Today is June 11 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you accept that despite your best efforts, you are unable to control everything?”
Jameson Lee Taillon is a Canadian American professional baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). Taillon was drafted by the Pirates as the second overall pick in the 2010 MLB draft. Jameson is a man of routines, most of them based on the notion that control creates results. One of them involves getting to the ballpark every day as early as possible. "That way," he says, "the chaos comes to me instead of me walking into the chaos."
But in 2017 something happened in his life that illustrated how control has its limits and chaos has a mind of its own.
On May 2, 2017, Taillon felt a lump on his left testicle. After tests confirmed testicular cancer he needed surgery. Six days later, he underwent a one-hour surgery at to remove his left testicle. After the surgery, Jameson posted a message on social media that read, in part: "Today I lost a piece of my 'Manhood.' But today I am feeling like more of a man than I ever have. My journey hasn't been the smoothest. But it is my journey, and I wouldn't change it for anything."
Taillon’s journey has been anything but smooth as he missed the 2014 season after Tommy John surgery and 2015 after hernia surgery.
The Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation states that exertion is off-limits for up to four weeks after surgery. In less than three weeks, Jameson was pitching in a minor league rehab game.
Author Henry David Thoreau wrote ““However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is.”
No matter how mean Taillon’s life, he has met it and loved his life. Do you?