Brett Favre
Did he repeat to himself as he broke huddle for that last play, what he had told us so long ago at the press conference called to announce his entry into a rehab. program - "don't bet against me".
We are a nation whose obsession with sports is embarassing. But at its best, and when played by its best, sports are a microcosm of life, and can often encourage the best that is within us, as well as things we may lament.
Veteran's Day
I always think of four names on November 11: Bud, Andy, Cornel, and Eugene, my father, father-in-law, and two uncles respectively. They all fought in World War Two, and thankfully, they all came back. Three of them are gone now, heroes to our country and certainly to me. My father-in-law's uniform from Patton's Third Army hangs in our closet. We take it out on days like this to remember him, reflect on what his generation did, and to talk with our kids of these things.
After them I recall the stunning images in the opening scenes of the movie Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg's craft is at its height with the panoramic sweep of the American cemetery at Normandy. The enormous, over-arching American flags lofting in the Channel fed breezes and keeping vigil over her sons, silently express a level of human emotion for which even Skakespeare might have been inadequate.
Once Upon a Time in America**
The Holiday we know as Thanksgiving has two foundations in our nation's history.
The first lies in the autumn of 1621. The people we know as the Pilgrims gathered to give thanks for having survived their first winter in North America, and for the liberties they enjoyed upon coming to this continent.
Lake Michigan - Part Two
I wrote of Lake Michigan last month and am only now getting back to the topic.
In my first blog (http://blogs.brookfieldnow.com/brookfieldbasics/archive/2007/10/18/the-coming-battle-over-miss-ken.aspx) I wrote of my feelings for "Missi-Ken". I acknowledge my lack of objectivity on the subject, for she is one of the great loves of my life. But the general issue of water is more clinical.
