Bad news in our family today.
One of my nephews died early yesterday morning in an accident, apparently after going to sleep at the wheel. The feeling for me is shock, gradually turning into a more predominant depression.
Tom -- a relative I only saw at the big family events -- was a good kid, an academic type of whom I recall being jealous because he basically started college as a junior. I think I last heard he was headed to law school and, I thought, yeah, no problem for him. He always put on a cheerful face. Always. I think I recall some moment of surliness when he was a teen. And that was it.
He was driving to the farm in Hico the night of his accident to meet up with his parents, they probably had some project in mind to clean up or improve something out there, like they always do. Hard. Impossible to know what they are going through now.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
New Year Blewjowski, Part II: Sports
I figure I'll be done with these postings around 2014.
This post started out as a rant in my head, about a month ago, but I've stepped away from the toxins and have felt positive since.
I am no longer a fan of sports. Any sport. You can't make me care enough to invest the kind of passion and dedication necessary to be a fan of a watching half-naked men running around doing anything.
I lost my fanity by going to various Texas Tech fan sites during the football season, and was eventually overwhelmed by the combination of negativity, ignorance and gloating pessimism. I told myself to stay away from the comments, but somehow couldn't. "Surely, there will be a voice of reason and perspective. Someone will say that there are generally good people working here with good intentions."
And I'd read a 2,000-word rant saying that Tommy Tubberville is the devil and Kent Hance is Saddam Hussein and they all need to die. And he'd laugh at the funeral and make a pass at the widows.
Sucked the good right out of the season. The games sucked. The fans sucked. The future seemed to suck.*
And I had my epiphany: The hype machine is destroying sports, putting it on the same level of religion. Yes, religion -- have you seen some of the NFL promotions lately? The slow motion, fuzzy shots of people overreacting to a play. Treating people who dress up like fools as anything other than fools. From the promotions, it's hard to tell if Madden Football is a video game or a really special youth outreach project.
And then the self-seriousness of so many fans, preaching the gospel of why I really, really should hate Oregon.
My advice to self: Don't confuse the fun and fascinating with the morally vital. It's a game. It's always a game.
I have since tuned out the fan sites. I read about Tech in the newspaper, follow a bit of ESPN, which is a lot of fun to monitor since I stopped calling them the evil empire. And I can say without much doubt I get a lot more enjoyment out of my teams than most of you.
*Which makes me wonder why the entire state of Oklahoma hasn't lobotomized itself.
This post started out as a rant in my head, about a month ago, but I've stepped away from the toxins and have felt positive since.
I am no longer a fan of sports. Any sport. You can't make me care enough to invest the kind of passion and dedication necessary to be a fan of a watching half-naked men running around doing anything.
I lost my fanity by going to various Texas Tech fan sites during the football season, and was eventually overwhelmed by the combination of negativity, ignorance and gloating pessimism. I told myself to stay away from the comments, but somehow couldn't. "Surely, there will be a voice of reason and perspective. Someone will say that there are generally good people working here with good intentions."
And I'd read a 2,000-word rant saying that Tommy Tubberville is the devil and Kent Hance is Saddam Hussein and they all need to die. And he'd laugh at the funeral and make a pass at the widows.
Sucked the good right out of the season. The games sucked. The fans sucked. The future seemed to suck.*
And I had my epiphany: The hype machine is destroying sports, putting it on the same level of religion. Yes, religion -- have you seen some of the NFL promotions lately? The slow motion, fuzzy shots of people overreacting to a play. Treating people who dress up like fools as anything other than fools. From the promotions, it's hard to tell if Madden Football is a video game or a really special youth outreach project.
And then the self-seriousness of so many fans, preaching the gospel of why I really, really should hate Oregon.
My advice to self: Don't confuse the fun and fascinating with the morally vital. It's a game. It's always a game.
I have since tuned out the fan sites. I read about Tech in the newspaper, follow a bit of ESPN, which is a lot of fun to monitor since I stopped calling them the evil empire. And I can say without much doubt I get a lot more enjoyment out of my teams than most of you.
*Which makes me wonder why the entire state of Oklahoma hasn't lobotomized itself.
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