No Perfect Choice

My voter registration card.  Photo by J. Berta

Greetings All:

In nine days, it will be over.  Gone will be the attention lavished on us out here in frozen flyover country by the press.  The candidates will be gone as well.  For some, their journeys will be brief, as their campaigns will be soon coming to an end.  For others, a long slog awaits through the south and the rest of the primary season.  

For us in Iowa, February 2nd will mark the return to normalcy.  The Iowa Caucuses, the first in the nation presidential contests, will be in the history books.  Even the most hard-core political enthusiast will likely (yet silently) breathe a sigh of relief.  For many other Iowans, it will be a giant cheer.  "Hooray!  No more phone calls, or junk mail, or calls from surveys or campaigns!"  

Until then, there is one more week to go.  This is truly the home stretch.  Although the polls have been reasonably accurate over the past few cycles, there is always the wild card of who will actually come out to participate.  Unlike primaries, to engage in the caucus process, one must commit a period of time to gather and engage with one's neighbors to some extent about the issues of the day.  I will be curious to see just how many of a certain candidate's supporters will actually show up on caucus night.  We shall see.

I am excited that my oldest daughter can participate, as she'll be eligible to vote in the general election.  Both my wife and I plan on attending as well.   

Participating can mean different things to different people.  For some, it will be a quiet display of support for a candidate.  For others, it will be a loud expression of support for a cause that transcends any one candidate.  I like to think that for all attending the caucuses, they will feel a sense of civic pride.  They all should.

I may have some other comments on this process and might even write about my own choice on caucus night.  For now, I will say this:  I find no perfect choice.

I don't envy those who have found their candidate, I'm happy for them.  Even those who support a certain one (whose name I shall not mention), if their intent of support is pure and genuine, then so be it.  

I have particular admiration for those who are supporting a candidate that has no chance of winning.  There are candidates who are polling in the low single digits.  Their campaigns, like a lawn mover running out of gas, will cough along for a few more weeks before fading away.  Until that day, supporters, perhaps only a handful, will cheer them on.  As well they should.

For my adult life and even prior to that, I've never had a challenge rallying to a candidate.  Not so this year.  If you'd read my blog, you might have noticed how I have commented on the evil of ISIS.  While I do not favor single issue politics, I see this year as different.  I see the defeat of this barbaric terror group to be THE issue.  To say I am disappointed with the candidates' responses would be an understatement.  As mentioned above, I may comment more on this subject in a few days.  

For now, I'll simply say that while I wish there was a "perfect" candidate for me.  There is not.  Then again, the sheer fact I would even think there is such a candidate is a new low in my sense of entitlement.  

There can never be a perfect candidate.  The reason is simple.  To be a candidate, one has to be a person first.  And people are flawed.  
Yet flawed is fine, to an extent.  For within one's flaws can lie an authenticy, an authenticy that can knock down the walls of bluster and rage and naivity and cynicism.  

Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of Democracy in America, wrote:  "America is great because she is good.  If America ceases to be good, Amercia will cease to be great."

 Yes, America is still good.  And because "good" is less that "great," there is the room in good (or goodness) for flaws.

So to those of you reading this that live in Iowa, go out and caucus on February 1st.  Don't worry if you don't find your perfect choice, find one with flaw, just flaws you can accept.  

And by participating, by making the commitment to both choose and accept the less-than-perfect candidate, you're embracing, continuing and renewing the greatness of America.   

I'm convinced if Mr.de Tocqueville de Tocquevilde Tocqueville were to make another visit to America, Iowa to be precise, next Monday night, and watch our caucus process, he'd agree America is doing just fine.

Be well my friends,
Jeno

Sources: 

http://iowademocrats.org/about-iowa-caucuses/

https://www.iowagop.org/2015/12/03/iowa-gop-precinct-locations/

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/30/144489004/confused-about-the-iowa-caucuses-heres-a-guide   

It's Over Johnny!"

My Packers cup from my 2013 trip to Lambeau Field.  Photo by J. Berta

Greetings All:

A short while ago, The Green Bay Packers football season came to an end.  Although they were able to force overtime, the Arizona Cardinals needed just two plays from scrimmage to score a touchdown and move on to the NFL Championship Game.  Green Bay is headed to the airport and back home.  The next time they put on jerseys and pads it will be at training camp.

There are those who will point out the errors, the missed penalties, the bounced balls, or the tipped balls, or the spot of Arizona's multiple third downs that were converted to a new set of "first and 10s."  Here's the only thing that matters:

My team lost.  

Yup, I said it.  My team lost.   And while I am at it, congrats to the Arizona Cardinals.  They flat out out-played the Packers when it matters.  Larry Fitzgerald might have had the game of his career and Carson Palmer scrapped the monkey off his back for not being able to win a playoff game.  Now my sports focus will be firmly fixed on Iowa Basketball.

Here's the thing about being a fan:  You have to accept the bargain that sometimes your team will lose.  Sometimes it is a blowout, other times a tragic, heart-breaking last-second loss.  Yet life goes on.

Now those of you who know me even somewhat well know my passion for Iowa football.  You might say (and with some credibility), "Hey Jeno, why you going all stoic on us?"  Aren't you the guy whose been known to yell at the top of your lungs when Iowa wins and brood like some character in a black-and-white foreign film when they lose?"  True, all true.

So why am I not cursing the darkness and instead am "lighting a candle" of some (sorta) positive comments?  Simple:  I want to.  Look, I'm not going to kid anyone, of course I am disappointed that Green Bay lost.  If anything, it would have made for another week of following ESPN and wearing my Green Bay sweatshirts, announcing to the world (well, the world of the Iowa Quad Cities) that my team was still in the hunt for the Super Bowl.  

Yet as I type this, it is way late on a Saturday night and by doing this blog post, I am allowing myself a way to process a disappointment and also do something I have control over, if only a blog post that will be read by a few people.  

Here's the thing about sports:  Unless you're the player or coach or team owner, whatever happens on the field is not your problem.  If your team wins, great.  By all means, enjoy the moment, revel in the win.  But if your team comes up short, know this, it ain't your fault.  You are no more to blame for the loss than the Titanic sinking.  

This past week, we all had a reminder of just how trivial sports can be and the dangers of placing upon pedestals those who play the game with morally questionable character.  Lawrence Phillips, the phenomenal running back for the University of Nebraska in the mid 90s was found dead in his jail cell.  It appears to be a suicide.  Phillips was serving a long prison sentence and was likely to face the death penalty for the murder of his former cellmate.  I've got a couple of links in the credits below about Phillips.  Here is a life lost decades ago and a cautionary tale, to say the least.

As I watched the end of tonight's game, I found myself thinking of the line from Rambo where Stallone's character, John Rambo, is speaking with his former commander as the local police bear down on him.  The commander, a Green Beret Full-Bird Colonel says, "It's over Johnny!"  To which Stallone retorts, "Nothing is over!  You just don't turn it off!"  I've got the YouTube clip link below (presumed fair use/authorized sharing) for you to see it for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLo-ylNPXyE

Well, to Mr. John Rambo, I respectfully retort:  "Yes, yes you can turn it off.  It's called pressing a button on the remote."  

There is also another part of turning it off and that involves shifting your focus to something both positive and in your control.  I don't care if it is doing dishes, folding laundry or doing a blog post.  If it is something that means those two criteria, then it is time well-spent.  For me, that's what writing this blog post does.

I suppose the next step in my ongoing self-improvement is to be able to bifurcate the disappointment in the loss from misplaced shame for that loss.  I suspect many Packers fans will not be breaking out their "Green and Gold" tomorrow.  Let's see if I have the gumption to wear my Packers sweatshirt tomorrow, stay tuned...
 
Be well my friends (and Go Pack GO!)
Jeno

Sources:

http://deadspin.com/5335955/the-long-strange-sad-journey-of-lawrence-phillips 

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jan/14/ex-nfl-player-lawrence-phillips-death-suicide-california
 

In Praise of Winter's Frozen Beauty

Our thermometer on our deck, January 10, 2016.  Photo by J. Berta.

Greetings All:

It's January in Iowa.  December's "mild" weather is over, replaced with the wrath that is January.   The last few days have been brutally cold.  In the warm weather, we enjoy the breeze.  Now, we curse the gale that blows hard against us.

Darkness comes too soon.  The sun surrenders to the horizon without putting up a fight.  The few leaves left on the trees are without life.  

And yet, and yet..

In the winter, there is beauty.  If you can get past the cold.  It is there.

It is there when the sun rises.  You're awake when its crests the ridge.

It it there when the sun sets, too early, yet a little later than a month before.

It is there when the dog and I walk on my bike path and see the ice icicles frozen against the side of the creek bed, something I shall never see most any other day.

It is there when the snow falls, wrapping in white all the world, or at least as much of the world as I see.

And I suppose that is all of the world that matters.

Such is the privilege of my life.

Here's to winter...and in praise of its frozen beauty.

Be well my friends,
Jeno

An Ode To My Fellow Hawkeye Fans

The last time the "Tiger Hawk" flag will fly for Iowa Football until next fall.  Photo by J. Berta.

Greetings All:

There will be over 40 bowl games this college football post-regular season.  There was only one I cared about, and deeply, The Rose Bowl.  Without going into detail, simply put:  Iowa lost.  They were soundly defeated by the Standford Cardinal team.  Their star player, #5, Christian McCaffrey, is a class act.  The same cannot be said for the Stanford Band.  

In any event, the game is over.  I allowed myself a bit of "mourning" and now it's onto more productive and necessary tasks.  I did, however, engage in a bit of "poetic therapy" by stringing a few nouns and verbs together.  I certainly feel better after I wrote it.  If you're an Iowa fan feeling low today, perhaps this will help you feel a bit better.  I hope it does.  Here's the poem:
 
An Ode To My Fellow Iowa Fans

Here’s to us, the Iowa fans.

With broken hearts, pieces shattered,

Mournfully dancing in the wind,

Mingling with rose petals.

From Pasadena to back home, we gathered.

To watch, to cheer, to hope, to believe,

To believe we’d win the “Grand Daddy of them all.”

The game began.  And we knew, knew all too soon,

This year was (again) not to be.

A few months’ ago, we were on top of the world.

Undefeated, riding high, above the fray,

Above the din of the haters and cynics and skeptics,

Who demanded our defeat!

Yet we kept winning, week after week,

All the way until,

Until the last ticks of the Lucas Field clock.

Our “consolation” prize?

The Rose Bowl, a return a quarter-century in the waiting!

And now, it’s over.

Victory eluded us. 

Our last gridiron win?

When the “T-Day” leftovers were in the fridge.

Yet to my fellow Hawkeye fans, grieve not!

Proudly sing the fight song with your voice,

And in your heart!

For know that our beloved school, is more, much more,

Than victories of fields and courts of “friendly strife.” 

There are the victories in the classroom, in the lab,

On the stage, and across the globe.

Know that majestic Kinnick Stadium stands with her sibling structures,

None finer than The Children’s Hospital.

From inside whose walls contests are waged that matter more than any game.

So here’s to you, my fellow Hawkeye fans.

For all that truly matters,

We’re champions eternal.

On Iowa, GO HAWKS!

Be well my friends,
Jeno