Circles of Life

In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Captain Kirk never faced the Kobayashi Maru scenario, a simulation in which there is no way for the 'captain' to win. Part of the idea is to test the character of Starfleet officers and to teach them something about how to deal with death. Although Kirk never had any trouble sending those poor red-shirted security types off a cliff during the series...

Anyhow, Kirk's lack of experience in these matters came into play later in the movie, when Spock dies in order that the many may be saved at the expense of the one. Kirk didn't really know how to process people dying. That's sort of how I feel these days. A dear friend of my family died back in the spring of 2015. This woman raised me for the first ten or so years of my life, back when both my parents worked. Now she's gone. I only have two uncles, one died in November. Gone.

And about a month ago, another figure from my childhood passed. Jim Perry was a game show host in Canada and the United States, hosting Card Sharks and Sale of the Century. I only got to watch these programs when I was home sick from school (which was very rare), but I did see the first 5-10 minutes of Sale before I'd leave for school in the mornings.

I just remember thinking Jim Perry seemed like a nice man. But who knows how much of it is his being 'in character' for the show, and how much of it is genuine? It sure seemed like the real thing back then, and after watching some old YouTube clips, I still feel that way. Perry seemed like a really nice guy, sharing genuine happiness as contestants won money, and sincerity when he talked to contestants. The final episodes from Sharks and Sale are both glimpses into the man's character, and tell me a lot. Now he's gone too.


I spent some time looking around online to see if perhaps he'd written an autobiography or something, but I haven't seen anything yet. In his later years he wrote some about philosophy, so I spent the six bucks on a book of his that speaks about wisdom and wholeness in one's life, with the hope I could learn more about him. I'm a graduate student which means most of the reading I do is for school, so I haven't been able to dive deeply into what he's written.

But as I journey through middle age, my own lack of experience with the Kobayashi Maru is coming back around. I remember what it was like to be younger and thinking I'd live forever (who doesn't?). I haven't had to deal with death all that much, and I sort of freak out when people like Jim Perry (or even Peter Tomarken, who hosted Press Your Luck, another favorite) no longer walk among us.

ROYALS!

When I was a twentysomething, I would always stay up too late watching Mike Emrick or Gary Thorne broadcast three and four-overtime NHL playoff games. It was great fun, although in retrospect, they were usually 2-1 or 1-0 snoozers. But it was riveting to me back then.

Fast forward a few years to 2015. The Kansas City Royals are in the World Series, and lead the Mets three games to one. The good guys rallied to tie the game at 2-2 in the 9th, and put a fiver on the board in the top of the 12th. After that, it was all over but the shouting. Watching the last three outs go up on the board, ending with a called strike three. It felt a little anticlimactic to... Nah-- it was awesome!

Union Station in Kansas City, decked out in Royal blue, celebrating KC's first world title in 30 years.

Kansas City Royals. 2015 World Champions. I love the way that sounds, even if I can barely type it, let alone wrap my head around what happened. 

The game ended about 12:30 Eastern time, so it gives me a new appreciation for fans who actually have serious rooting interests in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I was absolutely tied up in knots. Usually I would 'watch' the game on my gametracker app while I tried to do schoolwork. It would work for about five or six innings, until I couldn't take it anymore. 

I spend most of my energies rooting for the UTEP Miners and the Kansas State Wildcats, which means I don't get to celebrate things like winning championships. My team winning a title, to be the last team standing-- is something that has never happened to me. K-State got close a few years ago but missed out. UTEP, well, their shining moment was in 1966, a few years before my time. There have been moments of great joy, but nothing like what the Royals got. I'm not used to having nice things like this. A team I actually root for and care about won a World Series. It really happened. 

Now I understand what the euphoria is about. Now I grasp why legions and generations of fans hang on every pitch. 

It's one reason why the 2014 loss to San Francisco cut so deeply-- getting the tying run to third base in game seven with two outs in the 9th. When you get that close, you just never know if you'll get that opportunity again. 

But this time, Virtue and Justice prevailed. The parade in KC drew 800,000 people, including a good friend of mine who drove three hours before dawn to get there.

What a team. What a year. 

We're The Pride of South Australia...

...We're The Mighty Adelaide Crows.

So says the club song of the Australian Rules Football side. The Crows won an exciting Elimination Finals match against the Western Bulldogs last weekend. Since I am a graduate student (whose nose should be in a book) and half a world away, I just learned this information about 15 minutes ago, several days after the fact.

I DVR'd three AFL matches last week and just now got the last one watched. As long as I stay away from the @AFL Twitter feed, the risk of spoiler alerts is minimal.

Adelaide somehow made it through a very rough patch during the season, as their head coach was allegedly killed by his son during a domestic dispute. That they've made it this far is truly remarkable.

Given the unique structure of the AFL Finals Series, Adelaide plays Hawthorn, which lost its Qualifying Final match to West Coast. HFC placed in the top four during the home and away season, so they were playing for a bye in the next round. So were the Fremantle Dockers as they played Sydney. Freo won a great game, so the Swans now play North Melbourne, after the Kangas beat Richmond. This was the only match I missed.

The top eight qualify for the playoffs. 1 plays 4 and 2 vs. 3 in order to determine who gets a bye into the semifinals. Winners (Fremantle and West Coast) get a chance to rest, losers play the winners of the 5 vs. 8/7 vs. 6 games. Losers of this round are done.

So it starts with eight sides, now we're at six. After Hawthorn/Adelaide and North/Sydney, we'll be left with four through to the league semifinals. Then it's the Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

I'm not really sure why I like watching matches of a weird sport in a league half a world away, I just know that I do.

Three Questions, James Caan

            In Mrs. Tillman’s 9^th grade Honors English class, we watched the movie Brian’s Song, an ABC movie of the week (back when the networks showed movies in the evenings) which is about Chicago Bears football player Brian Piccolo and his battle with cancer, which he eventually lost in 1970. It was the last day of the fall semester in 1986, and she needed something to fill an hour since it wasn’t really possible to introduce new material. What I didn’t realize was how well-received this movie was. It earned eight Emmy nominations, winning four times, plus it won a Peabody Award (UGA plug, since Georgia hosts the Peabody Awards). I knew how the movie turned out, since I read I Am Third, Gale Sayers’ autobiography, as an eighth grader.

            As it turns out, this was my first exposure to the actor James Caan, who is one of my favorites. Technically, I saw Rollerball before this, but didn’t really know much about him at that point.

            So over time, Caan has become one of my favorite actors. Many people likely know him for his portrayal of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (and doesn’t everyone think of Sonny when they stop at the toll booth on the turnpike). But as I’ve mentioned previously, I know him best for his portrayal of Jonathan E in Norman Jewison’s Rollerball (1975).

            Anyway, onto my three questions. Probably nothing earth shattering or worthy of 60 Minutes, but they are things that interest me.

1)   Tell me about playing Jonathan E in Rollerball. I see so many parallels when I compare this movie to the sporting world we live in, so I can only imagine what it seemed like in the early 70s. I realize it’s been 40 years since the movie came out, but in this context, how meaningful of a role/experience was this?

2)   Many other actors and actresses have turned down roles for movies that turned out to be pretty successful. Hindsight is always 20/20, but can you tell us a little bit about the thought process behind saying no to roles in movies such as Kramer vs. Kramer, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Superman?

3)   Your first listed movie role is in 1963, and it was uncredited in the actual movie, and you’ve done so much that perhaps it all starts to run together. Over 50+ years, for any reason, what are some of the roles/movies/people you look back on the most fondly?

So there you have it. There are so many other questions to ask, but only so much time. Enjoy.

Juliette Gordon Low

Back in June of 2014, the First Lady and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary by visiting Savannah, Georgia. We had a fabulous time, saw some marvelous sights, and ate some delicious food.

One of the touristy things we did was to visit the home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. Ann has always spoken very highly of her time as a Girl Scout, and I believe those years were very important in forming the woman she has become. And in learning about Ms. Low, I found it very easy to identify with her and how she was able to find a way to make a significant difference on the world we live in.

The Juliette Gordon Low home in Savannah, now a National Historic Landmark.

In learning Low’s life’s story, everything so clearly points to the formation of an organization like the Girl Scouts. As a child she was always interested in the arts, writing plays, poetry, and was skilled in sketching. She and her cousins helped sew clothing for children in the neighborhood. She attended school in Virginia and also in New York City, and did a fair amount of traveling in Europe and in the United States. She even returned to the states during the Spanish-American War to help care for wounded soldiers. So she was definitely a woman of the world who saw and learned a lot of things.

In 1886, she married William Mackay Low at Christ Church (Episcopal) in Savannah [side note—we worshiped in this church during our trip and it was an amazing experience]. They lived in England although she continued her travels. The marriage lasted 19 years, but they were not happy years. They were separated at the time of his death in 1905.

This is where I really started to connect with Ms. Low. Her life was suddenly at a bit of a crossroads, much like mine is at this point.

She spent several years casting about for meaning until 1911 when she met Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts. In 1912, Low returned to Savannah and created the Girl Guides. The ambition was to teach young girls self-reliance and resourcefulness, and maybe even help them learn about a life as a professional and not necessarily as a homemaker. Starting with 18 Girl Guides, the Girl Scouts USA are now 2.8 million strong, and this organization has shared its values with 59 million women and men worldwide.

And what makes this story more remarkable is that she did all these things despite having back problems and being mostly deaf in both ears for most of her life. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1923 but kept on working until she died in 1927. President Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the highest civilian award in the U.S.

Juliette Gordon Low definitely chose the right path—certainly an untraveled path, and made a difference in the lives of countless young girls, my wife and her friends included. Ms. Low found a way to help people and to make a difference, and I truly admire her for finding a way. She serves as a role model to me.

NCAA Tournament

            I have been up to my eyeballs with schoolwork this semester. I have tried to work harder so I can rise to the level of effort that graduate school requires.

            One casualty is the annual tradition of filling out an NCAA tournament bracket. Or in my case, six brackets. It seems like everyone does it, and it’s great fun trying to figure out who will win, and who will pull off the upset. But this year, the First Lady and I did not fill a bracket out for the first time in many years. Speaking for myself, I just didn’t have the energy for it. Besides—the more I try to analyze things, the more I look at statistics and what not… the worse I seem to do. We were in a basketball pool during the season and it was the same thing. When we tried harder to analyze the teams and schedules, we fell further and further behind.

            So we didn’t fill any brackets out this year. The thing is, watching the games has been just as compelling as it has always been. As an added bonus—our brackets weren’t ruined when Iowa State lost to UAB. They would have if I’d filled one out, since ISU looked really good in the Big 12 Tournament. In addition, who really looks at their picks after the second day of the tournament? If you’ve entered an online group, do you really care anymore once your bracket is blown up? I don’t.

            Only two teams I care about made the big dance—NMSU and Georgia. The Aggies because the campus is in Las Cruces, some of my old stomping grounds. UGA because, well, I go to school there and we had season tickets and had a great time. Neither side won their first-round game, so now it’s a free for all. I’m trying to care about North Carolina, since the wife roots for them (she has an MBA from UNC). It’s difficult, and I just don’t give my heart away that easily. But I’m working on it.

            It’s actually kind of nice to not really care about any of the teams still alive—no emotional attachment means no stress.           

Over Dinner

I recently saw a topic thread online that sounded like a fun experiment. It’s where you can invite any two people (living or dead) to join you for dinner, but you are not allowed to join in the conversation. Order your food and drinks, but otherwise just keep your mouth shut and don’t ask questions. Just listen to your two guests talk. Oh yeah, one parameter—you can’t invite God, Adolf Hitler, or Abraham Lincoln. Too easy. I came up with several pairs—some are diabolical, some are historic, but I hope you would find them entertaining. The thought is to share them over time.

The first pair I’ll throw out there is sports related—Vince Lombardi, longtime coach of the great Green Bay Packer teams of the 1960s, and Bill Belichick, current coach of the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots.

I’m not here to discuss Belichick’s ethics, which have been hashed and rehashed for a very long time. Neither he nor Lombardi should be considered saints.

Belichick is not exactly known for being a chatterbox, but I hear his players love playing for him, mainly because he wins football games. I don’t begrudge that—we all have our reasons. He knows part of his job is talking to the media, and that’s where his reputation comes into play. Coaches do not want to share anything that might clue an opponent in to a weakness, so he does not like to talk where there are cameras around. I imagine his players don’t care about that. Plus, I’m wiling to bet Belichick is more of a social being on the practice field or in meeting rooms. He is also a master at breaking down game film and getting many different parts to work together. He likely learned these skills as a boy when he would spend time with his father, who was an assistant at the Naval Academy.

Vince Lombardi lives on primarily through books and NFL Films videos. He was one of the Seven Blocks of Granite on the Fordham football team in the 1930s (interesting that he was the starting offensive tackle at 5’8” and 180 pounds). The image that comes to mind is one of a stereotypical old-school football man. He’s a world champion coach, winner of five NFL titles in seven years, including the first two Super Bowls. The man most definitely knew what he was doing.

Belichick graduated from Annapolis (Md.) High School in 1970, and Lombardi was coach of the Washington Redskins for the 1969 season, and he died in DC in 1970, so there may be some sort of connection there. It would be fascinating listening to nearly 100 years of football history, since these two men could form a timeline that runs as far back as the 1920s.

            I feel sure my food would get cold—I consider myself an (very) amateur historian and I don’t think I’d eat. I’d just listen to the stories and to the history lesson.