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Regan McMahon is our guest blogger during the week of September 24th. If you have any questions for Regan McMahon, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some brief information about Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family Life in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports:

A journalist and mother of two athletic kids exposes the physical and emotional dangers of our over-the-top youth sports culture—and offers practical solutions for positive change.

A decade ago, Joan Ryan’s expose, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, changed the way we look at elite sports, namely figure skating and gymnastics. Today, there is another crisis in youth sports. It may affect any child, from the kindergartner on the soccer field to the high school athlete competing for scarce scholarship money. Regan McMahon’s Revolution in the Bleachers is a wake-up call for parents who spend their lives shuttling their kids from one field and practice to the next and wonder what happened to family life.

Regan McMahon’s book began as a cover story for the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine. Titled “How Much is Too Much?” it got a tremendous response. Finally, someone had dared to say what many parents were thinking! Parents, kids and coaches responded, prompting McMahon to criss-cross the country, doing interviews and research to find out how deep the problem goes and how to fix it.

Dear Friends and Pilgrims one and all,

At eight o'clock last night, the old wooden door to the crypt of Chartres Cathedral creaked and groaned as it slowly swung open for our descent. We made our way down the centuries-old stone staircase, our eyes adjusting slowly from the world of light to the dim lights and flickering votive candles that guided our way through the crypt, the chapel below the cathedral where a second carved wooden Dark Madonna with a crown of oak leaves sits on the wall behind the altar holding the Christ Child in her lap. Though the original ancient statue was long ago destroyed, this carved copy sits with her eyes closed, holding her child, reigning over the silence. Called the Madonna Sous Terre, "the Madonna Under the Earth," or "the Madonna of the Underworld," this Madonna sits where a pre Christian statue was honored by the Druids.

Directly above her in the Cathedral stands the Black Madonna, Our Lady of the Pillar.

Just as our pilgrim's journey required a descent of the old smooth cold, stone stairs, it also required a descent into the mythic realm, into the soul's work of discovering what it is to be fully human. The way to the Divine, no matter by which name it is called, the ineffable Mystery, the descent which takes place on the way to God.

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