HAPPY NEW YEAR
As we embark on yet another year of promise, I took some time to reflect on the current state of things.
So here’s my end of year musings: a brain dump of my state of the state
First, Stop what are you doing to the game of football?
It seems the public at large thinks football is too dangerous?
And that players are too socially irresponsible?
Last time I checked, it’s supposed to be a violent game. Dancing is a contact sport!
Football is a collision sport! Strap it on, suck it up, and prepare to go to battle!
The players that choose to participate know that. They get paid a lot of money to perform on a humongous stage and recklessly throw their bodies around.
The players who choose to partake in this war know the sacrifice and pain they will endure.
Leave the game alone! Stop with the whistles, the replays, the he hit too hard penalties! Men are supposed to be men!
If you want me to spend a fortune to attend a game, and cheer the battle, give me what I want, not this watered down, over officiated, watered down sludge that the game is becoming.
I think football is now becoming the new boxing.
I’m not sure which is more insane, the celebration after a play, even when you are down late in the game, or the complaining after every play by players and coaches, or the celebration penalties after the team has scored? ....and every play is either a penalty or a review!
In reality, the real issue is the message our kids are getting from all of this. I’m not sure that sports were created way back to develop the art of the complaint, or to mold soft, rules driven performers. Sports mold character, strength, relationships, and toughness. Let's get back to that!
Record Stores are Back
Hey, don’t look now but vinyl has made a comeback, and I love it.
Pay phones, toll collectors, and bookstores have all fading, but the old record store seems to be on the upswing. Hooray,! Maybe my collection will be heard again! Unfortunately, tellers, cashiers…and even checkout stations…are about to be extinct. Seems jobs that actually service the public and have human interaction are disappearing. What does that say about our society?
Have we seen the last of big-box retailers?
We’ve got restaurants, drug stores, fast food, grocery stores, yoga studios and gyms. But big retailers? Nope. Amazon and the rest of e commerce has changed that. We've seen the last of the small boutique shops. Even Wal-Mart is closing some locations. This can't be good.
Which thought will prevail?
Why shop in the store when I can easily buy online?
OR
I love the fun and art of shopping.
I used to look forward to going to a store and looking around. Something tells me this new trend isn’t a good thing.
Some more thoughts
Do driver-less cars mean you can work a little more before getting to the office?
Do we really need driver less cars? I mean really?
Is it too hard to drive?
Baseball is getting more popular than ever. It may help if they can cut down the time of games to between 2 – 2 ½ hours! If the NFL isn’t careful, MLB will again compete with the NFL as the most popular sport in the country. I wonder why?
Hmmm, maybe we are again ready to watch a sport where we can talk to each other during it, cheer at the appropriate times, and see the players perform without endless officiating delays to review plays that are trivial to the big picture.
Maybe the silver lining with the elections, forgetting all the rhetoric, is that we have been talking about politics and world issues in the last six months more than we have in years. We may be able to get somewhere in the future. This election was being talked about in classrooms! Maybe we will see a lot more people voting and there will be a lot more people aware of what's going on in politics.
I don’t think we should underestimate social media. Kids should be taught more about the real-world consequences they can suffer for doing something really stupid online, and while we are at it, maybe we can stop giving everyone participation trophies. Let’s go back to rewarding accomplishment not just showing up.
What are your thoughts?