Anyone who has watched even a single football game has seen a quarterback call an audible at the line of scrimmage. For much of our lives, we do much the same.
Who hasn’t watched a football game with the likes of Tom Brady or Joe Montana? When they get to the line, they see a defensive set that they do not like. So what do they do? They call an audible, completely changing the agreed-upon offensive play in light of the reality facing them. Winning quarterbacks know how to read defenses and defeat them by being nimble at the line of scrimmage.
We all call the equivalent of audibles during our lives. One’s flight is canceled: what do you do? You now need to get a new flight, change your rental car plan, call the hotel to get them to hold the room, push off your planned meeting, and explain to your better half why you will be a day late. These are skills that we all need in our modern world and being stuck in one’s way of thinking can come with a big price, namely failure and disappointment. I am always amazed that around 90 percent of our life activities were never taught in school or college: shopping, interacting with family, friends and business colleagues, taking care of household needs, etc. The Western school model is still based on the idea that moral and practical training will come from the home, while technical training for a career will come from schools. With big orthodox families here in Israel, you often see children at a very young age trained to take care of their even younger siblings; when they marry, moving into a family setting is natural for them as many of the skills needed have already been honed well before getting married.
The war(s) in Israel have made many people call audibles in their lives. Soldiers and their families have had to juggle fighting for the state of Israel and making sure that their families keep functioning. Such balancing is often not easy, especially where there are young children involved. Even for non-combatants, there needs to be a willingness to change programs on a moment’s notice. I can see that my family needs some rest and relaxation. I had hoped that we would travel during the summer, but different companies canceled their flights to and from Israel, prices passed the moon, and there was a real chance that there would be no flight back anytime soon. When 200,000 Israelis were stuck outside of the country due to cancelled flights, the government worked with El-Al to set up pick-up points in Athens, Vienna and Bangkok to get them back home. While Hamas’ ability to fire rockets has been reduced and their rockets tend to fall close to the Gazan enclave, Hezbollah has long-range rockets, many of them with advanced guidance systems, that can reach all parts of Israel. As the war in the north began to heat up, there was a real threat that the major international airport for the entire country, Ben Gurion Airport, would be shuddered. I read that there were even plans to move flights to the much smaller but further south airport named after late astronaut Ilan Rimon. When one gets stuck with no way to get home, the options of sleeping in an airport and/or dropping thousands of dollars for unplanned extended food and lodging are not appealing. So summer came and went and we stayed put.
We now have tickets for the family to visit the U.S. for the first time since my dad passed away nearly two years ago. I get goosebumps thinking about coming back to the U.S. Our planned carrier has canceled all flights for the next few weeks after the Hezbollah beepers turned into popcorn. It is my hope that they will return to Israel well before our planned travel date and will also continue to fly when we plan to come home. Just as an audible cannot be called until one is at the line of scrimmage and sees the defense awaiting the snap, so too there are many things that one cannot change or adjust to until he gets to the situation in practice. On our first family flight to Vegas to visit my dad after a 19 month hiatus due to Covid, I brought our wedding certificate with me. One of our boys asked why I would carry it on me. I told him to just wait. Sure enough, we got to Frankfurt late and missed our connection. During this period, only Americans could fly to the US; Europeans could not. My dear wife has only Israeli citizenship. So when we rebooked with the Lufthansa representative, he asked me how my wife can fly to the US. I pointed out that there was an exception for someone accompanying an American citizen up to age 24. Our youngest was 22 then. He checked with the DHS people embedded in the Frankfurt Airport, and they said it was right and the wedding license did the rest. Our flight to Washington was two-thirds empty due to there being no Europeans on the plane. We ran through Dulles like deranged fools with masks on in order to make the flight being held for us. We got to Vegas late, but my dad was sure happy to see us.
Being agile and ready to change plans as needed is a great skill. It has taken me a long time to learn how to call audibles. My Prussian head plans things out many steps ahead. Any change in plans throws my brain for a loop. My wife and dual-citizen children are much more flexible and ready to change plans or make adjustments as necessary or when an opportunity arises. I am improving but still need to work on my play-calling. I felt a warm tingle from a Babylon Bee article entitled, “Man brings his family to the airport before it is built.” My kids joke that I get the family to the airport before they finish painting the plane. If we get to the airport early, we whip through check-in and security in 15 minutes; if we arrive late, there are lines as never seen before.
Success on the gridiron and in life often requires us to be ready at a moment’s notice to change plans for the better. Joe Biden should have called an audible when the U.S. departure from Afghanistan led to the collapse of the Afghan Army. But he was hellbent on getting out of the country at all costs, and we lost 13 Marines and a fully rebuilt Bagram Airbase close to Russia, Iran and China as the price for his thickheadedness. We live in a dynamic with God. When He changes the conditions around us, we had better be ready to change our plans accordingly.
The author can be followed at @bauer_alanjosep.