The recent past has accented the value of prep sports as a means of lifting up community morale. Morale has been tested by the pandemic. How to get a taste of the "normal life" that we'd like to count on? Simply seeing media reports about youth sports helps.
We want so much to see signs that we can progress back to normal life. Headlines about ballgames are a great source.
Some will say that sports is a misplaced priority. They'll say we're moving mountains to help sports activities while not being so committed to the other aspects of school. Should a new softball field be such a celebrated thing? Like "the big bus" in the Stockard Channing movie of the same name (1976)?
There is probably some truth behind the assertion that sports gets a special push. As a matter a pure principle, the assertion has merit. We can understand better if we realize the intangibles of sports activity. It's camaraderie and a sense of wheels turning toward our regular routine. When are the next games? What is the won-lost of a particular team? When does the post-season start? How will our favorite team be seeded? Who is the "team to beat?" You know the routine.
Absent these thoughts flitting through our mind, time would drag and the toll of the pandemic would feel greater.
The vaccines have brought such great advancement and hope. We feel concern about an element of the population holding back on vaccine enthusiasm, thus hurting the overall progress. That element is "evangelical Christians." Secondarily, people with Republican political affiliation, primarily men, are showing themselves to be an obstacle. Have we seen any progress with our state representative, Jeff Backer? Has he adjusted his attitude on getting the shot? Sure hope he has, but would not bet on it.
An unlikely hero through all this is The Reverend Franklin Graham. He has broken from the evangelical flock to a degree and has gotten some pushback from his normal brethren. We must hold on to hope with the most obstinate Republicans or conservatives or evangelicals. These terms are shorthand which the media likes. You can't blame the media, really, because society is complex and we need to distill sometimes.
Many of the regressive folks have at least latent intelligence. So with time, maybe they can withdraw from the likes of Fox News or Newsmax and see the light.
So, we're seeing plenty of high school softball, baseball and track and field activity here in Motown. The routine might make us think we're experiencing a normal spring. It's an illusion in the sense that the pandemic's shadow remains. But the activities surely lift our spirits and promote hope. So bless all the athletes and the people leading them. Here in Motown the kids wear orange and black.
Music is so important too. It gets hardly a fraction of the attention of sports. Music fulfills every bit as much. It was wonderful to see a live audience for the MAHS band concert on Monday, May 17. Audience members had to sign up in advance. There was a little box to fill in where it said "name of pupil." I got permission to write in the name of our band director, the brilliant Wanda Dagen. She was rebounding from some health travail.
Normally the May concert would include ice cream treats in the cafeteria beforehand. Soloists and ensembles would perform in an informal way, quite delightful. We're not yet back to normality in a way that allows for that. So it was just the concert beginning at 7:30 p.m. and it was terrific. Students made gestures of appreciation toward their director at the end.
The concert included a little nostalgia connected to Lawrence Welk. The memories of Welk are receding. He was a symbol of the older end of the "generation gap" in a bygone time. The memories are really not pleasant. The generation gap presented a rift on such subjects as Vietnam, where the older folks were too slow to recognize the folly of the war, the absolute need to just get out. John Wayne was astride Lawrence Welk in reflecting the older folks.
The younger folks were frustrated with their elders, so many of whom just wanted to continue their normal lives and affairs instead of scrutinizing certain pressing issues. Today we understand the hard work of just maintaining one's normal life. But a little glance at the "macro" picture helps too. In the case of the Vietnam war, the U.S. countenanced a prolonged tragedy.
Our May 17 concert at the concert hall included concert band and wind ensemble. In the old days we'd just talk about "band." The great music satirist Peter Schickele had a work that he wrote for "banned instruments." Schickele was the genius behind the fictional "PDQ Bach."
Let's all pray that Dagen proceeds back to totally normal health. These are trying times. A retired Morris teacher has passed away.
We should pray for the conservative political types, the "evangelicals" and lots of Republicans, and isn't that ironic? To pray for evangelicals? There is a very real danger that the evangelicals are inflicting permanent damage on the Christian faith itself. They bury heads in sand and pay little heed to facts or science. Rev. Graham has his "toe in the water," as it were, seeking to nudge his brethren toward more reasonableness.
Will he prevail? Would be so nice to assume "yes" but there's truly doubt.
The Donald Trump phenomenon may be far from over. So, where would all of this lead us? Day by day we follow the news and wonder. Whole news networks of the positive bent spend whole days telling us about the wayward nature of the "conservatives" or Trumpists. A cottage industry, sort of? Are we paying attention or is it just turning into a background chorus? A chorus of reason, yes, but if it does not lead to constructive acts, then what?
Music is alive in Morris. So why can't we get some sort of regular summer concert series at East Side Park where we have the performance stage? The stage has been a big nothing for a long time. So unfortunate. Skip Killoran has tried to revive something there, and we wish him luck.
MACA softball, baseball, track/field
My "Morris of Course" blog has an update on the Tiger baseball, softball and track events of Thursday. Here's the permalink and God bless.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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