The prep hoops season goes on and on. Rather intoxicating, right? I know full well the lure of it all. Truly it offsets the blahs of winter in a typical winter. Of course we have had the most untypical (atypical?) winter. Rather blows my mind. Remember the back-and-forth of how Donnelly would get arrangements for snow removal?
Normally at this time of mid-March, we're wondering when the biking/walking trail east of town will get completely open. Our dogs look forward to that as much as the people. What a wonderful place to meet dogs. Such fine therapy for one's soul.
Sometimes I'll be approaching someone who feels he should "rein in" their dog lest the dog "greet" me in a way that I might not like. When this happens I'll shout "I don't care if your dog greets me." I have had more than one person thank me for that. So the dog can get its paws on me and I couldn't care less. (Yes it's "couldn't care less" and not "could care.")
I feel joy befriending our canine friends like Sharon Martin's "Goldy." There are many others I have become familiar with, like an "eskimo dog" whose owner I do not know. My family's last of three small dogs was 1/2 eskimo dog. The other half was poodle. At first my dad joked the dog might be called a "peskadoodle." I later learned our dog had two correct terms that could be applied: "poodle mix" and "eskipoo."
It has become so expensive to have a dog now. Of course expenses have gone up for everything. Veterinarians can do so much to extend a dog's life. That can become a mixed bag: we want to hold on to our cherished companions as long as possible, but a very old dog presents issues and we wonder how much the dog still enjoys life. Maybe a parallel to be made with people? Having a role with taking care of the very old is more difficult than many people realize.
We're at the prime time for high school basketball enthusiasm now. Talk about a mixed bag: people with an interest in the Tigers are jubilant. And by the way I hate to tell you this, but the overall population is not as interested in this as you may assume. The interest is limited but very intense. Those intense feelings bubble up as the Tigers of boys basketball get set to play yet again. Ah, yet again.
No one can map these things out. The school administration cannot plan things with any assumptions about how long a team will play in the tournament. It really is a problem. So, the MAHS band will depart on its exciting spring trip on Thursday. Congrats to this whole group for having this opportunity, so precious. The problem is that the MACA boys will play "yet again" on Thursday night. Sheesh, an 8 p.m. starting time for a game way to the south in Marshall, Southwest State.
I'm getting too old to consider a trip like that just by myself, and that's how I'd probably be doing it if I was still with the paper. I don't even like driving downtown after dark any more. My vision has declined. Much as I, as a baby boomer would like to deny the effects of age, I cannot.
I remember the late Les Lindor, esteemed school board chair, expressing concern with how far sports teams were traveling for so many of their games. I remember one year when MACA football had its first-round playoff game set at Fairmont way down by the Iowa border. If the Forum had owned the Morris paper then, I probably would have been required to make the trip. That would strike me as basically senseless.
Our first two playoff games should be against the likes of Lac qui Parle, West Central Area, Benson or Minnewaska. Have fun and keep it close. Again I'll remind that many of our high school playoff games used to be here at UMM. It has been a long time. I remember the very congested parking situation out there. You'd enter the P.E. Center and hear the loud pep bands, part of overall pandemonium that I sometimes found troubling. Think of all the pressure we put on the high school kids to perform. I guess they accept that when they sign up.
A missing element?
I don't know what all is practical, but it seems to me MACA cannot have a pep band Thursday. Maybe something can get worked out. The "real" band will be headed south. I personally made a financial contribution to help make the New Orleans trip possible. Even if my $ wasn't essential for the trip itself, I think it reduced the financial burden for some of the kids. I have very little else to live for. So I am happy to have done that.
I am concerned that maybe my money is becoming a "jinx." First of all, it helped create this problem with the basketball game and New Orleans trip converging. I know some people must be upset about that. I cannot talk some people out of thinking that sports is life, sports is everything. But our school parents should be thankful that the trip reflects the opportunities we give our kids.
Simply being a "fan" at games does nothing for you. Yet people get so carried away with that. They do not stop to think of the excesses of it all. Maybe it's a sedative. It helps shorten winter.
Broader picture
There is a lot that doesn't make sense these days, like how Americans may well choose to put a rapist in the White House (again). Don't you worry about what the world will think of this? A rapist who has said favorable things about Hitler, and who had to be told by his chief of staff that he really shouldn't do that? This is America in 2024? A place where Hitler admiration does not get you kicked to the curb? Nor being a rapist?
I'm sure our congressperson Michelle Fischbach will enthusiastically support Trump. She showed sympathy for the attempted violent overthrow of the U.S. government on Jan. 6. How can we explain all this to our kids? Overthrow of the government. Can't you stop and think what all the ramifications could be? I'm just sitting here trying to have the proper thoughts.
So I hope I wasn't upsetting the apple cart with our school by providing the $2000 to help with the New Orleans trip.
With mixed feelings I wrote out a check to my church of First Lutheran in December. Just trying to be positive. Where does that get me? Since December our church has gotten worse off, now appearing comatose.
I have given considerable $ to UMM, mainly to keep the memory of my late parents alive. I strive to support music. I like the new choral director. Nothing is her fault. The philosophy appears to be different now. And that's fine.
But my, I remember when "University choir," the non-auditioned group, was truly a big deal on campus. Free admission, "raucous" audiences. But the choir has shriveled up which I guess reflects UMM in general. It's shriveling up before our eyes. At a certain point will the state decide it has to take drastic action? If the state is responsive, it would really have to.
Stay "blue"
Maybe the best thing we have going for us is that Democrats remain largely in control of Minnesota. Some people predict a "civil war" between red and blue states. If this happens, we had better hope the "blue" states win. That's what we are, Michelle Fischbach notwithstanding. The big cities are where the people are, don't lose sight of that fact.
Up until last year I was giving about $400 annually to the WCROC Horticulture Garden. That's a somewhat small total by my standards. I would have cut another check late last year. But the funding letter from the WCROC was strange. Oh I knew their thinking: try to make it seem like things are going to heck with the garden, get more $. It had the opposite effect on me: I gave no money.
So I ask, is it a jinx for any organization to receive money from yours truly? I told a friend that it might not be good news for me to switch to Faith Lutheran, to give $ to Faith, because maybe that organization would start failing.
I will be curious to see if MACA basketball gets supported by a pep band of some sort on Thursday. Maybe everything can be patched up. But I do seem to cause my share of problems, n'est-ce pas?
I'll try to calm down and feel peace when I go out to the biking/walking trail, hopefully to renew my friendship with the various friendly canines. They are so much smarter than the Trump and Fischbach voters among us.
Addendum: Stop and think, considering Biden's very advanced age, do you really think he's focused on receiving any personal "glory?" Do you really think he's motivated by this? Or can't we all conclude that he really wants to help Americans, to help the country be more prosperous and secure? What happened to the compromise border security bill? The bipartisan effort? It was nixed by Republicans. So put the blame where it belongs.
Republicans want the problem at the southern border so they can give speeches, get money and go on Fox News. Can't you see that? Biden is a lifelong public servant. He loves America and loves Americans. He loves people.
At this time of Easter, can't we appreciate these qualities a little more, rather than to be on the verge of putting a rapist and Hitler admirer in the White House? Why am I having to ask these questions?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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