Slumps are nothing.

A few weeks ago, as the global pandemic was beginning to make itself known here in the US, my son learned that his baseball career was over. He played college baseball at Missouri Western University. This was his final year of collegiate baseball. He knew this was his final season, and he had made peace with that. He is ready to graduate in May and move on with his life. But no one, least of all him, saw things ending the way they did. It was not a hit nor walk nor strikeout...a win or a loss...it was a virus that brought his career, and that of thousands of other collegiate athletes, to an abrupt end. This was the end of a journey that started many years ago, in our backyard.

A little boy learning to hit a ball. This has been repeated millions of times since the invention of baseball in the early 1800's. Fathers...mothers...sons...daughters....a bat and a ball.
Baseball is a ruthless game. It is failure with small bursts of success sprinkled in. At every level, failure is the norm. Yet it is a game that we love none-the-less. And Jack took to it immediately and never let it go. From that time to now, it has been a big part of his life. I couldn't even begin to calculate the number of swings, ground balls, fly balls, etc etc he has taken and fielded. And of course there is weight training, film study, and team building.
There is also injury, disappointment, politics, and rivalry. The little boy above had surgery on his knee in 2016 and suffered life-threatening pulmonary embolisms afterwards. All for baseball.

I too have a few baseball scars...taking line drives off my chins that I could not block coming off his bat. Getting hit hurts! But we kept going.
To say I am proud of him is an understatement. Regardless of batting average or any other baseball metric, I am most proud of his dedication, resilience, and work ethic. And his sportsmanship. He gives back to others and uses his talent to lift others up.
I remember a time when he was in a slump and looking for anything to get out of it. It is a helpless feeling for a player to go from hitting everything the pitcher throws to not being able to hit anything!
He kept at it...kept grinding and trying...and finally he connected for a home run to break the slump. He signed the ball and gave it to me.

"To Dad...slumps are nothing"

Puma's voltaic healing, Shostakovich makes me edgy and the Nature of Daylight

A couple of weeks ago, two things happened almost simultaneously that I knew I needed to write about. I got sick. I came down with a low grade fever, chills, and body ache. Earlier that same day, I was reading old newspapers and saw an advertisement circa 1888 about a belt that claimed to use voltaic electricity to heal a variety of illnesses and ailments, Electricity was a new revelation at the end of the nineteenth century and people explored the possibility that it could cure many of the diseases that inflicted many people. So later that night, as I crawled into bed and covered up in a super warm fleece blanket, Puma the cat followed me. This big blanket was covering part of my head and all my upper torso. The lights were out. Cheryl was sleeping in Ethan's room so I could have our bed to myself to try and get over this bug. I felt Puma take a stand in the middle of the blanket by my head and she started kneading her claws vigorously. She was also purring loudly. She leaned over me and her nose touched my nose. POW. A blast of static electricity cracked us. I opened my eyes. Puma kept kneading and I was treated to a laser light show of static "voltaic" electric all around this blanket. And....I kid you not....I started to feel better. This little cat somehow knew I didn't feel well. And she said, "just relax and let me take care of you old man." The sparks were green and yellow. They crackled. I fell asleep. and when I awoke, I felt better. A lot better. Coincidence? I think not. Puma's voltaic healing I say.

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My latest listening project was the 16 string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich...1-16 in sequence. It took me four days...so four per day! It rewired my brain for sure. DS is a legit genius. Conflicted, tormented,  razor focused, yet open to exploration. comical, and dark. I noticed that Puma the cat was on edge after the first day. DS's tonality, voicing, and phrasing is world class. But it's not always so easy on the ears. It stimulates a response in the brain that triggers edginess. Unforgettable and clever. A great musical journey...highly recommended. and it requires more than one pass, so I will do this again soon.
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I landed on the music of Max Ricther last year when I wrote about his soundtrack for the movie Hostiles. Last week I heard On the Nature of Daylight for the first time on Sirius XM Radio. This comes from his album The Blue Notebooks. I almost had to pull off to the side of the road to compose myself.