Getting Over It
The college basketball season is about to climax with the NCAA Final Four, which takes place this year in Atlanta. For some reason, I always seem to notice a player or two at this event with an exotic name. This year's star of the Marquette Warriors, for instance, is the almost musically named Vander Blue. I can think of several songs that would accommodate that name without a single change.
And Syracuse has a big man whose name seems to defy all explanation. What could you say about someone named Rakeem Christmas? I don't know too much about, ah, Mr. Christmas, so I guess the safe thing is just to wish him the best this weekend. For the record, both BYU and Iowa are still playing, but it's in the tournament for teams not in the NCAA. It's called the NIT, which has a long history, and is played in New York City. You could do a lot worse.
I was thinking the other day trying to decide which country other than the USA gets the most mention in this blog. It might be Iraq, but it could also be North Korea, a country which seems to define a kind of totalitarian weirdness found almost nowhere else. The country's leaders got pretty cranky last week over some economic sanctions, so the NK bigshots decided to vent their anger in the usual way - fake the resumption of the war halted by truce (though never officially ended) about sixty years ago. To their people they announced the capture of 100,000 snooty Americans, though they had none to actually put in front of the cameras. The US response to the NK chest thumping was to move some aircraft nearer to the North/South border. Yesterday they announced that, fist-shaking notwithstanding, the NK armies had not been mobilized. or moved forward. If anyone was trying to pull an April Fool prank, it wasn't us. We just yawn, make sure the guns have plenty of ammo and wait for the next verbal assault. Their new leader is still in his twenties, so it probably won't be that long.
I've gone on once or twice in this space about the need for a new holiday on the USA calendar. I like the name "Forgiveness Day", which the Jews already have, though I can't recall the day's official name. Then I read something in today's paper. Did you know that today is Reconciliation Day? I don't know if it was thought up by the floral or the greeting card industry, and it clearly hasn't taken off just yet into full "holidayhood", but it's still a good idea. Reconciling may not go all the way to forgiveness, but it should still allow us to put down the resentment burdens we carry and just get over it. If you want to get the ball rolling with someone regarding a past matter or two, feel free to start by saying, "You know, I read in this favorite blog of mine about a thing called Reconciliation Day. I was thinking we could try to put some things behind us for good. Can we, ah, talk?"
And Syracuse has a big man whose name seems to defy all explanation. What could you say about someone named Rakeem Christmas? I don't know too much about, ah, Mr. Christmas, so I guess the safe thing is just to wish him the best this weekend. For the record, both BYU and Iowa are still playing, but it's in the tournament for teams not in the NCAA. It's called the NIT, which has a long history, and is played in New York City. You could do a lot worse.
I was thinking the other day trying to decide which country other than the USA gets the most mention in this blog. It might be Iraq, but it could also be North Korea, a country which seems to define a kind of totalitarian weirdness found almost nowhere else. The country's leaders got pretty cranky last week over some economic sanctions, so the NK bigshots decided to vent their anger in the usual way - fake the resumption of the war halted by truce (though never officially ended) about sixty years ago. To their people they announced the capture of 100,000 snooty Americans, though they had none to actually put in front of the cameras. The US response to the NK chest thumping was to move some aircraft nearer to the North/South border. Yesterday they announced that, fist-shaking notwithstanding, the NK armies had not been mobilized. or moved forward. If anyone was trying to pull an April Fool prank, it wasn't us. We just yawn, make sure the guns have plenty of ammo and wait for the next verbal assault. Their new leader is still in his twenties, so it probably won't be that long.
I've gone on once or twice in this space about the need for a new holiday on the USA calendar. I like the name "Forgiveness Day", which the Jews already have, though I can't recall the day's official name. Then I read something in today's paper. Did you know that today is Reconciliation Day? I don't know if it was thought up by the floral or the greeting card industry, and it clearly hasn't taken off just yet into full "holidayhood", but it's still a good idea. Reconciling may not go all the way to forgiveness, but it should still allow us to put down the resentment burdens we carry and just get over it. If you want to get the ball rolling with someone regarding a past matter or two, feel free to start by saying, "You know, I read in this favorite blog of mine about a thing called Reconciliation Day. I was thinking we could try to put some things behind us for good. Can we, ah, talk?"
posted by Mark at 3:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home