meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow” Meschery's Musings of Sports, Literature, and Life Meschery's Musings on Sports, Literature and Life: 2017-08-06

What my musings are all about...

Blogging might well be the 21st century's form of journaling. As a writing teacher, I have always advised my students to keep a daily journal as a way of organizing their thoughts for future writing projects, a discipline I have unfortunately never consistently practiced myself. By blogging, I might finally be able to follow my own good advice.

The difference between journaling and blogging is that the blogger opens his or her writing to the public, something journal- writers are usually reluctant to do. I am not so reticent.

The trick for me will be to avoid cluttering the internet with more blather, something none of us need more of. If I stick to subjects I know: sports and literature, I believe I can avoid that pitfall. I can't promise that I'll not stray from time to time to comment on ancillary subjects, but I will make every attempt to be interesting and perhaps even insightful.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Just so you understand before I begin what may turn out to be a rant, that as a basketball player I never backed down physically and even threw an elbow or two or three. That said, what's wrong with this picture in the sports pages of the Sacramento Bee?

Headline: Cowboys' Elliot suspended for six game in domestic case.

Front page next story down: "Violent, mean and ruthless': Vanderdoes Learned Lesson Well. Gosh, I guess Cowboys' running back Ezikial Elliot learned it well too.

Page 4: Stunner: U.S. finishes 1-2 in women's steeplechase. STUNNER. TWO WOMEN, Emma Coburn and Courteny Frerichs, win a significant INTERNATIONAL competition, defeating Kenyan and Ethiopian women who have been dominating this event for years.

ABUSIVE MALE and a young man who advertises VIOLENCE, MEANNESS, and RUTHLESSNESS. Is there something wrong here????? Sure, I understand the violence, etc is meant to be confined to the football field. But, maybe, just maybe, such learned traits become habit and spill over into one's day to day life. Looks that way for Ezikial who, by the way, beat up his girlfriend. I suspect the running back is just a tad stronger that her, and definitely more violent. Guys that beat up women are cowards. That's the bottom line, COWARDS.

There was nothing cowardly about how Emma and Courteny finished their race, powerful runners both of them, completely in control, testing every last ounce of their courage. They should have been the headline on the front page. Shame on the Bee.

Courage   by Tom Meschery

I ran and ran 
until I caught myself
and passed me 
on the right
triumphant 
to the finish line'
and crossed 
into the night