 3 hours. Even smaller cities can be challenging. Our rush hour commuting delay is usually around 10 minutes. I commuted downtown for 7 years and it is really nothing. Yes, we would love to have a better RTA system, but it isn't terrible. From one end of the city to the other is a few minutes. There is a reason why Cleveland's downtown residence is now at 98% occupancy.

#8 - Museums

I am not a museum junkie and that is why this one is probably number 8 on my list. We have a plethora (using a big word because of the topic) of museums. And they are top rate. The Cleveland Museum of Art is massive and just underwent a major renovation.  The Museum of Natural History is going through a similar renovation. By the lakefront is of course the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and the Science Center. In Akron, you have the Inventors Hall of Fame. In Canton, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Specialty museums, normal museums, quirky museums - we have them all.

#7 - Blossom Music Center and the Cleveland Orchestra

A city of less than 500,000 has one of the world's renowned orchestras seems almost too good to true. Every summer, Debsue and I principally have a staycation where we stay in the area. We love being here in  the summer and one of the reasons is to go to Blossom Music Center and hear the Cleveland Orchestra.  We get season passes each summer and sit on the lawn - it is the perfect place to hear the orchestra and the perfect venue to be with friends, drink wine or beer, and eat dinner.

#6 - World Renowned Health System

It is hard not to think of Cleveland without thinking of our world class medical care. Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals are best in class. Now we have added the Global Center for Medical Innovation (formerly known as the Medical Mart), the only facility in the world that demonstrates the future of health and health care. One time a friend who is in medical care in Cleveland once asked me if there was any better place in the world you could get sick and not worry about the quality of health care. He was right.

#5 -  Neighborhood Diversity and Charm

I learned this one early on when I started living here. Do you live on the east side or the west side? Side note - we now live in Brecksville and there is a running debate on whether this is east side or west side. If you use Route 77 as your divisor, we live on the east side. If you use the national park, we live on the west side. Maybe we can claim both! Cleveland is a city known for its neighborhoods. Shaker Square, Gordon Square, Tremont, Ohio City are examples of some of our favorite "neighborhoods". In Ohio City, there is the West Side Market, the oldest operating indoor/outdoor market. We love to visit there, buy great produce, Ohio City pasta and from time to time fritters and Steve's gyros. One of the things we love the most is the people we see at the West Side Market. In Tremont, there is Grumpy's, in Gordon Square, the Happy Dog.  There seems to be a decided food theme to this one.

I will continue this post - I have been writing over an hour.  Bottom line - I love Northeast Ohio.  No one should be surprised that anyone would want to live here. There is so much to love and we are only through the first five.

Northeast Ohio: What's Not to Like?

What a week for Cleveland and the broader Northeast Ohio region. First, we are awarded the Republican National Convention and then Lebron (this is one of the few athletes who is referred to by first name only and everyone knows who he is) comes home. The way he did it and the communication through SI was first rate. Literally brought tears to my eyes. This is not my normal blogging pattern, but I feel compelled to write about why I love living here.

I have lived in Northeast Ohio for 42 of my 54 years. I was born here, I came here from college and have stayed (other than a year courting my wife). I have lived other places (Northern New Jersey, Western Chicago, Western Michigan), but this has always and will be my home (at least on this earth). I find it incredulous that people draw conclusions about NE Ohio having never lived her. They draw it from conjecture and misinformation. Ask my wife - a Chicago transplant who loves living here.

I have conducted business in this city since 1988 (seems like yesterday) when I left a secure job at KPMG and went into my first startup business. Over the years, I have gotten to know a lot of people in this area simply because my work gets me out and about. My wife and I joke how about almost inevitably I run into people I know. I have been honored to be put into leadership positions that serve as a kind of ambassador for the city and region. I am part of the Leadership Cleveland class of 2013 and I learned so much about the city during that year. I am also part of LC II which did the initial research on implementing a new water taxi system that was handed off to the Cleveland Metroparks. In other words, I have lived and breathed the region.

This is why it is not surprising to me that Lebron James would come back to this area. Some of us look superficially at our home and say "it is not New York City or Los Angeles or Chicago", larger cities with more to offer. I don't begrudge my children who have chosen to live in NYC, Washington D.C., and Chicago respectively. They have each done so for different reasons and I think it is great for them. Some of us look at the weather here and want to live in warmer climates or sunnier climates. That is certainly my challenge - no question the weather here stinks about 3 months of the year. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that is managed through Vitamin D supplements. However, the summers and falls are almost perfect. It is what you choose to see and appreciate. Getting out of here for a week or two during the peek depression season seems to do the trick.

The last few years have made me appreciate my home area that much more. I love and appreciate its distinctiveness. I love the size - not too big, not too small. I love the people, the best part. In my next blog, I will rank my top 10 reasons why NE Ohio is one of the best places to live.

Nick Gilbert, the son of Dan Gilbert has famously said at the draft lottery "What's not to like". We in Cleveland tend to have inferiority complexes and we shouldn't. We live in a jewel of an area and we need to appreciate it as such.

Feeble Excuses

Uruguay soccer star Luis Suarez set excuse making to a whole new level this past week. Despite this being this third biting incident, he maintained his innocence. Suarez, in a letter appealing his ban from future games said " I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent." "I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth". In other words your shoulder hit my face. In the face of overwhelming evidence, Suarez eventually came clean.

It reminded me of an incident with our daughter Meghan when she was around six or seven. It appeared she had had a bad haircut overnight with bangs cut strangely. Apparently the attempt of a botched haircut. When confronted with the evidence, she quipped "I don't know how those scissors got in my bed and cut my hair".

One final one - we were at the Indians game Friday night and a t-shirt vendor was selling shirts with profanity on them. When several reacted with indignation, he commented "I don't print the shirts". But you are selling the shirts right?

I think most excuses sound really flimsy to a holy God. Even ones where there might be some element of truth to an enlightened world probably sound like Suarez's excuse to God. Like "I was born that way or that was the way I was raised." God wants us to come clean to him and others, and confess our sin. 1 John 1:9 says "if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us". Confession is always the process to renewal. There is always a difference between confession with an attitude of repentance and one that confesses just because we were caught. The latter is simply remorse and is much more prevelant today. The closer a man walks with God, the more he confesses. Awareness of sin is acute, like a finely tuned set of senses.

 

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Communications Are In Crisis

I am in my mid fifties and so I am old enough that I have seen the "old days" and young enough that I have seen and in many cases embraced the new social media age. This is unlike say someone 10 or 20 years older than I who might be too far past the social media age. Further as a professor (albeit adjunct grunt), I get to hang around young people and observe their habits. Finally, as a business owner, I get to hire some of those young people.

There are many things to like about the social media age. We can connect with more people and stay almost in constant connection with the people we care about the most. I can reconnect with people I went to high school or college with.  My mom lives in Peru and I can stay connected to her. I can know what is going on in the lives of my kids almost as if they were nearby.

However, I have to say that there are some emerging trends that I have seen just getting worse and worse over time. I am going to focus on those things that impact how we communicate with each other.

Quantity communication over quality
When is the last time you read a well written letter? When is the last time you got a phone call that just was from someone who wanted to say hi? I got a call like that a few weeks ago and nearly fell off my chair. We have fallen victims to the "sound bite" generation and lost the desire or even the ability in well thought through ways. Social media doesn't always feel "social".

Stretches of the truth
Truth is becoming more and more of a premium and stretching the truth is more of a norm. The Holy Spirit is really convicting me of that one. For example, let's say I am hitting .375 in baseball; I conveniently round up to .400. I used to say I played baseball in college. But the truth is I tried out and gave it up after about 2 weeks. So I have made a commitment to not lie or even stretch the truth. And it is so refreshing. So many resumes I see embellish the truth. Little lies begat big lies.

Distrust has become the norm
Ever wonder why there are so many personal injury lawyers? They are now sponsors in the media and they are on every billboard on the highway. Have you ever asked yourself whether that is indicative of a distrustful society. There is a hard and soft cost of that distrust.

Social media has become an agent of hate
Similar to the one above. Social media is a way of expressing venom and feel somewhat anonymous. Good article on this in Inside Higher Education. In the past, if I disagreed with someone, I would go to them and talk it out. Now it is a matter of lashing out when we feel wronged. Social media gives us a sense of anonymity. I do the same thing in my car when I tailgate someone. If I was standing behind them in line, I certainly wouldn't push up to them and yell at them to hurry up. It is the sense of anonymity that does that.

No contacts back
I am guilty here as well. Something that drives me crazy is when I am trying to reach out to someone I know and they don't contact me back.  Inevitably, they might say it is because they didn't have something to say or it is bad news. I get the blind sales calls that I ignore just because I am subject to resource restrictions, namely time. However, I am talking of the person that I know who just doesn't give me the courtesy of a call back. Send me at least a one sentence e-mail or text telling me I received your note and will contact you.   

Opinions are often subject to political correctness
The fascinating thing about social media is that it allows a sounding board. However, more and more it has to fit within someone's box. If it is not in that box, it is viewed as anti this and anti that. Opinions now have to go through a certain filter. As a leader, I choose not to pick on things that I know are inflammatory even though I have strong beliefs on the subject. It is not worth the risk now. I would rather talk on the really big, weighty matters. That is those of faith and relationships.

Thoughts on the Donald Sterling Affair

I usually don't weigh in on something like the whole Donald Sterling mess, but have thought about it a lot the past few weeks.

No surprise that what comes out of man is amazingly wicked
He said some bad stuff. I thought if there was a tape recording going on in my head as thoughts pop in, I would render 10 times worse than Donald Sterling. I am a racist, sexist, polygamist, and any other "ist" there is. Should we really be surprised at anything that proceeds out of the mouth of man?

“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
Matt. 15:18-19

Wasn't the matter said in private?
Ouch, if everything I said to someone privately out of frustration became public, I would have to sell my empire (??) too. Didn't the law get broken in the process of breaking a private confidence? Shouldn't we assume that what we say in private stays private? Shouldn't the betrayal of confidence receive the greater notoriety?

Social media is making private conversations that much harder to keep private
Wow, social media is powerful. I find myself thinking to public figures who would be subject to scandal based on exposing what is said privately. The risk is that we become a much more guarded society because what we say can become known so fast. I wonder if Solomon in his description in Ecclesiastes below would know the impact the "bird" of social media would have.

Furthermore, in your bedchamber do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the heavens will carry the sound, and the winged creature will make the matter known.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 

More is made of the racist comments than the apparent adultery going on
No doubt that Sterling said some bad stuff, but nothing was said of his apparent adultery going on with his "personal assistant". I remember a day when adultery caught people's attention as a pretty heinous sin. 

I think people react because they know they are probably just as guilty in their own thought lives
We seem pretty quick to point our flaws in others characters. Maybe we should spend some time analyzing our own deficiencies of character. Jesus says the sin of others should always cause us to look inside first.

Two Becoming One Flesh

It is wedding season. We are invited to three weddings in the space of about a month. The wedding this weekend was to a couple that we are mentoring. Picture below is of the wedding party praying for them. That is our ministry and we feel really called to do it given the early challenges of our marriage. We are thankful to be able to make however small a difference in the lives of newly married.

Also this week I found myself apart from my beloved Debsue for three days mid week and now this weekend. When I used to travel a lot 8-10 years ago, it did not seem that hard. But now having been married longer and not traveling as much, I have to admit it is harder and harder to be apart. Things seem a little out of sorts and oh maybe incomplete.

Marriage is two people really becoming one. It is not one plus one equaling three, but one plus one becoming one. I know I am incomplete without my wife. She completes me. I sense the incompleteness when we are apart. It goes beyond missing her - it goes to actually feeling kind of out of sorts. There is something wonderful and even supernatural about it. God weaves together two disparate people into one flesh. I am sure that is what my mother-in-law is going through as she not just grieves for the loss of my father-in-law, but actually has to adjust her life to being without him.

As wonderful as marriage is however, it has to come second to the relationship with Jesus. Even a marriage can become an idol if not trapped properly. No human relationship can track the closeness and intimacy of the creator God. Marriage is the closest human beings come to the intimacy we have with God, but it is a distant second. It is a foretaste, a preview of how God loves the church - but something even more wonderful is to come.