My Reason for the Season

Christmas is a comin' and the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat.  If you haven't got a penny, a half-penny'll do.  If you haven't got a half-penny, then God bless you.  So why am I starting a post with a nursery rhyme we probably heard as kids?  Simple, for the first time ever I am going to write about what I think about Christmas.  Most of my family know that I am not a big fan of the holiday, but I have never fully outlined my feelings.

I will start with the fact that America, in spite of what FOX news may say about a war on Christmas,  the reason that Christians celebrate the holiday has become nothing more than an orgy of commercialism.  What should be a sacred holiday where we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior and look to reflecting on what Christ's life and sacrifice mean to our world has little to do with Christianity.  Instead, it is a non-stop commercial and greed fest.  Everyone is so hung up on getting the best deal, finding the perfect gift and stuff that the true meaning is lost.

I readily admit that the loss of my Grandfather a few weeks before Christmas when I was 12, has colored my feelings on the holiday.  I know that my mother did the right thing in us carrying forward with celebrating, as best we could, in order to bring some normalcy to what was anything but a normal situation.  I know that our loss what nothing unusual or special, but it just showed me that there is a lot of loss and sadness that is magnified by the whole forced "Jolliness" of the season.

Loneliness and depression are magnified during the holidays as well.  People feel the false pressure to spread joy and happiness, even if they don't feel that way.  This leads to people to the uncomfortable situation of having to fake the holiday spirit or withdrawing from them all together.

I have come to accept that mine are the minority views and do my best to just try and direct my own actions toward what I know are the important parts of the season.  Doing for others.  Keeping family at the forefront, and making sure that I keep the birth of Christ a part of my holiday.

A Little Politics and Baseball

In my universe, summer is a time for decompression.  This has been especially true for this summer.  I have spent some time observing the world and some of the things that been going on in the world.  So I am going to just pass on some thoughts about what is going on in the world.

• Living in Virgina, has long made me proud of the level of professionalism in government.  I worked in government for 20+ years and always found that even with the patrician nature of folks in the General Assembly, and the "Virginia Way" of doing things, that there was always an ethical standard and an adherence to doing things the right way.  In recent years, I have seen the creeping of unsavory things into the state.  We had a legislator, a major player in his party, convicted of trading his influence into a paid gig with a school that benefited from a piece of legislation he sponsored.  Today, I read about a state agency that seems to believe that laws and regulations do not apply to them.  All of this leads to our Governor's current plight.
• Since the beginning of the year, Governor McDonnell has been suffering what I have called "death by a million paper cuts."  Allegations have seeped out about the Governor's unusual friendship with a corporate CEO that has seen his wife getting shopping sprees on 5th Ave., $15,000 for his daughter's wedding reception, $124,000 in loans on real estate, jet flights and tickets to Final Four games among others.  Now I don't have a lot of friends, but I do know that all of my friendships are balanced.  What the Governor might be beholden for, I have no clue,  I just feel that there has to some kind of tit for tat.  It will be interesting to see what the Federal investigations that are ongoing.  
• I also find it frustrating that McDonnell in two statewide campaigns always spoke of his frugality and traditional values.  His behavior in this matter sure looks like an upward grasping person.
• Moving on to the world of sports.  I am not sure what to make of the latest PED use in baseball, and don't know who is guilty and what has been done.  I do know that I find the case of Ryan Braun to be quite humorous.  He gets off in 2011 because of a chain of custody problem and he trumpets his innocence and his vindication saying he never used and his name was clean.  Fast forward to July 2013 and he meekly submits to a 65 game suspension for PED use.  It is just another example of the arrogance and hubris that seems to be epidemic in our culture.
• No, I don't have an opinion on the Trayvon Martin death case.  It is always the case that every one with the means to put on a high quality defense stands a far better chance of being acquitted.  But that has always been the case.

Random Stuff 3/26/13

This post started out as an end of the year collection of things I have learned, but obviously that post never got finished.  So I am choosing to continue it and append the post.They are in no particular order since this is a stream of conscious exercise.

• I am proud to be a teacher, and will continue to try to be a positive impact on young people in spite of not always being successful.  My personal measure of success is that all of my students pass the class and the state mandated test.
• I am proud of being a member of the VEA and appreciate the services they provide their members. (No folks, we do not have the power to bargain collectively.)
• That while we think we have advanced beyond previous generations, we are still motivated by the same base animal urges as always.
• I have tried to watch fewer television program with killings in them since December.  I am disturbed with how many movies and TV shows either have a murder as the premise for the story, or will have a killing in the story.
• College football realignment runs the risk of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
• The best thing you can do when life brings sorrow to others is to just be there when they ask and to pray.
• Having snow days that start before Halloween and continue after Palm Sunday makes for a long winter.
• College basketball is more interesting when the pace is quick and team know how to shoot.
• I enjoy the fact neighborhood kids take advantage of the hills in my yard for sledding.  Having grown up with a neighbor who would not allow us to step in his yard, I never want to be that kind of neighbor.
• As a teacher, I know that it is important to look at all data measurements of student performance.  My concerns come with how effective these data measurements are when students have no accountability for the assessments that are being used as measurements.

Basketball Jones - Not So Much Anymore

For many years, I have been a college basketball junkie.  As I have in the past admitted, I even chose my college because of hoops.  In recent years my passion has cooled, but I still love the NCAA Tournament.  I am particularly enthralled be those early round games.  It has always done my heart good to see those teams that are not from the power conferences.  The tournament gives smaller schools like the one in my home town a chance to make a name for itself and engenders excitement all across the country.

Sadly, the game that I used to watch with such a passion throughout the season, has serious issues that have damaged the product on the court.  The problems include the AAU system and the "me" attitude that it fosters.  Another problem in the tremendous lack of fundamental skills seen in young players.  This is compounded by the physical nature of the way game is being played.  Then throw in the "one and done" phenomena.  All have led to a diluted product that makes many games unwatchable.

Now a days, the AAU system is where most of the D-1 talent hones their skills.  Most teams are star based, and the development of basic skills is not a priority.  This has led to players who may be able to get their shot, but the deterioration of the team aspect of the game.  (I will save any conversation about AAU coaches who pimp out these players and live off of the revenue these kids generate from shoe companies for others.  Suffice it to say that the whole system is corrupt.)

If you go to any gym in the country and watch kids shoot and play hoops, the first thing you see is kids hoisting up threes all over the place.  Yeah, I understand the simple math that shooting 35% of threes is the same as hitting half of your twos.  What I see is kids who have no business shooting the three throwing them up out of the context of an offense.  This leads to the opponents playing zone defenses.  Sadly, these kids are not taught how to effectively attack a zone with in the context of their offense.  The things that seem to suffer are the idea of passing the ball effectively, moving without the ball and taking what the opposing team will give you.  To my way of seeing things, a lot of what passes as good defense these days  is lack of fundamental skills.  The shooting statistics bear this out for me.  Scoring is down, as are shooting percentages.

I am astounded when I watch a game how physical play has become.  The pushing, shoving and hand checking amaze me.  When officials are asked about the physical nature of the game, they say that if they call all fouls that games will become ever longer.  Now coaches teach things like how to make contact with their chest so they won't get caught reaching.  Unfortunately the more physical the play becomes, the more the problems with lack of fundamental skills show up.

At the highest levels of college hoops, the "one and done" players add to the lack of continuity in the most elite programs.  As a long time Kentucky fan, I am quite turned off by the mercenary nature of the program.  For me, part of the joy of cheering for a team was watching players grow and develop of three or four years.  For me there is no feeling of connection year to year between fan and program.  I know that most UK fans do not share this concern as long as the Cats are winning..  What I would love to see is the NCAA, adopt the same standard they have for baseball.  A player can declare and be drafted out of high school, but if they sign a college letter of intent, they will not be eligible for the draft until they have completed three years of eligibility.

I know that there are quite a few folks out there that voice the same concerns.  The problem is that the NCAA is such a dysfunctional organization, and the money train is so full that there are few who are willing to implement the changes necessary.  So I will watch less and less hoops, and focus on the excitement that is the tournament.

The Culture of Narcissism

In college, I was required to read Christopher Lasch "The Culture of Narcissism."  Lasch's premise was that the culture of our country was devolving into one where people were in constant need of external validation.  I was struck then, in the late 1970s that this was on offshoot of the previous decade, and a society that was looking to find itself.  This was all in the context of political theory.  (Ah, the benefits of a liberal arts education.)

Yeah, I know if you read me regularly that deep social theory is not my usual wheelhouse.  Bear with me, I am using this as a jumping off point for the kinds of stuff that is more in keeping with my usual line of thought.

The narcissist has an inflated view of self and their value in the world.  In our modern technological age, the narcissist has unlimited opportunities to be seen and heard.  (I just posted what I had for supper on Twitter.)  We want everyone to know what we are doing, thinking, feeling etc. (I just updated my Facebook status to show I'm writing a new blog entry.)

Reality TV has created a whole new sub-species of narcissist:  The Fame Whore.  These folks just bounce from reality show to reality show seeking their next 15 minutes of fame.  I found it incredibly ironic when during the Republican primaries in Iowa, candidates courted the support of a reality star whose only claim is that he has pimped out his wife and 19 kids.  Now I see that they are back with another season where they are going to go to Asia and be ignorant Americans.

The other narcissistic sub-genres that baffle me are the ones that that either truck in human misery, or human stupidity.  Those shows that profit from folks with psychological disorders and addictions truly turn my stomach.  Those shows that pretend to portray "real" life with subcultures of our country are offensive in their own way.  These shows feed on the narcissism of people who have an almost pathological need for attention.

Just look around you every day and you will see people who feel that everything that they say and do is worth our noting.  Just keep your eyes peeled, and you will see examples big and small.  From the adult who feels it is crucial to be seen in the coolest and latest stuff to the kid playing rec league basketball celebrating when they it a shot.  They are all saying LOOK AT ME, I'M SPECIAL.