Wednesday, November 14, 2012

We Are Mortal After All

This is one I wrote several months ago, but never posted.  Since I have another one almost ready to post, I thought I should get this one out of "draft" mode and get it posted.  Yes, this one is kind of morbid and depressing. You have been warned.
 
 
March often finds me thinking, sometimes too much, about getting older. Guess that's what birthdays do to us. But this year, for some reason, it's really hitting me that so many people I have known are dead. (Nope, didn't use the nice form, "have passed away.") It isn't something I thought about much when I was younger, but then again, not as many people had up and vanished on me.
 
 
The most recent "shock" was a double-hit, so to speak. One of the assistant U.S. attorneys died suddenly one weekend. Then I learned the last church choir director I sang with died suddenly, apparently from heart attacks. OK, both were in their mid-sixties, but that doesn't seem as old as it did when I was 20.
 
 
Then I started thinking. Three people from the probation office here in Denver have died since I have been working here. One from throat cancer, one from MS, and another also thought to be a heart attack. That's three people in a fairly small population. Makes me wonder if this occupation is more hazardous to our health than we originally thought. I guess being a judge isn't any better. We lost an amazing, kind judge just a couple of years after he was appointed, also cancer. And one of my favorite judges died shortly after he retired. Maybe that's a real lesson that we should retire as soon as we can and enjoy life before we die.

 
Then I remembered that two people I knew from working with probation and parole in Missouri are also gone. Another one from cancer and one from a highway accident.


People I dated... now that's a shocker. Four guys (I hesitate to say "men" not sure they really grew up) I dated are dead. No, wasn't my fault, it was a long time ago that I last saw any of them. Honest!


It's easier to accept death when the person is elderly, infirm, in pain.  It's easier to accept death when it's a generation older that you are.  We expect the grandparents' generation to pass.  Then we expect our parents' generation to pass.  But when it hits your own age group, friends, cousins, and younger, it doesn't seem right.  It isn't so easy to accept when it's younger people, particularly children. Some of my relatives have lost children, and it just doesn't seem real or possible that those things happen. But they do.


Where is this going? I've been thinking I should let people know they are important to me, that I care about them. We really don't know how long we get to "keep" people in our lives. Mom always said you should never go to bed angry at someone because you would never know if you would have the opportunity to "make it right" with them. I think I need to take that advice.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Another Sports Rant

Do "sports" have anything to do with being a good sport any more? I don't see it. This past football season only reinforced my feelings about the sports "attitudes." The Broncos start out, well, not doing well. Everyone talks bad about them, their quarterback, the whole group. Someone pays for a big old ad on the highway trying to convince the coaches to ditch the quarterback and put Tebow in. OK, they did. Tebow won a few games, gave the fans something to enjoy. So why were there still people who make fun of him, talk about what a lousy player he is, on and on. They get to the play-offs. Actually win one game. More obnoxious talk all over the place. I would love to live in a place where I never heard sports nonsense, but I don't. So I heard the people talking about him, I heard him doing interviews. I saw a young man who tried hard, was thrown to the wolves, who never blamed anyone else, who pretty much seemed to be a sincere kid. (there I go, kid. Yep, I'm old.)

Am I mistaken? What did people say about the wonderful John Elway during his early career? I sure seem to remember him being something close to the second coming at the end of his career, but not at the beginning. Am I crazy?

Do people really think sports is about the fans, the relationship between the players and the fans? You gotta be kidding if you say yes. Tell me how many of them are so invested in their fans, care so much about them, that the almighty dollar won't make them walk away. It's all about money, kids. Your money. The money you are silly enough to plunk down for those season tickets, those t-shirts, jerseys, whatever. Former St. Louis Cardinals player Albert Pujols really walked on water. He loved his fans, loved the city, wanted to finish his career in St. Louis. Where is he now? It's about money.

Money. That's what really frosts me. A team plays in a venue they decide isn't new enough, pretty enough, big enough, good enough. The little kids stomp their feet and say if they don't get what they want (a new stadium/venue) they are going to leave. So being the bright lemmings we are, we end up paying tax dollars to give the ingrates their new place. I almost find it amusing. Have you heard about the city that still owes millions on a stadium they tore down to build a new one? How about the story that the stadium isn't big enough, then the new one seats fewer people? These people are millionaires, and the stupid taxpayers end up forking out for their "homes."

Those players who are put on pedestals, how often do you hear those icky stories about their behind the scenes affairs, illegal behavior, drug use, domestic violence. I'd like to take a hammer to those pedestals. You want your kids to emulate someone, don't pick a sports figure.

Sports. Nothing sporting about them. Has there ever been? I recall a high school classmate telling me the dirty tricks they learned. And that was back in the 70s. Maybe that was when I started to disbelieve.