I can’t quote the whole thing, so I will just send you over to espn.com page 2 where they put together a season by season guide to the futility that is the Chicago Cubs over the past 99 years since their last World Series win.
You can read the whole thing here.
From the black cat to Bartman, it’s all there. And it all still hurts.
But this is the year. . .
I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We’re here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don’t have time to carry grudges; you don’t have time to cling to the need to be right.
- author Anne Lamott, in a recent interview. (Via the Washington Times)
Great interview with Jim Wallis on The A Daily Show. It is always amazing to me how Jon Stewart backs off people like Wallis and just listens. The quote this time is the entire interview – enjoy. If the video doesn’t work, click here to view it on the site.
In the glory years of foam-tipped battle, not just any 6-foot-4, 250-pound ex-bodybuilder or semiprofessional athlete could be called an American Gladiator. You needed something more. If called upon you had to be ready to die in your L.A. Gear high-tops. We earned the right to wear the red, white, and blue spandex, and we wore it with honor and dignity.
From “Back in My Day, Being an American Gladiator Meant Something” via The Onion.
From the Ace of Cakes episode “Four Weddings and a Rat”
There’s a lot of work to be done this week on, you know, on these– all these architectural type cakes. And, the week won’t be that bad if I kind of pace myself well. I do like to sit down and just kind of think about the day. (Richard laughs) In the sporting world they call it visualizing. It could also be called procrastinating. – Geof Manthorne
Man I spend a lot of time “visualizing”.
From The Handmaid’s Tail – good book by the way
” When I get out of here, if I’m ever able to set this down, in any form, even in the form of one voice to another, it will be a reconstruction then too, at yet another remove. It’s impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too may shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavors, in the air or on the tongue, half-colors, too many. ” (p.134)
I think part of what drew me to this quote is the parallel I see with the story of God as it unfolds in the Bible. There are so many gaps I wish were filled in. So many expressions I wish I could see. So many conversations I wish I could hear.
From an article about recent Armed Forces football victories.
“It’s important to realize that our young men have been fighting pitched battles against religious fanatics who have been brainwashed into a culture that seeks to destroy all other ways of life,” Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun said Monday. “That’s just the way Notre Dame football is, the way it’s always been. You can’t reason with people like that. You destroy them as completely, remorselessly, and quickly as you can.”
Beautiful.
From his book, Slam.
“I’m telling you all this as if it’s a story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And it is a story, I suppose, because everyone’s life is a story, isn’t it? But it’s not the sort of story that has an end. It doesn’t have an end yet, anyway. . . . It’s going to be the middle of the story for a long time, as far as the eye can see, and I suppose there are lots of twists and turns to come.”
Speed kills the soul
- Antonio Machado
If I could only convince my professors of this.
