The Beat Goes On

Oliver drove in three runs, scored a fourth and made a number of strong defensive plays in the outfield as his Union All Star baseball team won yesterday’s opener in the sectionals, 7-6.

They need to win two more games to win the sectionals, and to be able to move on to the state championship tourney for ten-year-old little league baseball players.

In the first inning, with the score tied 1-1, Ollie hit one of his patented deep fly balls to deep centerfield for his fourth double in six games. That hit drove in two of his teammates to break the tie, 3-1. He later scored.

But the game tightened over time and by the bottom of the fifth inning it was 6-6 with a runner on second base when Ollie singled him home for what proved to be the winning run.

It has been a major joy for me to attend his games this summer. Next up: game two of the sectionals today.

***

I have been writing about sports and kids sports for almost seven decades now. I’ve published thousands of words on soccer websites and also in the old San Francisco Examiner and a few magazines. For a time, I also was a certified blogger by Major League Baseball.

But actually I started out covering sports as a kid of maybe eight when I had a fantasy baseball league and “published” news reports of the games. Later, as a college journalist for The Michigan Daily and UPI, I published dozens of stories. I think my Dad would have been thrilled if I had stayed with sports. Alas, I went on to other topics.

But here’s the thing. Excelling at sports like baseball requires a combination of hard work, luck and teamwork (social) skills. You could say the same about most things in life.

Watching Oliver take an at bat is a reminder of all of that. He works out in the batting cages every day so the work ethic is there. Still, he has to get a good pitch to hit before he can do anything with it. That’s the luck of the draw. As for teamwork and social skills, you just have to listen to his teammates (and the crowd) when he steps up to the plate.

It’s starting to get loud.

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The Dreams of Their Fathers and Mothers

Many things in life are much more important than sports, of course, but not necessarily in the minds of children at certain ages. My own kids competed in one sport or another, some of them in multiple sports, and a few of them at relatively elite levels.

So it was that eleven years ago this week one of my sons was in Denmark celebrating with his soccer teammates after they'd won a championship in their division in the Dana Cup. It's one of the world's largest futbol tournaments and it has been hosted in the North Jutland town of Hjørring ever since 1982.

For a kid playing soccer, it’s like a World Cup.

It also was my 16-year-old's first trip to Europe and his longest time away from home up until that time. I tried to follow his team's progress from afar, which proved to be difficult due to the time differences and the inconsistent communications we received from the kids and their coaches while they were traveling.

But the results of each match were to be posted on a page of the tournament website soon after a game was completed, as well as information about the time of the team's next game.

Most nights I was up at 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, checking on the scores and then emailing a list of other parents information about how our boys were doing on the other side of the world. When they won the championship I screamed with joy into the night into my otherwise empty apartment.

I hope I didn't disturb the neighbors.

My son was living out one of his dreams, it's true, but he was living out one of mine as well. I never got very far in sports as a kid thanks to rheumatic fever and a heart murmur. But that didn't stop my childhood dreams from recurring decades later in the form of rooting from the sidelines for my kids — in baseball, soccer, basketball, track, swimming, etc.

None of them went on to professional careers in sports; very few young people ever do. And they are all grown up now, some of them with kids of their own who play sports and compete for championships. Like my grandson Oliver.

So these days my role is to be there on the sidelines cheering for him, which I will be doing today and tomorrow.

It's a simple proposition -- if they win we are happy, if they lose we are sad. But at these games I see the dads of kids pacing on the sidelines nervously. I see moms wearing the team colors and screaming their support. Younger siblings race around the stands, oblivious of the score.

Hearts get broken out there when dreams don't come true. But the games go on, win or lose, the kids keep growing, and eventually just about all of them will leave these youthful pursuits behind as they adjust their sights on other goals.

That's the way it goes. But for now, these dreams for the parents as much as the kids are paramount. For a grandpa too.

A different version of this essay appeared on my personal blog and Facebook last year.

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Covid Strikes Back

 The story nobody wants to come back is coming back anyway — Covid.

A few variants are spreading rapidly in various parts of the world, including the U.S. I’ve reluctantly included the headlines about that. And while it is strictly anecdotal and a very small sample size, many more people I know personally seem to be getting sick now from Covid than ever before.

Most of them describe the symptoms as minor but several report lingering fatigue over weeks as a result of the virus.

I guess it is not a surprise that the coronavirus would return to our lives since we’ve always known it would continue to mutate and outwit our counter measures like vaccines. Basically, it is transforming itself into the flu.

Governments and drug companies are racing to update vaccines to deal with the new surge, so some of us may escape once again.

My only real concern with more Covid at this point is not the illness itself but the effect it has on our social lives. Too many people, in my view, have become afraid of being with other people.

And that is hurting all of us.

Depression, anxiety, loneliness, addiction, secrecy and isolation have all become enhanced risks. I’m aware of offices where hardly anyone comes to work. And I’m aware of children who have not been going to school or participating in activities like sports.

Those are very bad consequences, far worse than having a brief, minor, or even not so minor illness.

Fear is a very dangerous emotion. Fear of other people is the most dangerous emotion for our social heath and therefore for the possibility of a healthy society.

Those are the main risks we face now, not illness, not death.

In the immortal words of Hayley Mills, “Let’s get together.”

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LYRICS:

“What You Give Away”

By Vince Gill

You read the business page, see how you did today
Life's just spent some by
You live up on the hill, you've got a view that kills
And never wonder why

After you've counted everything you've saved
Do you ever hit your knees and pray?
You know there's gonna be a judgment day
So what will you say?

No matter what you make
All that you can take
Is what you give away
What you give away

There's people on the street, ain't got enough to eat
And you just shake your head
The measure of a man is one who lends a hand
That's what my father said

After you've counted everything you've saved
Do you ever hit your knees and pray?
You know there's gonna be a judgment day
So what will you say?

No matter what you make
All that you can take
Is what you give away
It's what you give away

After you've counted everything you've saved
Do you ever hit your knees and pray?
You know there's gonna be a judgment day
So what will you say?

Every Whisper: The Tragedy on the Hill

 "What really saved me, what made me different, was that I could run." — Olympic champion Mo Farah, who says he was a victim of child trafficking

***

It’s worth watching the seventh hearing of the Congressional Jan. 6th committee on CSPAN, if only for the entertainment value. The riot was a comedy on many levels, in the Shakespearan sense of the term, which is to say it was a tragedy. It is hard to believe the blind stupidity of Trump and his allies, but these hearings make it all clear with blinding clarity.

My eyes hurt afterward.

But this hearing also included several passionate pleas from ordinary Americans to save our democracy, including a couple of guys who were there on that awful day at our Capitol, but now have seen the light.

Four of the panel members gave closing remarks that brought tears to my eyes.

What can we do? We can talk about it. We need to.

All of our eyes need to hurt together.

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• The United Nations estimated that the world’s population will reach 8 billion on Nov. 15 and that India will replace China as the world’s most populous nation next year. Find out some more stats about how the world's population is faring here. [AP]

• Global population growth hits lowest rate since 1950 (Financial Times)

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LYRICS:

“Losing My Religion”

R.E.M.

Oh life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spot-light
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper, of every waking hour
I'm choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

Consider this
Consider this the hint of the century
Consider this the slip
That brought me to my knees, failed
What if all these fantasies come
Flailing around
Now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spot-light
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
Try, cry, fly, try
That was just a dream
Just a dream
Just a dream, dream

Songwriters: Peter Lawrence Buck / Michael E. Mills / William Berry / Michael J. Stipe

The Last Journalist

 On Monday I traveled into the city to participate in an ethics seminar for interns. In my previous life, this would have been a routine event, but as a retired person, it was unusual.

It also was pleasurable. And special.

For me, it’s always an honor to speak with young people at the beginning of their careers, mainly because we need them. We need journalists. We need story-tellers. We need artists. We need singers.

I am 75. They are roughly a third of my age or less.

My life is mainly behind me. Theirs is mainly ahead of them. Given the state of the world we are leaving them, there are things I can tell them, sure, but there are much more relevant things they can tell me.

Sometimes I feel like a dying breed. Reporters breaking big stories are rarities now. The Post has had some important work on Uber, thanks to a whistleblower. But that is the exception.

Occasionally I’ll tell war stories but that feels pointless. I’m more interested in them — the journalists of the future.

What do they think is ethical? Moral? What matters? Obviously, they will determine these answers going forward, not me. And that’s how it should be. Let’s just hope they get it right.

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Land of Ignorance: Afghan Conversation 37

NOTE: This the latest in a series of conversations I have been having with an Afghan friend about life under the Taliban.

Dear David:

In my last year of college I started to think about immigrating. First, I planned to go to Australia and then to Europe. But I failed to go both times. At that time, I had one good reason to leave Afghanistan, and that was economic. 

Since then, I have searched more extensively about lifestyle, income, culture, education and other aspects of life in Western countries. There are many differences from our life here. I realize that I'm stuck in a place where deprivation is the main thing we know.

People in Afghanistan have been struggling with poverty all go our lives. Most families do not have enough healthy food to eat. For example, we are a family of six and only I earn a salary. And that is just $100 per month. With only a hundred dollars for all of us, sometimes we get into trouble. 

But we are lucky, comparatively speaking. According to the World Bank, the income of more than 60 percent of the population of Afghanistan is estimated to be less than 50 dollars per month. 

One huge additional problem is that the culture of Afghan people is patriarchal. Women are deprived of their basic rights. For example, in the city of Helmand, there is not even a park or a restaurant where women can visit. Men do not allow their wives to leave the house. 

Also, nobody cares about hygiene here. Everyone drinks from the same tea cup without washing it. They believe that passing the saliva of one Muslim to another is healing. 

There are other factors that contribute to our poverty. The majority of Pashtun families (our largest ethnic group) consist of one man with two or three wives and more than 10 children. These people believe that God provides them with food. They leave everything up to God. 

Most of their children do not receive a proper education. In this environment of mass ignorance, it is easy for terrorist groups to simply take power.

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• Nation’s Overthinkers Convene To Determine What That’s Supposed To Mean (The Onion)

 

Why Bother?

 Journalist Amanda Ripley has put into words what many of us are feeling these days — that the news has simply become too depressing to bother with any longer. Surveys indicate that at least four in ten Americans have cut the news media entirely out of their daily routines, and I somewhat reluctantly second that emotion. (ref: Smokey Robinson)

The biggest issues of our time, like climate change, just feel too overwhelming. What are we supposed to do in our tiny little lives about something so hugely huge? (ref: Monte Python)

But, my sick sense of humor aside, it’s true. There is fundamentally nothing we can do about climate change individually. You know that. I know that.

For that matter, there is precious little we can do about any of the huge problems facing our world — poverty, war, genocide, hate, and the gross inequalities everywhere.

It’s only logical to conclude that the situation is hopeless, so why bother sinking into the morass of the daily headlines any longer?

I’m not sure I have a good answer to that one. 

And it makes me fundamentally question what I am doing here, day after day, spending hours sorting through hundreds of headlines to list a few dozen that seem to represent the most important things we should all know about in each particular news cycle.

What am I doing? What do I know? Who am I to say?

Maybe, just maybe, my job should actually be to do what Amanda suggests, which is to add some hope, agency and dignity to the news whenever I can. On the days that I can’t do that, perhaps I should just tay silent and keep the peace.

What do you think? (Comments welcome.)

The Latest Links:

1. “I stopped reading the news. Is the problem me — or our product?” (Amanda Ripley/WP)

2. A Very Basic Experiment Is Stumping the World's Best Physicists — Hot water really might freeze faster than cold water. (Atlantic)

3. Elon Musk Moves to End $44 Billion Deal to Buy Twitter (NYT)

4. The staggering scope of U.S. gun deaths goes far beyond mass shootings (WP)

5. How bitcoin’s hunger for energy is undermining efforts to address climate change. (Reveal)

6. As Musk moves to abandon deal, Twitter faces ‘worst case scenario’ (WP)

7. Sri Lanka president, PM to resign after tumultuous protests (AP)

8. Israel is the real winner of Biden’s meeting with the Saudi crown prince (Politico)

9. Shinzo Abe’s Influence Was Still Evident Long After He Left Office (NYT)

10. Deleting files isn’t enough. Here’s how to properly erase hard drives. (WP)

11. Amid chaos, some at July 4 parade ran toward gunfire to help (AP)

12. First, the Fish Fell From the Sky. Then They Washed Ashore. (NYT)

13. Amazon deforestation hits six-year high in Brazil (WP)

14. Choose your reality: Trust wanes, conspiracy theories rise (AP)

15. Tom Petty's regret about The Travelling Wilbury's (Far Out)

16. 'Astonishing' 500 million-year-old fossils preserved the brain of this creepy 3-eyed predator (LiveScience)

17. Grove of giant sequoias threatened by California wildfire (AP)

18. Area Man Having One Of His Little Bursts Of Energy Where He Tries To Write A Song (The Onion)

TODAY’s LYRICS (straight from Detroit and places north):

"I Second That Emotion"
By Smokey Robinson (with The Miracles)

Maybe you'll wanna give me kisses sweet
But only for one night and no repeat
And maybe you'll go away and never call
And a taste of honey's worse than none at all

Oh little girl, in that case I don't want no part
I do believe that, that would only break my heart
Oh, but if you feel like lovin' me
If you got the notion
I second that emotion

So, if you feel like givin' me
A lifetime of devotion
I second that emotion

***

“I’m a Lumberjack”

By Monty Python

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night, I work all day

He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night and works all day

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavatory
On Wednesdays I go shopping
And have buttered scones for tea