In fond and joyful rememberance of Margaret Edwards, the founder of Lakewood Avenue Children’s School. Wise as a matriarch, accessible as a confidant and generous with her love of life. She saw the children in us all and only helped us all to be better adults.
I saw the whole thing and did not see what happened. How did that puck get past the USA goalie in overtime?! Good for Canada. Even better for Norway. A country of less than 5 million earned as many gold medal as the US, which is 60x larger in population (and Canada is 10x larger than Norway, btw) including the 50 kilometer cross-country ski race.
As the professional hockey players turned hometown hero boys for a couple of weeks received their gold and silver medals followed by the singing of the Canadian national anthem, I was reminded of how important that it is to belong to something larger than oneself. I remarked to my cocktail hour partner (we start early on Sundays) that Americans yearn to be proud of their own country. This quest continues without much satisfaction: our new president seems either inexperienced or overwhelmed by the current process of governing; we’re spending a fortune on healthcare and not feeling too healthy in the process; another fortune, seemingly pointlessly, helping other countries to be ‘free’, even though neither they nor many of us seem to care much for the objectives of these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the list goes on for as long as you’d like for it to go on.
I’m going to start my ‘what does it mean’ list. What does it mean to be a member of my own family? What does it mean to be a citizen of Durham, North Carolina? What does it mean to be a graduate of the US Naval Academy? What does it mean to work in the Information Technology business?
Unhappily, or not, I’ve not downloaded even one of the all-time most popular. I guess that J. Geils finished 21st. But seriously, folks, there was even an iTunes store 10 years ago. I hope that cable providers are next.
Ya gotta compromise. So Hartley was suspended for four games at the start of the season for failing the NFL drug test. Only a Saint would be ensnared by such a lackluster program. And the new mayor, elected on Super Bowl Sunday, is the former lieutenant governor and the brother of the US senator and the son of the last – shall it be seen in print? – white mayor. Shades of Huey, Earl and Russell Long. But ya gotta start the real recovery somewhere.
I feel that Hartley’s field goals kept the Saints in the game until they realized that the Colts were never, ever going to take any chances. Indianapolis played as though the game was not on a timer (clock) and kept retreating to prevent the big play until they had no time for many little plays. Then the big play (interception) went against them. Two absolutes of sport: free throws matter at every level of basketball competition; and the moment that you play not to lose is the moment that you begin to lose. Trust yourself to win is my theme for today it seems. Back to the Super Bowl.
Several modest and timely contributions by Hartley, especially at the end of the first half when the Colts stopped the Saints on their own 1 yard line and then played ‘not to lose’ and lost the ball and Hartley booted a lengthy field goal. At one point the score was 17 -16 with the Colts up 2 TDs to 1 and the Saints up 3 field goals to 1. When you’re gambling, don’t be afraid of small earnings.
New Orleans needs Mitch to take some chances, maybe plenty of chances. Because time is running out for that glorious, decadent city (my hometown). The city is sinking, actually, and has sunk 12 feet since I left home in 1970. You can look it up a la Yogi. But it doesn’t have to go out without a fight or a statement or simply sink into oblivion. A couple of field goals, a surprise on-sides kick, take what they give you and then see how they deal with the pressure of the clock.
I believe in the wholesomeness of the average person. What has happened to the institutions that we established for the more efficient good of us all?! Seattle Metro security police would not intervene to halt a subway attack by females against a female! The Roman Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal now reveals itself in Germany, 10 Feb NYT and the mighty Toyota failing prominently.
Earlier in my business career, I visited every sort of automotive plant worldwide, telling friends that “if you saw how Toyotas were made – hospital-like cleanliness and Japanese attention to detail (in their US plants)- you would only buy a Toyota for your car.” I contrasted this with my tour of a Detroit plant where the worker on duty in the assembly line control room read from a two foot high stack of men’s magazines on top of the console desk (circa 1987). Got to pass the time somehow.
I suppose that we’ll have to accept personal responsibility for our lives in every dimension of our lives, meaning that admitting that you’re lost is the first step to finding your way out or back or forward; I observe that we should make clear to ourselves what each of our lives means and what is the purpose of each of our associations. Not ‘why do I belong to the Rotary Club’, if anyone still does – and maybe we all should. For example, what does it mean to be a resident of Duke Forest or a taxpayer in Durham, North Carolina or a graduate of the Naval Academy and, certainly, a husband and father of two?
I believe in the wholesomeness of the average person. Presently, we’ve lost our way.
We’ve seen many films over the past two months. Maybe it’s our way of dealing with the economic times. Up In the Air impressed me as not quite sure if it wanted to be a comedy or a complex film. So, it tried to be alot of both and achieved neither. Meryl Streep was as terrific, as usual, in Julie & Julia, as she was incredibly wasted in It’s Complicated. After all, she can save a film such as The Devil Wears Prada. Avatar was spellbinding for what it suggests how films and videos may be presented (I think of the educational possibilities). Robert Downey was good, the latest Sherlock Holmes film not so good. We’re enjoying the Netflix rentals with Jeremy Brett. Up is not the best of the Pixar repertoire and the five minute pictorial of Elle’s life is among the more poignant and graceful that I’ve ever viewed on screen. The Road is not as sharp as the novel and such would be asking alot. The Book of Eli is entertaining and recommended as a double feature with Mad Max. My favorites of the season are Hurt Locker (is this really a movie as it seems to be filmed in action); Crazy Heart as I’ve always been partial to Jeff Bridges; and The Messenger. How is Ben Foster not an award nominee?!
Taken as a whole, these films seem to say that devotion & love is the path of righteousness; that this path is littered with disappointment before final failure.
Not all bad, even fun, if one has power and the good old Internet. Owen made $60 shoveling driveways yesterday!
What app will look like when iPad available.
Maybe it will rain or snow in Miami on February 7th as I’d enjoy seeing which dome-team plays better in a real football stadium, e.g. no roof nor artificial thermostat. Hard for me to root for the Saints even though I worked as an usher for their games at Tulane Stadium in 1969 (walked 4 blocks from our apartment on Broadway Avenue). Awful job and the only way to make money was to sell the intermission passes. Winning Saints are like the winning Red Sox: aren’t we suppose to secretly revel in their persistent even genealogical failure as these patterns are more like our own lives than the achievements of the Yankees or Roger Federer.
The Jets play one quarter of excellent football and three quarters of ‘Colts aren’t killing us yet.’ Minnesota and then the refs in overtime conspire to send the Saints and the disheartening tragedy now known as New Orleans to the Super Bowl (for all of the interest around the SB commercials and the associated cost, couldn’t someone, these 44 years later, think of a more appropriate name for the game. How about ‘Winter Game in Summer Stadium Championship?’
It’s not all sour grapes. I still chuckle at Tom Dempsey’s 63 yard field goal to defeat Detroit in 1970; of course, he left for the Eagles the next year. Whatever happened to Les Kelly, the first pick of their first draft whom the coaching staff converted from a running back to a linebacker. Three years and out. Great fun to recall Billy Kilmer and Danny Abramowicz and Doug Atkins and crew of Aints (but that started after I left home for the Navy).
On Feb. 7, Peyton Manning, the quarterback of the Colts who grew up in New Orleans because his father, Archie, who was the first real QB of the franchise (won NFC Player of the year in 1978 and the only player so awarded from a losing team) settled in NOLA after his career. Could only be true for the City That Care Forgot.
I see the Colts winning by two TDs even though I’ve never forgiven them for abandoning Baltimore. I’ll save that diatribe for another day.
