Moments of Joy

Sit Rep

Monday, July 25^th:  it’s “Christmas in July” day – if that’s a thing for you.   Here’s the daily gas report.  For all those worried about inflation:  the cheapest gas within ten miles is $3.70, down over a dollar from two months ago (Sam’s Club).  And if you want to know a more “average” price, look here in Pataskala, the home of all those little Amazon vans driving the fuel demand up. It’s $4.29 just down the street, almost sixty cents more than Sam’s, but still down from the $5.00 mark –  Merry Christmas. 

Forty percent of the current inflationary pressure is from fuel costs.  So fuel going down is a good thing, even if you don’t drive.  It’s likely to mean that other prices will start to come down a bit as well.  But prices are “sticky”, they go up easier than they come down.  Everyone along the chain is happy to take a little bit more profit for a bit.  So don’t expect the price on sliced cheese or bread to drop right away, but it’ll happen eventually.

On the News

The cable news feels like all-Trump, all-the-time again.  The powerful information coming from the January 6^thCommittee is driving a lot of that, but in the back of my head I still hear the warnings of 2015.  Donald Trump said it; “(I)t’s better to be bad news than no news”.  His goal was to keep his name “up front”, that was his definition of “winning”.  On that basis, he’s definitely winning right now.  I had the forlorn hope that after the Biden inauguration somehow Trump would be like that “old soldier” and fade away.  But that won’t happen.  Instead, the United States must have a “truth and reconciliation” moment with the reality of not only Trump, but all of the ugliness he dredged up in American life.  

It’s not that he created anything, but he altered the “environment” to allow so much of that ugliness to the surface.  What was unacceptable behavior just a decade ago, now seems to be just fine.  Drive down Main Street in my Pataskala – and see the “F**K BIDEN” flags hanging on the porches.  People may have thought that about Bush or Obama, but they didn’t put it on the front porch for every eight-year-old to see.  

It’s Personal

I heard a bit of Pete Buttigieg’s interview from the Sunday news shows.  When asked how he felt about the Republican Congressmen who voted against putting gay marriage into actual law (instead of depending on the Supreme Court), he had an interesting answer.  Pete is gay,  married to Chasten, and they have two young children.  The Secretary of Transportation described how on Sunday morning he gave Chasten a break, and took care of the children’s breakfast.  It was a typical young parent scene:  the high chair tray wasn’t sitting just right, and Pete was trying to keep the cereal in the tray, as he sliced bananas and got milk ready.

He testified to Congress on Friday about highway funds and other transportation issues.  It was a bipartisan discussion:  Republicans and Democrats alike want the roads in their districts fixed.  Everyone was working together.  Then the Republicans he was working with, left that meeting and went to the floor of the House to vote against Pete’s marriage, against his family and against his life choices.  For him, and for many, it’s not just politics; it’s personal.

Courage under Fire

I also got to see snippets of Liz Cheney’s Sunday interview on Fox News.  There are few substantive political issues where I could say we agree, but she is absolutely a woman of courage.  The Fox commentator claimed that the Committee was unfair, without “real” Republican representation.  Point by point, Cheney laid out why “those” Republicans chose not to be a part of that process, and how the committee today was a result of that abrogation of duty.  And she made a telling point:  did anyone really think that former Attorney General Bill Barr or the other witnesses would somehow “wilt” under a Jim Jordan or Matt Gaetz “cross examination”?  That didn’t seem likely.

Sunday on the Track

So Sunday was not necessarily and “uplifting” day for me.  That is, until Sunday night.  It was the final night of the World Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon.  Hayward Field has been the center of American track since the 1970’s, and Oregon alumni Phil Knight, Chairman of Nike, has made sure that the new facilities there are the best in the world. 

I was a head track coach, and like a father of a family, I had to love every event “equally”.  No kid on my team could feel that I didn’t care about their efforts and struggles.  But I have to admit, there were two events that always had my focus:  the pole vault, and the 4×400 relays.  And last night, for the final night of competition, was the finals in both of those events.

The United States Track team has been disappointing for a number of years.  Part of that is the world “catching up” with American track and field.  Eight athletes from eight different countries may line up for a race, but they all went to college here in the USA; UCLA, or Florida, or Arkansas (and of course, two of this year’s World medalists went to “little” Ashland University, just an hour up the road).  So American coaches and advantages are shared worldwide.

But the Tokyo Olympics were truly disappointing for the US team.  Only seven gold medal winners, and 26 total medals in the games just felt like a huge letdown, matching the silence of the pandemic Tokyo stadium.

Tracktown, USA

Hayward Field was the exact opposite these last two weeks.  The stands were packed, with seating strategically placed to support individual events venues within the stadium.  And the crowd was “stoked” and knowledgeable.  They (including some of my good friends – just a little jealous) knew when it was time to listen, and when it was time to cheer as hard as they could.

And the US team came through, thirteen golds and a record thirty-three total world medals.  Last night, was a perfect ending.  The American men literally ran away with the 4×400, the team coaches perfectly putting the right athlete in the right position.  A collegian ran the anchor leg, far out ahead of the rest of the field, to bring the baton home.  The best runner, 400 world champion Michael Norman, ran second, hammering out a lead that the rest of the field could never overcome.

And on the women’s side, they US made a last minute change as they came to the starting line.  Former 400 hurdle world record holder Dalilah Muhammad was injured during warmup.  Dublin, Ohio native Abby Steiner stepped in at the last minute to run the second leg of the race.  The US had the lead from the start, and Abby ran one of her best splits to hold up her end.  And on the final leg was perhaps the fastest woman in the world, current 400 hurdle record holder Sydney McLaughlin. She literally ran seconds faster than any other woman in the field to bring the baton home for gold.

The Final High

And what about the pole vault?  The American, Chris Nielsen, cleared 19’5” to earn the silver medal.  But it was twenty-two year old Mondo Duplantis, the pole vaulting prodigy raised in Louisiana and vaulting for Sweden, who took the gold.  He ended the night, and the championships, by clearing a height higher than any man had cleared before, 20’4 ½”.  That vault broke his own world record, and while it’s hard to see him wrapped in a Swedish flag instead of the Stars and Stripes, the Hayward Field crowd cheered just as loudly.   

For just a moment, politics weren’t front and center.  Sometimes we need some moments of joy, to interrupt our world.  The track championships had all that and more, a Christmas in July for me.