It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.
That quote is attributed to Grantland Rice, American sportswriter. Those words place honor, integrity, virtue, honesty, and “sportsmanship” above performance. In other words, results matter less than the righteousness of the way in which results are achieved. A slurry of words attributed to Pete Rose, the baseball player and gambler, convey an entirely different perspective, asserting that the person who uttered that well-known aphorism was “full of it.” Having never had children, I cannot say how easy or difficult it must be to teach them to embrace Rice’s philosophy, rather than Rose’s. But I think parents should make every effort to instill Rice’s attitude in their children.
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I have stopped watching the evening news. It invariably is a rehash of information I’ve already seen (despite attempting to avoid it) online during the day. My next quest for peace probably will involve steering clear of social media. Social media has become a deeply disturbing repetitive hybrid of anxiety-producing “news” coupled with increasingly rare posts that hold even a hint of interest for me. Burying one’s head in the sand is not one of the recommended ways of dealing with bad news and boredom—but when nothing else works, it’s worth a try. I think my growing affinity for isolation—seclusion, solitude, hiding—is spurred on by numerous signs that civil society is in a period of sharp decline. It can’t be just me who is trying to escape the demise of civility. Many others must find themselves growing progressively remote; using both physical and emotional distance in the hope for protection against the ravages of social decay. At the same time, though, I continue seeking more candidates to become members of my “tribe,” outcasts who desire connections with people of like minds and perspectives. I envision small communities of people who value social connections utterly unlike the ones available through Facebook and Instagram and Threads and so forth—instead, real human connections based on common interests, curiosity, respect, civility, and kindness. A form of commune, I suppose, that provides both privacy and engagement in a comfortable atmosphere of mutual support and freedom of expression. Another fantasy. I’m full of them.
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Several times last night, as I tried to sleep, I heard Phaedra yowling loudly. Finally, at around 4 this morning, it occurred to me that she might accidentally have been closed in the hall closet or the pantry before we entered the bedroom (she is not permitted in that space, for fear she might exercise her claws by ruining the bed’s cloth headboard). But when I opened the bedroom door, she was waiting—loudly and impatiently—right outside. She must have spent a significant portion of the night in the same spot, highly unusual for her. Her behavior suggested she had not been fed for days…perhaps weeks…but the remaining dry food in her dish said otherwise. While I prepared her morning meal, she weaved around my legs and rubbed her head against my feet. She looked longingly at the canned food I was readying for her, expressing the urgency of her desire to be fed. This wee-hours howling is highly unusual behavior for her. She yowls and howls freely during the day and early evening, but not while we are trying to sleep. I hope this either is a one-time event or I can sleep through future unrest.
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I thoroughly enjoyed a British miniseries we watched recently and a two-hour film we watched last night.
The four-episode series, Adolescence, is a Netflix crime drama that focuses on a 13-year-old boy who is charged with the murder of a classmate, a girl. Each episode was filmed in a continuous take, prompting one of the actors, Ashley Walters (who played a police detective), to call the project the most difficult of his career to date. Though the first episode was a bit slow to grab my attention, the style of presenting the story and the unique way in which the drama unfolded quickly overcame that minor negative. The writing was excellent, the acting outstanding, and the theme of the series contributed to a first-class viewing experience.
The film, The Six Triple-Eight (also on Netflix), deals with the experience of an all-Black battalion of the US Women’s Army Corps (WAC) who were charged with dealing with an enormous (two year) backlog of mail that was hurting soldiers’ morale throughout the theatre of war. Facing what appeared to be impossible obstacles in a racist and sexist environment, the women of the battalion met the challenge. Through discipline, creativity, and under the leadership of Major Charity Adams, they accomplished the objective of completing the task in three months, half the unrealistic timeframe of six months that they were given. Based on real events and people, this piece of historical fiction is both inspirational and entertaining.
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