#24 / Rhythms of Life
Hey everyone,
Fall is usually my favorite season, and I think it still is, but this is going to be a weird one.
No Nebraska football. I’m in Chicago now, so I don’t really have a feel for how much consternation and soul-searching this has caused back home, but I can imagine. Especially since the decision not to play the season wasn’t made by the university, but by the Big Ten Conference, in which the team plays.
The Pac-10 Conference has also cancelled all its fall sports, but other conferences like the Big 12 (where Nebraska used to play) and the Southeastern Conference are moving forward with football. This is not a good idea, but I have to admit that having at least some football in the fall is appealing; it would make the world seem a little bit more like normal.
Of course, I think it’s still unlikely that these teams will be able to complete their seasons, in the same way that many schools which have opened up for in-person classes have been forced to quickly shut down again. The same is true for the NFL, which is also still planning to operate as normal, with no “bubble” (a contained environment in which players, coaches, and staff live while games are played) and with each team being allowed to set its own attendance policies: my team, the Chiefs, are capping it at 20% of their stadium’s capacity, which is still over 17,000 fans!
And that’s the thing. Normality is more appealing than ever, but it’s just not the reality. We took “normal” for granted, and now that we can’t have it anymore, we are doing everything we can to try to force the issue. So we’re in this purgatory now where we’re going to try to play football and pretend it’s safe; but we’ll all still notice that it’s not the same, and we’ll also be putting a bunch of people’s health at risk. (And we shouldn’t forget that football itself is a huge health risk.)
For those of you who’ve known me a long time, you know that sports have been foundational to my identity. At times I may have been a little too obsessed. Once, my dad was driving the two of us home from a Husker game, and the subject of Judaism came up. Thinking about my lack of interest in the latter, and still on a high from the game, I said, “Dad, Husker football is my religion.”
Today I’m more interested in Judaism and less interested in football. And I feel comfortable accepting that I’m not a religious person either way. But I think what I was getting at with my comment to my dad, expressed in not the most considerate way, is that an important aspect of a religion is the rhythm it introduces into daily life. Football has always been part of the rhythm of fall for me, and for a lot of people in Nebraska who are mourning its loss.
But we’re not entitled to the rhythms of life. I’m reading a book called The Fifth Season, the first installment of N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy. It takes place in a world much like ours, except that it is far more geologically active. Every now and then—infrequently enough that it may not happen in a given person’s lifetime, but frequently enough that it is expected and planned for—an enormous quake opens the earth up and transforms the entire continent; ash rains down from the sky even in areas that are thousands of miles away from the rift. People pretty much just have to deal with this.
One of the sayings in this world is that “everything changes during a Season.” Insisting on normality doesn’t make much sense in the face of such volatility. Like all stories, stories of science fiction aim to impart lessons about the current world, and the prophetic message of this one is that change is more normal than we think.
Reading
Bassam Tarazi — What I Learned About the Invention of Race
This awesome piece from my friend Bassam digs into the history of race as a concept (spoiler alert: it’s a social construct, not biological). We both love history and language and culture and it felt like he wrote this specifically for me. I mean, he never said that he didn’t…
Tim Keown — The Mystery of LaMelo Ball
Football may be on the outs, but basketball has gradually replaced it as my favorite sport, anyway. And I’m getting sustenance from the NBA Playoffs right now, even if the games aren’t the same without 20,000 fans in the arena.
I think you’ll find this fascinating regardless of whether you’re a basketball fan; this is the story of one of those kids who has been raised to play a sport since he was born, but in the social media age. And now, despite basically skipping all of high school to play in Lithuania and Australia, LaMelo might be the #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. It’s a wild tale!
There was also this sneakily-relevant quote:
He texted with Lonzo and LiAngelo every day, and after accusations of laziness from teammates in Lithuania, he listened when Lonzo told him, “You have no choice but to be a pro. If you don’t show up, they’re not going to call your phone and say, ‘Hey, where are you?’ Being a pro is 24/7.”
Mood
XTC — “Burning With Optimism’s Flames”
My listening was all over the place this week, in a good way. I rediscovered my love for Phantom Planet, The Flaming Lips, and The Killers’ Hot Fuss; I guess I’ve been missing college life, or something. But I’m going to stick with this song, which is frenetic and upbeat and playful and everything I come to XTC for. I wouldn’t say I’m in an optimistic mood, necessarily, but maybe if I listen to this song enough times, I will be.
Now every bird and bee, just fuel the fire for me
Burning With Optimism’s Flames - 2001 Remaster - song by XTC | Spotify
XTC · Song · 1980
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Thanks for reading. Please take care, and write back if you can!
Love,
Aaron