Now Hear This

In this episode of "A Pane In The Glass Podcast" there will be sound bites, five in total. Click on "Chapters" above these show notes to see the topics and where you can go to hear them!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of a Pain in the Glass podcast. This is your host, Bill Sheerart, chartered professional coach with Coaches of Canada. Once again coming to you from my home in Grand Bend, Ontario, on the shore of one of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron. At least last time I checked, it's still called Lake Huron. On the ancestral land of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nations. It's been two weeks since we have uh spoken with one another. Well, me the speaker, you the listener, and thank you very much for those of you who have made listening to the podcast a regular part of your week. It was two weeks because one of my favorite people, Emily Riley, had a talk with me on the podcast, which lasted longer than normal. And so I uh broke it over a two-week period. And I must say, the number of downloads, well, it always rises when I have a chance to talk with Emily. And that was certainly true again. Well, we're back to sort of the normal routine, and uh this week uh there are sound bites, and the sound bites have to do with a a a variety of topics, not the least of which is working with young people. It is September the 8th here in North America, Canada in in particular, and it's the day after Labor Day. And for many young people, the day after Labor Day means the start of school. Now, for those listeners in the United States, uh the young people would have started school a little bit earlier, in uh uh probably about the middle part of August. And for me personally, I I I was thinking about this this morning, that uh for about 50 years, you know, I will explain why 50 years. The day after Labor Day meant the first day of school. Well, from the age of five when I started kindergarten, I had vivid memories of that. And then when I transitioned onto the other side of the desk at the front of the classroom, uh professional educator, the day after Labor Day was the same idea. It was back to the classroom. And I felt very privileged to uh be a professional educator because it was one of the few professions, perhaps, where you got a fresh start every year with the students, and of course, you know, maybe a better version of yourself. And and I always feel I'm one of the luckiest people on the face of the earth. It's what I always wanted to do. And in that regard, because I enjoyed it so much and the rewards were so great working with young people. I've never worked a day in my life. It's what I've always wanted to do. But I digress, and so let's uh not the first sound bite, but something that I saw on the internet, and of course, if you see it on the internet, it must be true, but it's not whether it's AI generated or not, it was worth, I think, repeating. So here we

Teachers

SPEAKER_00 3:31

go. It's entitled, Teachers, this one is for you. Teaching is one of those jobs that rarely stays at work. You leave the building, but part of your mind stays in the classroom. You're thinking about the student who seemed unusually quiet today, the lesson that didn't quite land, the conversation you need to have tomorrow, the papers in your bag, the email you forgot to answer, the child who finally understood something after weeks of trying. And somewhere between making dinner and trying to switch off for the evening, you're already thinking about how you can make tomorrow better. That's the part of teaching people don't always see. They see the person standing at the front of the classroom. They don't necessarily see the planner, the counselor, the problem solver, mediator, organizer, advocate, record keeper, and constant decision maker that comes with it. They certainly don't see how much of the job follows teachers home. And yet the next morning, teachers walk back through those doors and start all over again. They welcome the students, they answer the same question for perhaps the fifth time. They notice who needs encouragement, they adjust the lesson on the fly, they solve problems nobody planned for, and they keep giving their best, even on the days when their best feels stretched pretty thin. So here's to the teachers doing a job that has never fitted neatly inside a job description or a set of contracted hours. Much of what you do will never appear in a timetable, a report, or a paycheck. But it matters to the children who walk into your classroom every day. Teaching is the only profession where you're expected to take care like a parent, manage like a CEO, document like a lawyer, counsel like a therapist, and still have people question how hard the job really is. So a shout out to all the teachers, making a difference every single day. I have two sound bites that are definitely connected, as you will understand when you hear them. And the first one is has an interesting title because what can a referee teach you, the parent, about being the parent of an athlete? And the second one, even though it's about hockey, it's one of those, you know, insert sports here. It could be any sport. So let's hear these two sound bites. I was quite impressed with each of them.

Parent Like A Referee

SPEAKER_05 6:49

A referee taught me how to get the discipline balls in my house. When a player breaks a rule, he gets a yellow card. Ten minutes in the bin. If the player protests, please pouts, or puts on an Oscar worthy performance of remorse. The referee doesn't shorten his time in the bin even by a second. Even if he likes him, and even if he feels sorry for him, because everyone agreed to the rules before the kickoff. The rules create the game. Now look at my house. When one of my kids broke a rule, I was inventing consequences after I was already angry. Which means it wasn't really a consequence, it was a power trick. So for a few years now, I've been more like a ref than a dictator. Here's how you do it. On a calm day, agree on the rules, agree on what happens when they're broken. The thing I learned from this is that they need to be things you can stick to, they need to be realistic. Picture yourself a week later, your kid has been an angel and is making sweet eyes at you. Is the consequence still gonna stick? Make sure it's a consequence, not punishment. Consequences teach and punishments build resentment. So you've agreed on the consequence. Then, when the moment comes, you're not the furious parent making it up on the spot. You're just the referee pointing out a rule they already knew. If they protest, fine. But it doesn't change the consequence or the duration. The consequence stays. This is what I teach in style, what they're not saying. Teams. How to discipline your team without the drama.

Parenting Tips For The Start Of A New Season

SPEAKER_03 9:10

Hockey season coming up soon, so here's three tips for hockey parents to make it a much better season. These are my three tips, but if you have any, leave in the comments below. Let's get into it. Number one, don't look at your phone. Games, practices, just don't look at your phone. And I'm guilty of this because I watch my kid when it's a shift or when he's doing the drill, but then I look at my phone when he's not. But that's the only time your kid looks at you when they're on the bench or when they're not doing the drill, they look at you. And if you're always looking at your phone, they just think the entire time you're on the phone. So you just you can't look at your phone. Sorry. Number two, hand signals. The only one you can do, the thumbs up. They go to the bench, they had a good shift, look at you looking across, do one of those. Right? So they know they know you're watching, they know that you're happy. Positive hand signals only. Don't do like the skate or head up or like the what are you doing? Just don't do those. Number three is for the ride home. You do not have to give them a full breakdown, shift by shift, every mistake that they made, or a full lecture. They already have a coach, the coach is on the ice, they don't need a coach, they need a parent. So get in the car, just like good game, and that's it. You know what? I have one more tip, and this one actually is probably bigger than all the rest of them. Don't trash talk their teammates and their coach on the drive home. You don't sit there, oh, you would have won for so-so so-and-so, so-and-so can't stick skate, whatever, right? Because you keep on saying that, sometimes uh your voice becomes their inner voice, and then they're gonna repeat that in the dressing room. What you're saying becomes what they're thinking, and you're just putting that negative energy up there. So that's a big one. Uh don't talk trash.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

This next sound bite is very short, but it's impactful. And it's a baseball coach who has gathered his team together, uh 11 to 13 year olds, it would appear, and they're losing 11 to 2. We've all been there as coaches when everything goes south. Uh, what do you say? Well, listen very carefully, because I think this coach handles it very well.

You're Losing 11-2 What Does A Coach Say To The Team?

SPEAKER_03 11:06

Hey, listen, no matter what happens, you have to hold your hand up. You have to not get a honey jump, you have to have mental body language. Those things are important. You have to get mentally tough. When it gets tough, you get tough for me. You understand that? All right.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

And the last soundbite for today, uh, this is a voice of uh Gino Yuriyama. And if you are a college basketball fan, women's basketball in particular, uh, coach Yuriyama is uh the the John Wooden of of women's basketball multiple championships. And he has something to say about college sports. I'm a big college sports fan, but um it's going to be rather disconcerting to to hear what he has to say.

College Sports Are Dying

SPEAKER_04 12:06

And you know, uh I've had parents pass away, and when they were dying on the inside, they didn't always show it on the outside. So on the outside, I think sometimes it looks like wow, everything's great. Look, all this and all that, look what we have, look what we're doing, look what we're on the inside is dying. Because every single day something comes up to show you a symptom of the disease that we're suffering. And I'm not saying, oh, don't pay the kids, oh, don't let the kids transfer, oh, you know, whatever the case may be. But I think every fan out there, every day they look at Yahoo's words or they pick up any other source of information, and they read about another lawsuit, another coach trying to get away with anything they can, another school trying to do whatever they have to do to win, another conference trying to the more this happens and the more these things keep on being the central uh focus of the news, the more we're dying one day at a time. And until somebody comes along and says, This is it, these are the rules, and that's it. And see, this is exactly like what I'm talking about with the kids. Like we need exactly what we had 25 years ago. We need it today in a different structure. But see, there are no rules, there is no structure. So imagine you have an 18-year-old kid that you're raising, and there's no rules, there's no structure. Anything goes, and if they don't like your decision, they go get a judge and they sue you. So tell me how in God's name something like that can survive.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Again, college sports is our last sound bite for this episode and for this week, is about one of uh my favorite baseball movies, and I think I speak for many of the listeners out there, uh, because the field really still exists in Iowa, and of course, the movie to which I refer is Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner. So that's what this soundbite is all about, and it's an explanation of the ending of the movie. So if you haven't seen the movie, you're probably wondering, well, what's in this for me? So here's uh an invitation for you to certainly watch one of the best uh baseball movies of all time, an explanation about the ending of Field of Dreams.

Explaining "Field Of Dreams"

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Evan Costner's Field of Dreams is one of those rare films that manages to blend whimsy, baseball, and deep emotional resonance all in one. If you've seen it, you know how it hits you right in the fields, especially at the end. But what does the ending actually mean? Let's break it down and dive into why this film still leaves people wiping away tears decades later. At the heart of Field of Dreams is Ray Kinsella's Kevin Costner relationship with his father. The whole film revolves around this deep emotional void he's been carrying ever since his father's death. The voice, if you build it, he will come, leads Ray to build the baseball field in his core field. But it's not just a random act, it's a moment of faith, a moment of believing in the impossible, stepping outside the boundaries of the everyday, and trusting that something bigger than himself will unfold. Initially, the field seems to be about bringing back shoeless Joe Jackson, Ray Liotta, the infamous baseball player banned from the game for the Black Sox scandal in 1919. But as Rey's journey unfolds, we realize this quest is about much more than that. It's about Rey confronting his unresolved grief and regret over his relationship with his father. Their strained relationship was a result of years of silence, hurt, and misunderstandings, all stemming from Rey's rebellion against his father's traditional beliefs. When Rey finally sees the players emerge from the cornfield, he's not just reliving baseball history, he's engaging with his own personal history, with the ghosts of his past, and the hopes and dreams he never fully realized. But the movie's real magic happens when Rey realizes that the he in the voice wasn't Shoeless Joe. It was, in fact, his father, John Kinsella, played by Dwyer Brown. The twist is subtle yet profound. Ray didn't just build this field to honor a baseball legend, but to reconcile with the man who raised him. The connection between father and son is deeper than any national pastime could ever encapsulate. The magic of the field allows Ray to heal the wounds of his past and finally address the guilt that's haunted him for years. It's the chance for a second shot, one that most people never get in real life. The film does an extraordinary job of creating this sense of nostalgia and longing. Ray's quest to build the field seems like a fantasy at first. Who would have just uproot their life to build a baseball diamond in the middle of nowhere? But that's where the genius lies. Field of Dreams isn't about logic, it's about following your heart and taking that leap of faith when everything seems uncertain. And that's the core theme of the movie. The idea that sometimes you have to make a big, risky decision to uncover truths that are buried beneath the surface of everyday life. As Ray continues his journey, he's not just bringing back the players of the past, he's resurrecting parts of himself that he buried long ago. He meets Terrence Man, James Earl Jones, a reclusive writer who had once lamented the loss of the Brooklyn Dodgers. And through their shared journey, Ray comes to terms with the fact that his actions are not just about rectifying his past mistakes, they're about understanding the complexities of his own identity and what it means to truly reconcile with those we've wronged. The moment when Ray finally returns home to find his brother-in-law Mark, Timothy Buzzfield, pressuring him to sell the farm is a wake-up call for him. Mark doesn't see the value in Ray's dream because he can't see the magic, the players, or the deeper meaning behind the field. All Mark sees is a farm that's sinking further and further into financial ruin, but Ray's refusal to sell is an act of defiance, not just against Mark, but against the conventional way of thinking. It's a declaration that some things in life are worth more than money. The field symbolizes the belief that there is more to life than financial stability or societal expectations. Sometimes the most precious things aren't tangible. They're the moments, the connections, and the dreams that give our lives meaning. This brings us to the pivotal moment when Ray's daughter, Karen, is nearly choked to death on a hot dog. This dramatic event forces Ray to confront just how far he's willing to go for this vision and how much he's invested in his faith in the field. When Archibald Moonlight Graham, Bert Lancaster, steps across the foul line and transforms back into his older self to save her life, the metaphor becomes even clearer. This isn't just about saving a life, it's about redemption. It's about going beyond the self and doing something for others, for family, for legacy. Then comes the climactic scene where Ray gets the ultimate reward for his sacrifices. He meets his father, not as the man he was when they last spoke, but as a young man, full of life and possibility. And in that moment, the floodgates open. Ray, finally free from the burden of regret and guilt, can now introduce his father to his family. They share that sacred moment, a catch. It's a simple act, but it's rich with meaning. The long unspoken words are finally said, not in grand speeches, but in the unspoken language of a game that Rey's father loved. They don't need to say much because everything is understood. The film's brilliance lies in its ability to blend the personal with the universal. Rey's journey is one of personal redemption, but it also taps into a larger theme: the quest for meaning in a world that often feels empty.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Universally, all guys will watch it, we tear up at one point. And we're ashamed to admit that we do that, but that is one of the few films that makes all men cry. What is the secret to making men cry in a movie?

SPEAKER_06 20:12

I don't I don't know. That movie is, I think, our generation's wonderful life. It's a wonderful life, and then it happens. It doesn't matter how often you watch that movie when you ask your dead. It just it seems to get people. And um, I'm just you know glad to have films that you know, if that's what's possible with film.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Baseball serves as the backdrop, but it's the emotional landscape of Ray's heart that the film truly explores. The field represents so much more than just a place for players to return. It's a place where broken relationships can be healed, where lost time can be recaptured, and where the hope of second chances is alive and well. When the players finally start to leave, Ray is left standing there, not with a sense of loss, but with a deep sense of fulfillment. His farm, once a symbol of his failed dreams, has now become a place of peace. The ending isn't about winning a game, it's about finding the answers to the questions that have haunted Rey for years. The farm, the field, the players. Everything is a metaphor for the healing power of forgiveness, love, and faith. And it's not just a lesson for Ray, it's one for all of us. Life might not always go according to plan, but sometimes the greatest rewards come from the things we least expect. Field of Dreams is more than just a baseball movie, it's a movie about the human spirit, the power of faith, and the ties that bind us together. Ray Castella's leap of faith takes him to a place where he finds reconciliation, not just with his father, but with himself. It's a reminder that sometimes you've got to risk everything to find what truly matters. And if that means building a baseball field in the middle of a cornfield, well, then maybe it's worth it. The field may fade away, but the lessons learned from it will stay forever. That's the real magic of Field of Dreams. It doesn't just bring back baseball legends, it brings back something much more valuable: the chance to heal, to forgive, and to love again.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

I hope you enjoyed those sound bites and got something from them. Um, informative as usual, and perhaps uh entertaining as well. So until next time, wherever you are, you know about that great North American philosopher Charlie Brown. Wherever you are, don't dwell on things that make you sad, because there are so many things in life that can make you happy. Until next time.