Maxability: Who Are You? What Are You Here For?

By Jeanne Hess

MaxAbility is a layered blend of people, stories, philosophies, and raw personal experiences that takes the reader on a journey into the existential questions posed by Max of "who are you?" and "what are you here for?" A young man with dreams, a family's grief over a lost child, a story of international adoption, a tribute to a revered baseball announcer, and the author's own journey into becoming a person separate from the roles she played all help the reader incorporate the narrative into their own life. Reflection question are posed throughout the book, similar to the format of Jeanne's first book, "Sportuality: Finding Joy in the Games."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Dec 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9798765237069

Jeanne Hess

Jeanne Hess learned about the fruits of the spirit as a middle child, Catholic-Episcopalian, Girl Scout growing up through the 60's and 70's in the Detroit suburbs. Her educational journey included a 4-year varsity volleyball career and a degree in exercise science at the University of Michigan, followed by a master's degree from Western Michigan University. She spent her first 35-year career at Kalamazoo College as volleyball coach and professor of physical education, and is very grateful for the role of Title IX in creating those opportunities. Now serving in her encore career, Jeanne is using the lessons of coaching and teaching to honor the power of story, to serve her community as a city commissioner, and to find the joy in her role as “Coachie” to her four awesome grandchildren.

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 Jeanne Hess.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International

Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

844-682-1282

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any

technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the

advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer

information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-

being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your

constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Photo Credit: Linda Nartker

ISBN: 979-8-7652-3705-2 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-7652-3706-9 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date:  12/01/2022

Dedicated to the loving memory

of Stephanie Marie Nartker

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

The Power of Story

Chapter 1:     Touched by the Vertical

Chapter 2:     Shoved on the Horizontal

The Power of Life

Chapter 3:     Stephanie

Chapter 4:     Where’s the Good in This?

Chapter 5:     In the Now

The Power of Words

Chapter 6:     Who Are You, Max?

Chapter 7:     Ernie

Chapter 8:     Legend

Chapter 9:     Enthusiasm

Chapter 10:   Max and Jim

The Power of Love

Chapter 11:   Russia

Chapter 12:   A Pregnancy of Paperwork

Chapter 13:   To Russia with Gifts

Chapter 14:   The Great Unknown

Chapter 15:   The System

Chapter 16:   The Final Perspective

Chapter 17:   From Russia, With Love

The Power of Question

Chapter 18:   The Lion

Chapter 19:   Education

Chapter 20:   Becoming Ernie

Chapter 21:   Saint Stephanie

The Power of You!

Chapter 22:   Overtime Reflections

About the Author

Foreword

Written by Robert M. Weir

When I met Max Nartker for the first time, it was the summer of 2014. We were at the Fifth Third Ballpark, home of the White Caps minor league baseball team, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was the perfect place for our arranged meeting.

His parents, Ron and Linda, were there too. They all knew that I was helping Jeanne Hess write a book that, we thought at that time, would be pretty much exclusively Max’s story.

Max, then a teenager, greeted me with the same pivotal questions that he had directed toward Jeanne some months before: Who are you? What are you here for?

But, of course, we all knew the answer. So his greeting was more jest than grim.

As we watched the game, sitting on a blanket, from the berm beyond the left field homerun fence, Max impressed me with his knowledge of sports. All sports. He truly was—and is—a walking encyclopedia of information, news, and statistics about collegiate and professional teams in various sports. Not just baseball.

He spoke this knowledge not only to me but to others around us: the families on nearby blankets, others farther away, people in the concourse as we walked to and from a concession stand.

In the following winter, on two occasions, Max and his parents, Ron and Linda, came to my home. We interviewed. Max talked in-depth about his birth, his early youth in Russia, his upbringing in Michigan, his accomplishments in school, his goals in life. He was, in some ways, advanced and intelligent beyond his years. In other ways, he was still very much a youth with hopes and dreams and aspirations. And challenges … just like the rest of us.

I easily understood why Jeanne was taken with him. This young man has something to offer to the world. And the world has something to offer to him. Just as it is with all of us.

Max has a certain power, a way of being and acting, a joy that goes beyond the physical world.

His family has a way of loving and showing love that is astounding. They, together, are a story.

I can’t say that theirs is a rare story. Definitely not. For there are others out in the world who have that innate or circumstantial ability to demonstrate love far above the norm. Therefore, I can’t say "just like all of us" when speaking about the Nartkers. But they are special. They are a positive model of what the rest of us might do if faced with the same or similar circumstances.

What are those circumstances? The opportunity to bring children from the other side of the planet into our homes and give them a chance to evoke—for the benefit of all of us—an example of our max-ability to demonstrate amazing love.

Jeanne Hess saw this wonderful characteristic in the Nartker family. In Max, she saw beauty within his gruffness, charm within his sometimes strident voice, desire and conviction that hurdles conventional social barriers. She saw his max ability.

She saw magnificence within his family.

She has the wisdom and desire within herself to write this story.

For them and her, the rest of us can be eternally grateful. The story within MaxAbility is a prime lesson for all of us. It is a motivation for each of us to identify, seek an understanding of, and reach fulfillment of our inner purpose. Whatever that might be.

Preface

I’ll begin with this. I believe in miracles.

Not the woo-woo kind of miracle we feel when we miraculously find a parking spot (although those miracles do exist). But rather, the life-shaping, moment-by-moment realizations that we—all people—are all connected, that we are one, healed, and wholly joined.

This book is the result of my experience with that awareness of the common thread that runs within and throughout our connective lives. A Course in Miracles says, You will not rest until you know your function and fulfill it, for only in this can your will and your Father’s be wholly joined. Succumbing to the great universal truths, the questions hurled at me from the lips of my friend Max Nartker were to forever change my life: Who are you? What are you here for? he said. With those words, the seed of a story was planted in the soil of my soul, ready to unfold.

That soil had been tilled by previous experiences that had seared themselves into my consciousness. Most notably, my Catholic-Christian-Episcopal background. I had an aunt, my dad’s sister, who had entered religious life in a convent in Detroit four years before my birth. As a young child, when my family would visit the convent, I was simply overwhelmed by the majesty of the place. The high-ceiling entryway, the gentle sounds softly sluicing through the long grandiose corridors, the mystery, and the palpable faith of Aunt Gerry, wearing her aquamarine habit, that resonated with me as she visited us in the common room, the only part of the building, in addition to the chapel, where we were allowed to visit.

Years later, when I was older and she was out in the world, my aunt and I began to converse about theology, religion, and politics. I saw her then as a game-changer. I shared her radical ideas about the Church. I readily agreed with her that women belonged within and throughout the ministry of Christ, not just in subservient roles.

She was unflappable in her support of women in positions of leadership in the Catholic Church. So much so that, even on her deathbed in 2011, she implored me to continue her work. Well, you simply don’t say no to an 84-year-old nun who is dying of brain cancer, so I tucked her request into a mound of soil and labeled it future crops. After all, maybe she meant her work for the poor, underserved, and for justice within the city of Detroit.

Years before that, on March 30, 2004, another, even larger seed found its way into the recesses of my consciousness. At that time, I had maintained a 10-year-long daily