Fridays with Mac: "From the Ashes of Angst"

This Friday with Mac was the day after an apocalyptic inferno roared through the Colorado communities of Superior and Louisville. The two long-established towns are just a few miles from the University of Colorado campus in Boulder where Hall of Fame coach Bill McCartney and assistants excelled at mentoring talented student/athletes to greatness including the school’s only national championship in 1990.

Back then? Many CU football staff members lived in the neighborhoods incinerated. Given the outrageous cost of living in Boulder, the towns of Louisville and Superior have always been home for many CU employees, within the athletic department or elsewhere. They still are. Most of our time the day after the unprecedented urban winter wildfire was spent responding to texts and phone calls. We learned of the good fortune of homes intact and the sadness of knowing others were not lucky and face the challenge of rebuilding dwellings and memories created when a house becomes a home. Tragic. Prayers with all those affected.

As the “Buff Guy” for CBS4 Denver back in the glory days of McCartney’s tenure at the university, I wish to have a dollar for every time I drove past the two cities on the way toward campus and reporting duties detailing the fortunes of Colorado football and other sports.?

As a golfing fanatic, I can’t tell you how many times this ol’ hacker and friends have played the Coal Creek golf course just north of the Boulder Turnpike and east of the McCaslin exit. The beautiful and challenging links, and surrounding neighborhoods, are now decimated. This past summer we played Coal Creek a few times. I couldn’t help but notice how much the terrain had matured since first playing the course in its infancy back in the late 80’s. It was impossible not to marvel at the towering trees, native grasses (spent too much time in each) and mutter to buddies, “Wow, a lot has changed in more than three decades of chasing a little white ball around this gorgeous place.”

It has changed again. Decimated.

Story after story filtered into the McCartney home in Westminster, a safe distance east of the fire burn. We tried to focus on the television and the lopsided national semifinal game between Alabama and Cincinnati but that was impossible.

We began to talk about the fragility of life. How it can change in an instant and so often requires us to deal with unwanted and unexpected challenges. How tens of thousands of residents and workers in the inferno’s path, on moment’s notice, were able to evacuate and avoid harm is nothing short of a miracle. Sadly, at this time, two are missing and presumed dead after more than 6,000 acres and close to 1,000 homes and businesses were lost in a flash.

What happens now? When life really sucks with merciless shock and despair? Bless the afflicted in this example and everywhere else. Crappy stuff happens, damn it. I can guarantee you, Billy Mac from Hackensack didn’t plan on spending the fourth quarter of his life battling Alzheimer’s. My 86-year-old mother didn’t plan on dealing with COPD and other debilitating health issues; Well-known television personality Nick Cannon didn’t plan on losing his five-month-old son to cancer. You didn’t plan on……? You get the point. In this case, survivor’s guilt joins the party too.

The question always becomes, how will we respond when we can’t lean on our own understanding in dealing with the realities before us? I don’t have an answer to that question other than imploring any and all dealing with unimaginable grief and bewilderment to not begin the rebuild alone.?

It’s too hard. It’s okay to ask for help when faced with the mental, physical, emotional and financial task of digging deep for a reservoir of resilience necessary to deal with life’s crazy and tragic twists.

As our discussion about life continued, a widower, father, grandfather, football legend, buddy and gifted exhorter of others offered, “From the ashes of angst, we must have the faith to dust ourselves off, rise and carry on.”

Amen coach. #goodbetterbest