Sports Roots

A L O H A!

Welcome to Waikiki, Sports Fans

don't be dodos - click on photos



“The royal road to a man's heart
is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.”
Dale Carnegie









"That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness,

will appear tomorrow as an essential link

in the complete chain of Man”
Kahlil Gibran

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy

is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.

Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."
William Blake

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When I was a kid, sports seemed like mass psychosis to me. Other kids, and ADULTS got so worked up about a game! Couldn't they just read a book or something?

Some ancient cultures used the outcome of games and competitions as oracles. Their gods literally chose sides and chose the victors. It is precisely the combination of talent, training, & skill plus a thousand and one variables that makes sports so compelling. And they provide a wonderful survival of magical thinking. Witness the rituals that athletes and even fans go through! If I remain standing, my team will score a basket, touchdown, home run or whatever. We make idols and demi-gods of our sports heroes because they are human-yet-excellent. We also like to live vicariously

through them.

This is not purely or even mostly a conscious thing either. When your school or town wins, spirits and testosterone rise!

We no longer build civic temples, but they survive as stadiums. Local teams are one common factor across all strata and conditions of society. Sports are, after all, a surviving, ancient form of mass behavior. Something primitive within each of us, and within our "civilization" still lusts to WIN. And when we DO win, it seems that heaven smiles on us promising to bless all of our endeavors. "What we plant will flourish!"

You might suspect that this post resonates with Monday Night Football here in the US.

Silly!

It's all about baseball and the Phillies.

The team that frustrated grand dad (and an entire city for) decades. Last year I was watching the game with my dad when they won the world series.

Dad passed around 7 months later.

I'm glad we had that moment together before he got really sick and started to leave worldly things behind.

It still chokes me up when I remember him saying:

"I just wish I could drive my car again."

Yes, the mundane things of this world are more important than I realized as a grandiose, underage philosopher

all those sports-hating years ago.

Now the Phillies of my roots, complete with my Hawaii's slugger Shane Victorino, will play in the Big Game for a second year. And when they do, I'll be watching along with many ghosts.

Yes, and I'll be enjoying every mundane little thing about it including the junk food snacks.

All the precious, passing Earthly treasures!

'Cause in heaven

there aint no beer.

But all pets go to heaven - so there will be someone to play catch with!

SHOUT OUT: To Universty of Hawaii/Manoa Women's Volleyball Coach, Dave Shoji on his 1000th Victory last week.

Go Wahine!

A L O H A, Cloudia