HOPE - The Story of The Hospital Room Window

What a great example of one man providing HOPE for his wounded friend.

HOPE - Hold On Possibilities Exist
HOPE - Hearing Other Peoples Experiences

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.
His bed was next to the rooms only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.
They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could s it up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.
Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man could not hear the band - he could see it in his minds eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days, weeks and months passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep.
She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.


Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window besides the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.


The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, 'Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.'

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.

'Today is a gift, that is why it is called The Present '

Jorge Gurgel - Goodbye Teacher - Hello Fighter From UFC.com July 1, 2008

Jul-1-2008
Jorge Gurgel: Goodbye Teacher, Hello Fighter (For Now, At Least)
By Elliot Worsell



As a youngster growing up in Fortaleza, Brazil, Jorge Gurgel taught the locals how to speak English. Fast-forward a decade and Gurgel now teaches predominantly English-speakers the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It’s a unique and compelling 360 that slaps the exclamation mark on Gurgel’s astonishing rise from waiting tables and waiting for leftovers at American diners to cleaning up 155-pounders in the UFC. So which was harder to teach - explaining verbs and adverbs or escaping triangle chokes?

“Good question,” laughs the affable Brazilian. “They’re both easy. English is a very easy language to pick up. I’m very good at picking up things like languages just as I’m very good at picking up body motions. I can dance any dance and play any instrument. I’m horrible with directions, though. For example, I get lost coming home from my gym at least twice a week. I listen to music, lose concentration, miss signs and suddenly I don’t know where I am.”

Gurgel loses his bearings on this question, too, by the sounds of it. I throw him an A-to-Z and get him back on track.

“Teaching English was easy and teaching jiu-jitsu is just as easy,” explains Gurgel, a man who has helped mold UFC stars Rich Franklin, Dustin Hazelett and Matt Brown, amongst many others. “I’m very honest in the way I teach jiu-jitsu and I’m very hands-on with each and every student I work with. It’s always a blast watching a shy, skinny little kid walk into the gym and then one day walk out as a UFC standout. That’s what it’s all about.”

Gurgel hit the momentary ‘stop’ button on his revolving door of future champions six weeks ago. He shut up shop. The reason? Lacklustre performances. Only we’re not talking about the students here. We’re talking about the teacher. Despite being 3-3 in the UFC since signing up over two years ago, Gurgel has yet to record a UFC ‘win’. Oh, he’s come out on top a few times, but he’s still searching for a victory - to feel victorious.

“I’m still waiting for my first win in the Octagon,” emphasises Gurgel, 15-3 overall in his MMA career. “I’ve been disappointed with every single UFC performance so far. Yeah, I’ve had some wins and, yes, I won Fight of the Night once (for his back-and-forth scrap with Diego Saraiva at UFC 73) but, to be honest, I don’t ever want to get Fight of the Night. That was my worst performance. I should never be getting awards like that for the opponents I’ve been fighting. I won’t mind those awards against guys like BJ Penn, Sean Sherk or Kenny Florian, but I shouldn’t be getting competitive with guys like I’ve been fighting.”

Gurgel continued: “I’ve been waiting for a feeling of accomplishment ever since I first stepped into the Octagon and it’s never arrived. I want that feeling I see a lot of other fighters get when they close their eyes, scream at the top of their lungs and jump on the fence after they’ve stopped someone. I’ve never felt that feeling. Whether I win or lose you’ll always see me with my head down thinking, ‘s**t, I did not fight well’.”

Gurgel, BJJ expert and all-round nice guy, was kicked out of his own school six weeks ago. Packing his bags and ditching appointments, Gurgel set off for Seattle. He hooked up with Matt ‘The Wizard’ Hume and knuckled down in preparation for his fight this Saturday (July 5) at UFC 86. The coach needed to be coached again.

“I feel the best I’ve ever felt, especially mentally,” admits the 31-year-old Gurgel. “I’ve always been everyone else’s coach and now was the time to get one of my own. I’ve never had my own coach, someone to rely on and someone to assist me. I got the best in the business in Matt Hume and he told me to come to Seattle and I did. I left everything behind and became just a student again. It was like going back to school. I did everything he told me to and was his student. I’m excited to have the chance to display all the new skills I learned under Matt. I’m a totally different animal now, man.

“I’m just a fighter and it’s the best feeling in the world. I love coaching – in fact, I can’t wait to go back and teach – but I now know I need to separate the two things.”

Separating the two loves of Gurgel’s life was similar to deciding whether to keep his cat or his dog. There’s a reason why it’s taken the expansion of 12 nationwide BJJ schools for this moment to come. Gurgel’s an ambitious character. “Stubborn” is the best-suited word, he’ll probably tell you.

“I always thought I could do both,” he says. “I really did. I saw Renzo Gracie and a lot of other people do it, but my schools just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was a good problem to have in a way because it meant the schools were doing well. There came a time, though, where everyone wanted me to teach them or be in the corner with them and it just got too much. I became very stressed out with it all and it affected the way I was competing. I’ve been producing really sub-par performances in the UFC and it’s time to change that.”

One figures now probably isn’t a good time to fight Jorge Gurgel. He appears to be at a place - mentally as well as physically – that few fighters are able to reach. He’s hooked up with sports psychiatrist Brian Cain and has got his “head sorted out now”. There appears to be no fear of reality. No cover up. Gurgel admits his failings inside the Octagon and doesn’t offer excuses, reasons or complaints as to why he’s underperfomed. One thing’s certain – it’s not due to a lack of talent. After all, a run of nine submission wins preceded his first trip to the Octagon.

“I want to get back to doing that,” says Gurgel, who has frustratingly travelled the long-route each time he’s stepped into the Octagon. “I have no interest in decision wins anymore. They make me sick. It annoys me each and every time. It’s nothing to do with the big show – I love the crowd, the lights, the noise and everything else – it’s just that I became so busy and so distracted with my schools and students that I lost a little something. I’ve now got that something back.”

Saturday’s opponent Cole Miller, 13-3, has been warned. The Augusta native is gearing up to meet a man in Gurgel who is not only intent on pulling out the win, but doing it early and in style. A proper ‘victory’.

“He’s a very well-rounded fighter,” remarks Gurgel on Miller. “He’s very tall for the weight. He keeps saying he’s not worried about my ground game, which is probably one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard. How can you not be worried about my ground game? He should be very worried about my ground game.

“Hey, Cole’s a confident kid, he’s got good jiu-jitsu, he’s calm and he’ll come to fight. He’s the guy taking a huge step up in competition and he’s known me for a very long time. I’m not about ‘needing’ to do things anymore. It’s all about ‘wanting’. I want to fight, I want to win and I want to absolutely dismantle this guy from head to toe. It’s a really, really bad time to fight Jorge Gurgel and unfortunately for Cole he’s right in front of me.”

Best-laid plans often disintegrate in the heat of battle. It’s a conundrum Gurgel has encountered in the past, of course. He’s brawled when he should have boxed. Kicked when he should have punched. Stood when he should have gone to ground. Twisted when he should stuck. It’s all led to one thing in Gurgel’s mind – a big UFC bust.

“I get caught up slugging mostly because I have so much fun,” he admits. “I get so excited in there and if they give me one I’m going to give them two back. I get caught up in the moment and I’m training myself out of that mode. I need to fight a strategic fight and fight my fight.

“I’ve really worked hard on developing my mental game this time round. This is the beginning of a new fighter. A fighter determined to show his skills and not his bravado. I know I’m tough, I know I have heart and now I want to show what I’ve learned in over 16 years of training in martial arts. I want to go back to being a technical fighter.”

Gurgel’s performances inside the Octagon are often perplexing. Seemingly preferring to stand-up and slug rather than head to the ground and display his language of choice, Gurgel presents a hard-to-read figure. He’s bilingual in the Octagon and more than capable of striking – but now may be the time to express his natural tongue.

“I haven’t gone to the ground, man,” he says, almost despondently. “Brian Cain would say it is a mental block. Knowledge minus action equals nothing. That basically means if you have all the knowledge on the ground – and everyone knows how good you are there – but you refuse to use those skills you’re just as useless as the guy who knows nothing on the ground and avoids being there. A student of mine had another theory for it. He said I was afraid of going to the ground because everyone knows my reputation down there and that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to live up to expectations. At first I was in denial with that one – I thought it was bulls**t – but maybe he was right.”

Gurgel’s refusal to showcase his unique selling point is akin to David Beckham refusing to take free kicks anymore.

“I enjoy standing up,” says Gurgel. “I have lots of confidence in my chin. I’ve fought with a broken jaw and still never been dropped in my life. I’ll stand up on Saturday until I’ve hurt Cole pretty badly and he’ll want to go to the ground. There’s no way he can stand with me so I’ll bust him up a little bit on my feet then go to the ground with his will broken and do what I want.”

Saturday night marks the beginning of a new chapter in Gurgel’s life and career. If past history is anything to go by, the smart money’s on Gurgel turning his fortunes around and notching that elusive first ‘win’. After all, this is a guy who has followed his dream from Brazil to America to Brazil and back again. He’s taught, learned, waited tables - you name it, he’s likely done it – just to keep the journey on track. For once, Jorge seems to know the direction he’s going. The A-to-Z is redundant when it comes to his goals.

“It’s my childhood dream,” says Gurgel. “It’s not about the money. I don’t care if another organisation offers me hundreds of thousands to fight. My goal in life from the age of 15 was to be a part of the UFC. I don’t care if the UFC pay me $5,000 for every fight for the rest of my career. I didn’t get into the sport when it was fashionable or trendy. Everybody nowadays wants to be a fighter to get girls and sign autographs. I do this thing to test myself and to honour my students and my schools. Half of my life has been dedicated to this sport and I want the UFC to be my home forever.”

Although the spotlight has now shifted from the students to the teacher, it wouldn’t be worth interviewing Gurgel if the name Dustin Hazelett didn’t pop up somewhere – especially in light of the Kentucky native’s piece of jazzman-esque improvisation on Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter finale.

“I did not teach him that,” laughs Jorge in reference to Hazelett’s exquisite whizzer to flying arm-bar finisher. “No way. The first thing I said to him on the phone was ‘man, I did not teach you that!’. He just said, ‘well Jorge, I did it anyway!’. Dustin has never done that in his life. He’s my kid. I’ve been with him since he was like 14 years old. He just pulled it straight out of his ass. Once you get to a certain level you stop learning specific moves and start developing your own style and concepts. It was instinct. I don’t think he was thinking for one moment – it just happened – and he wound up pulling one of the greatest armbars I’ve ever seen.”

Like student, like teacher? It sounds a little backwards but, come Saturday night, professor Jorge Gurgel hopes it rings true
Tune in on Saturday July 5th on Pay Per View to see how Jorge performs.

Brian Cain For President 2008???

Want to know what happens when one of your friends who has a lot of pull decides to play a joke on you? It takes off like wildfire. This is amazing. Truly the Law of Attraction in Action.

Jorge Gurgel - Back To School For UFC Icon

*Taken crom http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=13400
Back to School
June 24, 2008
by Chris Yucus (cyucus@sherdog.com)

Sometimes even a teacher has to go back to school.

For Jorge Gurgel (Pictures), stepping away from coaching to become a student again has changed the way he looks at fighting.

"I feel like a new man," says Gurgel, who "dropped everything" to spend the past five weeks in Seattle working under Matt Hume (Pictures)'s tutelage in preparation for his July 5 lightweight fight against Cole Miller (Pictures) at UFC 86. "It's the best training camp I've ever had. I've never had a coach before; I've always been everybody's coach. I've never had anybody look over me and make me a priority."

Gurgel (12-3, 3-2 UFC) runs his own school, JG MMA Academy near Cincinnati, and also looks after 12 affiliate schools in the United States and Canada. He sees the change from mentor to pupil as necessary for his development as a fighter.

"I needed to be just a student," he says. "I needed somebody to say ‘OK, man, you do nothing but train with me and prepare for a fight.' Matt said, ‘You're going to come to Seattle and I'm going to take care of you.'

"I've never had a coach who focused on me. I have a school with 400-500 students. … I'm always working with pro fighters, the guys that we train, and training myself. I've never had a coach to tell me when to stop training, when to train more, when to train this technique, what to do."

According to Hume, Gurgel has benefited from focusing solely on his own training.

"He's pretty nervous about not being there for his guys for the first time," says Hume, "but at the same time he's always had that pressure and responsibility on top of him as well as training for his own fights. I think that it's a big weight off of him to not have that pressure on him."

Hume also describes Gurgel as an ideal pupil.

"Working with Jorge has been great," Hume says. "He's the type of guy I like to work with. He's self-motivated and really pushes himself. He's really a perfectionist. It makes my job easier when all I have to do is teach and I don't have to motivate."

While in Seattle with Hume, Gurgel has also been working with strength and conditioning coach Joel Jamieson at End Zone Athletics. He has glowing praise for Jamieson's approach to working out.

"He's unbelievable. He's completely different than what I'm used to, very scientific," Gurgel says.

Jamieson's scientific methods, which utilize constant monitoring of bodily functions to gauge response to training regimens, have yielded tremendous results with Gurgel in only five weeks.

"My resting heart rate when I got here was 91, because I was always so hyper," Gurgel says. "Now it's below 60."

Gurgel's new training approach in Seattle, as well as his time with Sports Psychologist/Peak Performance Coach Brian Cain, who previously worked with Georges St. Pierre (Pictures), has the 31-year-old native of Brazil feeling extremely confident going into his upcoming bout with Miller (13-3, 2-1 UFC).

"Cole Miller is an up-and-comer, a very dangerous opponent, but I feel my skills match up well against his," Gurgel says. "I think my jiu-jitsu is better and my striking is better. I'm stronger and more explosive."

Hume agrees with Gurgel's assessment of the matchup.

"I don't see anything that Cole brings to the table being too much for Jorge," says the trainer.

One thing Gurgel is looking out for is Miller's decided height advantage.

"He has a big reach advantage, but I'm working on that," Gurgel says. "I'm going to use my footwork and be a lot more methodical, not the crazy bat out of hell that you've seen me be before. He's going to try and hit me, and I'm not going to be there."

Miller trains at American Top Team in Florida with Gurgel's longtime friend and fellow UFC lightweight Marcus Aurelio. However, Gurgel says that while he often talks to Aurelio, who will also be fighting at UFC 86, he does not ask about Miller.

"I don't really care or worry about what my opponent is doing, how he's doing. I care about what I do," says Gurgel. "I worry about what I do, things that I control. I can't concern myself with how hard he's training, how he is doing."

While both he and Miller are known to be quality ground fighters, Gurgel doesn't necessarily expect a large portion of the fight to take place on the mat.

"You never see me try and take anybody down," he says. "I always train to stand up with everybody. So if he wants to stand up and trade with me, he's more than welcome to."

Gurgel has often eschewed the ground game for striking, despite his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He says that his striking-first mentality stems from a desire to entertain during his fights and enjoy his time in the cage.

"People tell me I'm stupid for standing, that I should do things for me and not everybody else, but I'm there to put on a show for the fans," he explains. "I like to be a crowd pleaser, but mainly this is the job I chose to do for my life. If I'm not going to have fun fighting, why do it? I have a blast standing up."

Whether that approach is the best one remains debatable. Regardless, Gurgel holds three wins in the Octagon, though he has yet to experience a true sense of victory in the UFC.

"I've lived my whole life to have that feeling in the Octagon, that rush, that high from a great performance," he says. "In all my fights in the UFC, I've never felt that feeling; I've been striving, working so hard to get that feeling of finishing a fight. I can see it through the screen, what people feel like. How Rich has felt, how Forrest felt when he finished Shogun -- when people get that knockout or great submission and they look up in the air and scream.

"I've been searching for that feeling for 15 years of my life, training every single day. I've never felt it yet, and I'm really hoping that July 5th will be my day."

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