Still Undefeated

One of my favorite songs is “September 15th” by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays.  It’s from one their earliest albums, maybe their first, “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls.” That song and another one, “Farmer’s Trust”, will break your heart when you watch the movie “Fandango”.

September 15^th also happens to be my birthday.  When one gets to a certain age, birthdays are no longer a big deal.  Getting out of bed every morning and standing on one’s own two feet is a big deal.  Remembering names and places and what happened a month ago or twenty years ago is a big deal.  

I am blessed that I can still do meaningful work and even get paid to do it. I have a wonderful wife and a comfortable place to live.  She has not taken my car keys away yet and I can still break a sweat without ending up in the ER.  But “the decline” is inevitable.  One may still workout, but strength and endurance no longer respond as they once did.  Less becomes more, and more soon becomes impossible.  You pay the price for one more try at something you used to enjoy.  You are an old person now and everyone knows it…including you. Age may be just a number, but it’s a number that represents something…the passage of Time. And make no mistake, Time is still undefeated.

But you must not give up. While there is life to be lived, live it as best you can.  The clock is ticking and the game is almost over.  If you belong to Christ, you know that the end is just the beginning and you were not created only to live in this body for a moment and then be gone forever.  

FORE

 

“They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken”- anonymous, angry golfer

 

I was never a very good golfer.  At least not by my definition of a good golfer.  When I really worked at it, I got down to an 11 handicap, but mostly I was more like a 15. I could hit the ball a long way, occasionally I could find it.  On and around the greens I might as well have been wearing boxing gloves and using a pool cue. 

And I didn’t particularly care for the “social” aspects of golf.  I always felt there were five types of guys on the golf course.  The hail-fellow-well-met types who were either trying to sell you something or persuade you to visit their church.  There were the gamblers who had all kinds of made-up bets going on and wanted your money.  And there were those guys who just needed a friend and once they opened their mouth you immediately knew why they had none.  Perhaps the worst were the little groups who always played together and acted like they owned the course.

The last type were guys like me who preferred to be left alone or if they played along with someone they played fast and seldom spoke.  I called them the independents and for me they were the best company you could have while playing golf.  You might know their first name and maybe, if you happened to play with them often enough, they might tell you more at which point you were obligated to tell them more.  But if they were true independents, it was very little and not very often and you both understood that was for the best.

Four years ago, my back finally wore out.  Lower lumbar stenosis and a slipped disc.  Surgery was discussed but the spinal specialist encouraged me to try some PT, modify my activities and learn to live with it.  Surgery was the last resort.  Golf was a hard NO.  With a lot of trial and error including some bad PT along the way, I’ve finally gotten back to a reasonably good place with my back.  I am never going to be who I used to be. But past a certain age, none of us are.

Recently, I had to admit that I missed golf. I had written it off and even when I got to the place where I might be able to play again, I said no.  I just didn’t want to play “old man golf”.  And besides the best part of my game was gone.  The “long ball” was history.  I didn’t think my short game would ever be good enough to make up for the lost distance.  So, I just didn’t want to play anymore and convinced myself that I couldn’t even if I wanted to.

But something changed.  Another birthday is coming and I am absolutely an “old man”.  I still work full-time and workout almost every day, albeit not the way I used to.  I write, I read and still do some chores around the house and yard, but not much else these days.  And I miss hitting and chasing that damned little white ball. I never really considered myself “a golfer”.  I did not have, nor did I want to be part of a regular foursome who were on the course every weekend and sometimes during the week.  I wasn’t interested, nor good enough to play in tournaments.  But mostly I was one of those independents, and we are just too far outside the norms to ever be considered real golfers.

So, I started hitting a few wedges around our place out in the country.  Got some plastic practice balls and begin making full swings.  It was ok.  Finally, the other day I decided to go the driving range and hit some real golf balls. The first few shots were ugly.  But I made a couple of adjustments, remembering what did and did not work when I swung a golf club.  And I actually began to hit some decent shots.  Finally got to the driver and hit the ball very well.  I decided to stop before pushing it too far.  All in I probably hit only 30-35 balls.  Not a serious practice session by any means.  But the back seems to be no worse for wear and the golf bug is back.  

I need to continue working on “my game” before going back on the course.  I don’t expect to shoot in the 80’s again.  I may not even break a 100 for a while.  But when I do get back on the course, it will be my best version of “old man golf” and at this season of life that’s good enough for me.

The Bureaucrat Who Cried "Wolf"

 

Ok, the jury has returned and we have the verdict: Fauci is a “tool” and I mean that in the worst possible way.  But let’s be honest, there are plenty of other people who should share the blame for the wave of totalitarian government control that ended up making the Covid pandemic even worse, and make no mistake it was horrible enough on its own. 

As one who has had Covid twice and probably had it in Jan-Feb 2020 before it was identified, I can confirm it’s no fun.  But I was fortunate.  The first time back in 2020, assuming it was in fact Covid, for me it was a long-drawn out flu-like event.  Never as severe as a really bad flu, but lingered and would just not go away.  The second time was in 2021 with vaccine on board, and it was mostly a bad cold.  It came around again in 2023 and if I hadn’t been tested, I would have just thought it was a head cold.

As an older person, on the advice of my GP, I started getting a flu shot in my 50’s.  At 60 we added a pneumonia shot.  Having had some rough experiences with bronchitis in the past it was an easy call for me to take the Covid shot.  Stupidly, I didn’t get around to taking the RSV shot and got hit with it in the winter of 2024. It eventually became severe bronchitis which eventually turned into “walking” pneumonia and a trip to the ER.  Much worse than anything I’d experienced with Covid.  So I have since got the RSV jab, it’s a one-time deal and there is no reason older folks shouldn’t get it.

I am otherwise a very healthy old man; workout daily, eat right, get my rest and still function at a relatively high level.  But, like most senior citizens my immune system isn’t what it used to be and I can’t ignore that reality.  When there is a flu outbreak and a lot of people are getting sick, I tend to wash my hands more frequently and maybe do more fist bumps than handshakes at church.  I don’t like crowds in general so maintaining my personal space is the norm for me which works out well when some nasty bug is going around.  I used to be a guy that challenged cold weather.  Shorts and a windbreaker unless it was very cold and windy.  Not these days.  It’s best to avoid getting too cold so I dress appropriately warm when it’s cold outside.  In other words, I try to use some common sense.  Get vaccinated when it’s clear that the risks of not getting vaccinated outweigh the risks of taking the vaccine.  Wash your hands, especially during flu season.  Take a multi-vitamin.  Get your rest.  Do the basics.

My concern now is that our political polarization has spilled over into health and medicine.  I personally know older conservatives who refused to take the Covid vaccine and paid a big price, some the ultimate price.  There were those who went out of their way to act as if Covid was just another flu bug, don’t worry about it.  Of course, some dodged the bullet but many did not.  Then there were those who followed all the guidelines to the letter and were first in line for the vaccine.  They fussed and fumed at the deniers and those who advocated alternative ways of treating Covid. 

I confess to wearing the mask in places where the majority were wearing masks.  I just didn’t want to be that guy, especially if someone got Covid and believed that somehow I might have contributed to it.  There was a lot of social pressure to abide by masks-wearing, distancing and following the arrows on the floor in the grocery store.  Those mavericks who broke all the rules are now nodding their heads and saying we knew it was all B.S. but you chumps just rolled over and bought it.  I admire stubborn independence and tend toward it myself, but draw the line where it causes others to be more anxious and stressed-out in difficult situations.

So now we have parents not vaccinating their kids for the stuff we’ve been vaccinating kids against for decades.  How many more proven “best practices” will be ignored because some whack-a-doodle political hack or internet influencer claims that now it’s bad for us? When the “experts” and the elites and the mainstream media keep getting it so wrong for so long on so many “existential threats”, eventually they become the little boy who cried wolf.  One of these they may actually be telling the truth, but by then no one will be listening…and the wolf will be real.

Disconnected

 

“We demand too much of life, too little of ourselves”

-Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: An American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations.

I suppose every older generation worries about the younger one.  Certainly, my baby boomer generation was of great concern to our parents, our teachers and coaches, law enforcement, the government and business leaders facing the daunting challenge of employing these young rebels.  

Looking back, I think we were just at the beginning of the unraveling, the great disconnect.  Two world wars, industrialization and mobility had already chipped away at the connections of place and kinship. Radio, movies and television opened eyes and ears in ways that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors.  Higher education prompted us to question our values, challenge authorities and proceed to seriously doubt their motives as well as the promises they had made to us.

Then we sort of got over it, took our place at the wheel, started making money and got very comfortable. Certainly not all of us, there are plenty of broken people and shattered dreams among aging baby boomers.  And most of us were late getting back to the values and lessons we had rejected in our youth. While we indeed may have been late in returning to those “values and lessons”, they were there.  They were in our head and in our heart.  There was a foundation, overgrown and neglected perhaps, but still there.  We might not have been able to go home again, but we remembered what it was like and why it mattered.

That was then, this is now and everything has changed. Much has been said and written about the impact of political extremism, the failure of our educational institutions, inflation, the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the bane of social media, the failure of the church, unchecked immigration, inequalities, injustice and more “isms” to fret about every day.  All these things have contributed in significant ways to the angst, anger, frustration and ultimately, the nihilism of so many young people.

But I think there is a larger underlying problem, and it did not just happen overnight.  There is a reason why these social, cultural, political, technological and economic challenges are having such negative effects on young people.  And that reason is the lack of positive, meaningful connections with other people, people who are actually part of their lives not some photoshopped stranger on their smartphone.

In almost every area of their lives younger generations are missing the connections that benefited so many of us baby boomers.  The connections weren’t perfect and some benefited more than others, but overall, we were more personally connected back then.  More of us grew up in two parent households. Most of  had siblings around, some even in the same bedroom.  We tended to live closer to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  We went to church more regularly even if we didn’t want to go.  More of us attended smaller schools where there were not hundreds or even thousands of kids in our graduating class.  We were more likely to be around other kids in the neighborhood, free to wander and play and fall down.  We even learned the word no and suffered the consequences of disobedience at home or at school.  Sometimes we were made to feel bad or sad or angry, but there always seemed to be someone there to give us a hug.  We weren’t always happy or entertained and learned to live with that reality.  We even discovered early on and accepted that life is not fair.

As a society we must make some changes.  Young people need connections beyond just sharing grievances and bad ideas with other disconnected young people online.  They need families and friends who have families.  They need more discipline and even more love.  They need to be taught how to fly on their own and take responsibility even when it’s difficult or inconvenient.  They need more physical activity and less sugar.  Read books, book in hand and turning the pages. Learn to write in cursive, memorize poems and scripture and words of wisdom.  Learn to speak clearly and look people in the eye.  Think less of themselves and more of others treating them as they themselves would wish to be treated.  Listen more than talk.  Pay attention.  Accept that life is hard and at some point, they will endure pain and suffering.  Believe there is something more and better beyond this short life that we must live now in these bodies on this planet.  Always be thankful, don’t make excuses and never give up.  And stay connected...to real people. 

2026 Halftime Review

 

“I believe that everything happens for a reason.  People change so you can learn to let go, things go wrong so you can appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so eventually you learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

-Marilyn Monroe (born 100 years ago on June 1, 1926)

 

_IRAN

I predicted this would be more difficult than expected. Will it turn out to be more trouble than it was worth? Not if we achieve what we initially set out to do.  But I expect it to end with some sort of watered-down agreement that will be spun by both sides as a win. For as long as Islamic extremists remain in Iran and throughout the Middle East, and for that matter around the world; and as long as Western Civilization depends on oil, the blood feud will continue, unlikely to end well for either side.

_INFLATION

With the Iran conflict dragging on oil prices shot up almost 50% at one point only adding to the stubborn inflationary pressure Americans have been facing throughout most of this decade.  A reckoning is coming and it will not be pretty.

_TRUCKING

This subject means more to me because I am involved with it on a daily basis recruiting management, sales and executive talent for the industry.  It should mean a lot to everyone because certain truck drivers who had no business being on the road were having headline-making deadly accidents on a weekly basis.  Turns out that hundreds of thousands of truck drivers, most of those entering this country over the past 5 years, literally had no business driving 18-wheelers. The government crackdown is pulling thousands of these drivers (and trucks) off the road.  The result is rising freight rates and some relief for trucking companies that have suffered through a painful 3 year “freight recession”.  The downside is that those higher rates will end up adding to the cost of most everything. 

_FIFA World Cup

I really tried to watch it, but I fail to appreciate the “beautiful game”.  The athletes are exceptional and there are moments when the matches are as exciting as any sport one might watch.  I know this because I wait and watch those moments via recaps on You Tube.  I can see soccer being a great sport if you’re playing or your kids are playing.  But as a spectator sport, especially on television, it’s like spending two hours watching an ant farm.   For me the best thing coming out of the World Cup are the comments from our international visitors, in particular those from Europe.  Turns out that America is a great place after all despite what they have been fed by the media, entertainment and political elites.  Who knew? 

_DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM

Why not give it a try, right? There are plenty of reasons why some people are embracing it, most of them revolving around “affordability” and “equity” grievances.  But life is not fair and they will discover soon enough neither is Democratic Socialism. 

_ICE

The aggressive “catch and remove” approach has been toned down a bit, but this remains a hot-button issue that will get a lot of attention from both parties going into the mid-terms.

_250

OK, technically July 4^th is in the second half of the year, but America is 250 years old so I will include it in the first half, the second half and whenever the mood strikes me.  Happy Birthday to us.

Another Crossroad

 

It seems that with every holiday, we are told that America is “At A Crossroad”.  These “At A Crossroad” commentaries come in all shades and shapes.  Some are hopeful, some an urgent call for action.  Some are resentful, others regretful and at their worst declare that America was doomed from the start and the only answer is to wipe the slate clean and start over.

I take these “crossroad warnings” seriously but always with the belief that we Americans will figure it out.  It won’t be perfect.  It never is and never could be because human beings are involved.  The freedoms that allow some of us to take the wrong turn allow others to right the ship.

Our history is one of sins and salvation. If one chooses to obsess over the sins of the fathers, they will never see the good things, the confessions and self-corrections.  They will let their image of the nation’s dark past blind them to the progress we’ve made and the underlying goodness of America.  Those who choose to only celebrate our success and are unwilling to admit our failures are in danger of becoming like the parents of a child who “can do no wrong” remaining uncorrected and over-indulged.

America is changing.  It always has and always will because people are changing, some for better and some for worse.  The American system of government remains the best humans have come up with so far. But if by way of our freedoms or by force we abandon it, others will surely take our place.

The Verdict, The Sentence, The Aftermath

Considering that the crime and the trial took place less than an hour south of where I live, I have paid a fair amount of attention to the Karmelo Anthony-Austin Metcalf story;  from the time Karmelo stabbed and killed Austin right up through the trial, the guilty verdict, the 35-year prison sentence and the aftermath.

Most white folks feel that the verdict was right and the sentence was appropriate, if anything perhaps Anthony should have received a life sentence or worse.  And they are fed up with black politicians and activists playing the race card every time they don’t like the answer or the outcome.  I take it all with a grain of salt. This is just part of their job description.  It’s the way things work.

But at a deeper level I am guessing that a lot of blacks are once again having questions about our justice system.  While many, if not most blacks likely agree that Karmelo Anthony was guilty; they are asking themselves how this would have turned out if Karmelo had been a white kid represented by a blue-chip defense attorney.  Probably a guilty verdict of some sort, but perhaps to a lesser charge, maybe just manslaughter.  Even if he’d been found guilty of the same charge carrying the same range of sentencing, would he have gotten 35 years?

There remains in the black community a nagging sense that white people tend to get the benefit of the doubt.  When it’s between a 5 or a 99 year sentence the young white kid gets 10 or 15 tops, the black kid gets more, as in 35 years.  If there is potential for a lesser charge or a reduced sentence, the white guy is more likely to receive it or so it seems.

One may say that is no longer the way it works.  That these days the scales are balanced, maybe even tipping slightly in favor of non-whites.  I don’t think that is the case, but even if it were, it’s a recent development.  The black experience in America has seen enough injustice to last well beyond the lives of those who suffered the most from it.  Therefore, the questions and the doubts are never far away and tend to readily surface in cases such as this one.

 “Time heals all wounds, but it does not erase the scars.”- Jane Yolen