30-5:Football

Greetings -

Sunday is the day I go shallow. Football rules through into winter. KFAN radio allows one hour a week of Packer talk on its station, so the headphones will be on from 8-9 this morning. This weekend we have a booth at the Stillwater Art and Jazz Festival (66), near the banks of the St. Croix River. Weather was perfect yesterday, and is priming for more perfect today. LOTS of ambitious folks will be hoofing the Twin Cities Marathon in fifteen minutes or so. BEST of LUCK to one and all. While you are fighting for your breath and urge to quit I will probably be chewing on a lovely muffin from The Daily Grind and sketching the goings-on in Lowell Park. Listening to pre-game points and plans. Keeping the thousands and thousands and thousands of dedicated runners in back of mind as some bit of life inspiration.

Football is like that, too. Great care in planning, training, effort toward the victory. Sometimes stuff go well, nobody gets seriously injured, plays are completed as planned. But often, well, crap happens. The center muffs the snap, a great player gets carted off the field, "your" team loses. Amazingly, life goes on. Usually there is a next week - practice, get better, don't give up. Love it, hate it? Doesn't matter. Just show up and do the work.

Plus, focusing on one thing for three hours is fun. When possible, I journal the games played by the Green Bay Packers. Every play, my reactions, lots of commentary by radio guys Wayne and Larry, a bit of TV stuff, notes on other day's doings. This is crazy - but also great fun. One must stay focused. Open to action, emotion, and how the ink and paper are holding out (& batteries for radio headphones!). It's not so much about the outcome as the practice of doing. Natalie Goldberg might consider it three hours of Zen writing practice. I consider it a weird compulsion that I freely admit to scribbling. I also curse much more freely on paper than in person....

So, on to the day. Yesterday score: Michigan over Minnesota: 58-0??? Memorable radio comment: "Two Wolverines and a Gopher are tussling by near side-line."

May your day be tussle-free.
GO PACK!!!
- Sue