That Super Bowl Party

So, every year, rain or shine or covid, they have this big party, so big they call it the "Super Bowl," and people put quite a bit of store into it.  They spend months and months prior to the party pushing each other back and forth, trying to secure an invitation to the party.  Even though they advertise it as the world's biggest party, they're still pretty dang stingy with the invitations.  

When I was little, pretty much everybody assumed that folks from Dallas would get an invitation to the party, and, sure enough, the years came and went and the folks from Dallas almost always got their all polished-up invitation to this dang stupid party.

In the last few years, though, things have changed.  They're having trouble keeping the lights on in Dallas, and the Senator who's supposed to take care of them just sneaks off to a Mexican beach vacation.  I don't know what happened.  Maybe they're not wearing the right kind of shoes.  Maybe they don't know all the right dances, but it's been a while since folks from Dallas were invited to this party, and they're getting just a little bit sore about it.

Last night, the folks from Dallas got in a scuff-up with some folks from Wisconsin, of all places, hoping they'd get somebody's attention and get invited to this year's Super Bowl party.  Well, it didn't work out that way, and the once mighty folks from Dallas will be staying home and ordering a pizza while the big party goes on.   I'd feel sorry for them, but to tell the truth, Dallas fans were always kind of jerks, so maybe this will help teach them some humility. 

Martin Luther King in Mississippi

Martin Luther King Jr. was told repeatedly it was too dangerous for him to come to Mississippi. Mississippi lead the world in reports of racial violence. Despite the warnings, King did come to Jackson, and spoke in front of the Mississippi State Capitol building in the days leading up to Medgar Evers entering the University of Mississippi.

I'll Love You Forever

 When I woke up, I realized I was dreaming about my mother again.  I was angry at her, in the dream...again.

Mother! Mother! Where are you?  I'm here all alone.  I've been calling and calling for you.  Mother! Where are you?  Why aren't you here with me?

Grief doesn't manifest itself very well in me.  Neither does love.  I asked my mother once why she only ever attended three or four out of the countless theater performances I was involved in, and she said, "Because you never told me they were happening."  I don't accept love well.  I guess, I feared she wouldn't go if I told her, so I never told her.  

In a world where nothing lasts, complete love and complete surrender to another person seems fairly cruel.  It's not just that we were given and then taken away that makes it cruel, but that we were given, then made to feel we could never do without, and then taken away.  I am convinced there's a fairly large number of people who only believe in heaven because there's someone they miss so much that the only way they can bear it is with the belief that they will be reunited one day.  

Mother!  Mother?   Where are you?  You said you'd be here, but you're not.  

My mother loved the book, "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw.

Softly she sings to him:
"I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always
As long as I'm living
My mommy you'll be."

Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Theme from the TV Series)

50 years ago, this weekend, after the successful Night Stalker movie, ABC begins the weekly televised stories of Karl Kolchack, investigating the unknown.  Among other things, the series would influence and inspire the creation of The X Files, 25 years later.  The haunting whistling leading into the tension-filled musical theme for the show still gives me goosebumps.