‘Trade Wind’

I didn't think that tarmac at Miami International would mean such a thing! Oh Melissa you are the start of me! Jessica you too! As if I had those options! A wind westwad bound blew from Nassau, Only to find me as I was leaving toward home In Alabama I can't replicate my childhood in this bastard city, they call the .'Magic 'City!' Edge of North America, headed out Morrocco way, asunder the Atlantic! Those trade winds blew across the Bermuda Triangle......... As if Miami had a say, attempting to convince me my childhood never traveled away....... It was July.......1999!

Time Tested Regimen To Crucify That Stubborn Fat Around The Front & Flanks Of The Torso (A Six Week Experiment)

On June 1st I told myself I'd get off of sugar and fried foods. I'd also nix the carbs while keeping my three year commitment to intermittent fasting that has worked some but not allowING me to really define my abdominal muscles like I wanted. In other words the fasting schedule was blunted by all of the sweets I'd eat mostly after dinner each night. Here is a day to day schedule of how I lost 15 pounds over a six week period this summer. Starting June 1st-July 15th Monday: skip breakfast as usual. "No skin damage special, sleepy eyed regimen" (Because aging and melanoma are real) MONDAY: 5:00 a.m. Gadsden YMCA back parking lot: (3x sets on all activities) truck tire lift, jog to old Convention Hall and start out on lowest step doing 20 incline pushups, back peddle down hill to side of building then 3/4 sprint up it and then half sprint jog to YMCA back parking lot. Sit on truck tire and do 20 abdominal 'jack knifes' then do 20 pushups with feet on a truck tire while each hand is on a closed water bucket set 24 inches apart. Repeat 3 times making incline more challenging on steps at Convention Hall by going higher up each set. TUESDAY: 4:00 p.m. Gadsden State Community College Back Soccer Complex: sprint up left side of a chosen soccer field from goal to goal. Walk from one side to the other behind the goal and then jog half speed back to opposing goal where you started moving in a perfect square. GO NONSTOP FOR 22 MINUTES. go home and stretch, trampoline jumps or do yoga afterwards WEDNESDAY: 5:00 a.m. Open water swim from Jack Ray Park on the Coosa (start at pier go parallel to I-459 Bridge to other side. Swim up river going north for length of 4 football fields and then swim back across to Gadsden side, then down to the fishing pier with swim fins for abdominal core strength and endurance. Also, do same regimen at the new Southside City Pier across from Rainbow City Docks swimming across to 'shanty piers' and north up river then back down south ending at new pier and parking lot. (Alternate sites one week for another). 3X resistance training in afternoon with kettle bells (5 squats and flat back bench presses and in between leg swings 3x sets with 26 lbs. then 16 KG then 24 KG) THURSDAY: Either soccer field sprint as on Tuesday or cardio variety interval training at the bottom of 'The Hill' at Gadsden State by Wallace Hall, Striplin Elementary or Eura Brown Elementary using play ground equipment if needed. 30 seconds of stand in place air boxing, 30 seconds of in place 'knee ups' or jogging up the steps or hill and back down to bottom or jumping jacks or side shuffles around the parking lot and side walk for 30 seconds. Repeat between uppper body movement (air boxing) lower body movement (running, jumping jacks or side shuffles) for 22 minutes nonstop. FRIDAY: 3X resistence training at work in during down time in office as was done on Wednesday. Open water swim for 1/2 - 1- 2 miles (whatever your stamina is that day) alternating sites between Lake Wedowee Marina docks, Lake Guntersville State Park, Smith Lake, Weiss Lake, Little River Dam in Mentone, Oak Mt. State Park and Terrapin Creek deep channels from water fall.) REMEMBER THE SWIM FINS FOR CORE TRAINING. DIETING: MONDAY: BREAKFAST WATER OR GREEN TEA. LUNCH: Meat such as sardines, salmon or organic turkey/chicken with a variety salad mixed with brussel sprouts, kale, spinach and any other green leafy vegetable you can find. Brown rice or baked chips DINNER: Repeat Low or no carb cycle similar to lunch. Substitute monk fruit for sugar to sweeten teas. TUESDAY: MEATS AND VEGGIES ONLY FOR LUNCH AND DINNER.....................NO CARBS AND SUGARS AT ALL! WEDNESDAY: SAME EXACT DIET AS MONDAY ADDING IN LOW CARBS FOR MUSCLE GROWTH FROM RESISTANCE TRAINING! THURSDAY: SAME EXACT DIET AS TUESDAY WITH NO CARBS ALLOWED! FRIDAY: SPLURGE DAY OPPORTUNITY (EAT GOOD OLE SOUTHERN FRIEND FOODS AND GET THAT CAKE AND CANDY BAR.....HAVE THAT SWEET TEA OR COKE) SATURDAY: THIS CAN BE A SPLURGE DAY AS WELL IF YOU HAVE A HIGH METABOLISM BUT IF YOU'VE SPLURGED ON FRIDAY GO BACK TO THE NO CARB PROTEIN AND PLANT DIET OF TUESDAY AND THURSDAY. A DAY I USUALLY EAT A PROTEIN BAR AND LIQUID SHAKE FOR BOTH MEALS. QUIT EATING AT 6:00 P.M. SUNDAY: SKIP BREAKFAST AND LUNCH IF YOU CAN AND EAT A WELL ROUNDED DINNER WITH PROTEINS, LIGHT CARBS AND VEGGIES. I USUALLY COOK MY SOUPS ON THIS DAY FOR THE WEEKEND. I USUALLY EAT POPCORN AND EAT SOME MOVIE CANDY AND TREAT MYSELF TO A MOVIE ON MY DVD IF I DON'T EAT A TRADITIONAL MEAL. KEY: BUY AN 'ICE PACK' BELT AND FREEZE YOUR ABDOMINAL AND FLANK FAT FOR 30 MINUTES OR MORE ON SUNDAY NIGHTS. AFTERWARD, MASSAGE AREAS OF STUBBORN FAT CELLS FOR 1 MINUTE AROUND THE TORSO TO FURTHER REMOVE FAT DEPOSITS THAT THE COLD EXPOSURE HAS SHRUNK (IT COMES OUT IN URINE, SWEAT AND DEFECATION THE NEXT FEW DAYS. HYDRATE WITH EITHER SPRING WATER OR GREEN TEA THAT NIGHT AFTERWARD BEFORE BED AND THEN DRINK 7 OR SO CUPS OF WATER THE MONDAY AFTER THE SUNDAY FAT FREEZE. NEVER EXPOSE YOUR SKIN DIRECTLY TO THE COLD PACKS. USE THE BELTS LEATHER FOR PROTECTION. TRY ALL OUTDOORS ACTIVITY IN EARLY MORNING OR LATE AFTERNOON TO AVOID HEAT AND SUN EXPOSURE. WHERE SUN RESISTANT CLOTHING WHEN POSSIBLE. I'VE HAD TWO PRE CANCER MOLES REMOVED.......IT'S TERRIFYING TO SIT AND WAIT ON THE RESULTS. BE SMART!!!!! FALL: DISTANCE SWIMMING IN COOLING WATER UNTIL MID NOVEMBER! (SWIM SEASON IS NOW OVER BY THANKSGIVING) WINTER TIME: SAME DIET ADDING SLIGHTLY MORE CARBS WHILE WALKING UP HILLS IN SHORTS AND A T-SHIRT (WOMEN) SHORTS AND NOTHING ELSE (MEN) 3 TIMES PER WEEK.

Trying To Please Anyone But Yourself Can Make You Look Ridiculous When Things Go Wrong

I sit here on my second day of having a moderate allergic reaction to some anti aging, anti wrinkle face cream I purchased from Walgreens last weekend. The word 'weekend' is the operative word here. As I look like a white version of the 'Weekend' from one of his videos where he's been assaulted in the face. No, my allergic reaction is not the full puffy faced look one gets from getting stung by five insects type. No, it's more of the streaky kind you get where it's evident where you rubbed in the cream. It's streaky and spotty as if I got into a bar brawl or bike wreck. It's store brand, Loreal for Pete's sake! I look like a bit of an idiot. I feel like an even bigger one. I've recently, changed my diet for the better and have experimented with a more inclusive diet of herbs like dandelions. I thought it could have been that. I even went through my refrigerator this morning tossing out the herbs I'd picked naturally in the forests behind my home. But, after looking in the mirror this morning and reviewing my 'frankenstein' like appearance, I'm seeing the same pattern of where I rubbed in the cream, in the welts, and where they are located. After two days I'm realizing the culprit is my bent toward trying to look years younger than I do. IT'S MY OWN VANITY! Reader, I'm not alone-I bet you've done the same, are doing the same or will do the same in your life. That being, doing something potentially harmful to your health or reputation to please the world around you.................at your expense. Many times there may not be any repurcussions. But, boy, when there are..............look out! There will be eventually. Trying to impress the wrong person for attention they will never give you. Wearing something, or wearing not enough of something to attract attention, that makes you look ridiculous. Taking a supplement that ruins your health for a time (been there......done that). Doing something physically dangerous or just writing or saying something...................where the world around you goes GONG! GET OFF OF THE STAGE! (I'm old enough to remember the hit 70's and 80' show THE GONG SHOW!) In laymen's terms..............trying to impress a world that will burn up one day when God comes back to set things right. Trying to impress people who never saw you as their 'slice of bread.' Trying to impress people who see you as their 'slice of bread' but will be on to the next 'newer slice of bread' as they fill their world with another new idol. Or trying to impress people who hold you in esteem yet will get old as you will and will be too feeble to remember why it all mattered in the first place................then they, you will die and it ALL WON'T MEAN ANY THING AFTERWARD! Then, there will be a whole new set of people in the world who never knew you existed and will be there to start the banal cycle all over again. Sound encouraging right? Of course not! What it is, reader, is a wake up call to live within your means. Yes, do things to improve yourself! There is nothing wrong with that! But, do it to be the best you. Do it with what I've just now dubbed "YOU COMPASSION" and not for a world around you that is so uncaring and fleeting. Do it with a sound judgement where the effort you are making has knowledge that nothing of this world matters in the end. LOVE YOURSELF NOW.......IN ALL YOUR FAULTS AND FLAWS................FOR ARE THEY REALLY FAULTS OR FLAWS IF EVERYONE HAS EM.' IT'S THEN WE SHOULD CALL EM' COMMONALITIES! BECAUSE THAT'S REALLY ALL THEY ARE! Now, if you'll excuse me I'm on my way to get a hardy cortisone shot! Till' next time! Your Sincerest Idiot

Sleep.................................Anxious In Seattle

I've engaged in mission work in several places over the years, both domestically and abroad: West Virginia, Montgomery, AL. Decatur, GA. Odessa, Ukraine, Homestead, FL. Tanzania, Los Angeles and most recently - Seattle, WA. I used to love to travel. I loved airplanes, airports and the thrill of moving to and fro. Seeing all of the humanity here and there. Now, I just like the sensation of taking off. I hate airports, planes in mid air and long distance travel in general. I'm more than likely through with mission projects I cannot drive to. So what happened? What changed? The Seattle job met all of my requirements concerning where I wanted to work. I love west coast communities and have a history of working up and down the coast there. Yet, something happened during my last two assignments that caused me to be anxious with airport navigation. It was a vintage, muggy Alabama April morning in 2019. Dad came into my office to ask me to consider serving in Tanzania for two weeks that following June instead of the one I'd originally signed up for. Our assistant pastor asked my dad to get me to consider the matter. My church knew the staff over there like the back of their hand. There was no reason to believe my traveling halfway across the world alone back home would be an ordeal. We knew the Tanzanian contacts well enough to know they'd be honest and keep me safe during the three hour drive to the airport. What we couldn't count on was my certain entry past the gates at the airport in Tanzania. Our assistant pastor on the project even expressed his worry. There was legitimate fear of being stranded at Kilimanjaro International Airport for a week. Presenting me being a target of boredom, loneliness and possibly crime until the remainder of the team arrived to fly back home. During the week serving in one of the most remote places on earth, I should have been enamored by the escape into 'what really mattered.' But, the time in my mind was a back drop of weakened angst that was a 'soul throb.' Who wanted to live at an airport with no phone service for a week. Then there was the flight through Amsterdam, with potential to get lost or not make my connecting flight back to Atlanta from there. I wouldn't want to be stranded alone there either. It all ended well as prayers were answered at home and with the team concerning my travel back to America alone. Yet, every second of that travel period I was a nervous wreck. I remember taking off from Kilimanjaro and feeling like it was one of the greatest accomplisments I'd produced. I remember feeling so much better to be flying into a more civilized nation where reported terrorist activity was not waiting in a community at a layover airport as is was in Dar-es-Salam, where we flew to out of Kilimanjaro to pick up a few more passengers; before transporting to Holland. In the whole scheme of things all of these events were non issues. My brain chemistry on the matter said otherwise. The worry of that week in the summer of 2019 scarred me enought to give me long term 'airport' specified travel anxiety going forward. Two summers later I thought I'd shaken it. I committed to working in Los Angeles for a week in August of last year. When I got there I felt slightly homesick. No big deal. This was to be expected in traveling alone and showing up somewhere alone, not knowing anyone. I wrestled with it all week out there. Even the team I worked with from Fresno could not alleviate it. I was not isolated, but still felt like it. Sitting at my hotel by Burbank's Bob Hope Airport I was slightly worried about missing my flight until I actually boarded. It was obvious I had developed some lingering phobia from the Tanzanian project plus being stranded in Chicago's Midway in December 2016 during a terrible snow storm. My anxiety was stoked when I almost missed my connecting flight at Dallas-Ft. Worth's International airport after getting an incorrect gate number from a kind, but careless airline stewardess, as we touched down in Texas. Running down the hallways passing gate after gate I looked like O.J. Simpson in one of those 80's rent a car commercials. It was at this time I thought back on that solumn ordeal in Chicago years earlier. I knew with the Seattle project It'd be ABSOLUTELY my last time to travel by flight alone. After all the other flights I stand by that mandate. I even tried to get a friend to go with me, so she could visit her son who lived in Pioneer Square. We'd planned on May, but I wanted to get it over with. Anxiously, I booked for March. I also asked my travel agent from the Tanzania and Los Angeles jobs to AVOID large international airports concerning connecting flights. She stated that, that was not possible. So, we bargained and agreed on Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International as a connecting flight. If any 'monkey business' took place, I could just drive the two hour path back to Alabama by rental car. Sure enough, there was 'monkey business' with three unannounced gate changes......but I was ready with a three hour self mandated layover. TRY NOT TO BOOK A CONNECTING FLIGHT ANYWHERE WITH A SUBWAY! That alone tells you everything you need to know. I wish I could say I enjoyed Seattle, one of the world's most scenic cities. As I got off of the plane at SEA-TAC the Monday to start work I arrived to a gloomy, heavy rain. I was in a strange place again completely alone. I could feel the 'ghosts of travel's past' haunting me before I gave the place a chance. The combination of being alone, being in a cloudy city, day light's savings time and travel history all came together most potently in Seattle than any place I'd flown to. Also, spiritual warfare took place as I was working in ministry. Satan knew I'd be a sitting duck, easily emotionally harassed throughout my week. Seattle hit me harder than any place I'd ever served in! When I got through my work assigments, I visit tourist sites being alleviated slightly from anxiety. Yet, once I was back in my hotel at day's end I'd be anxious again. So anxious in fact, I started developing irrational fears I be kidnapped during rides in taxi cabs to the airport that Friday or to job sites in South Seattle. I had to do several deep breathing sessions the Thursday night before I was to come back to Alabama the next morning. I got to SEA-TAC a whole six hours before my departing flight, AT MIDNIGHT just to be SURE! Sitting in the terminal I checked monitors constantly to MAKE SURE I was at the right terminal. I'd become a solumn 'NUT MAN' in my own silence with a veneer of normalcy, on the outside, but dying on the inside. I had to look back and only laugh at the idea I had earlier on Thursday of arriving at SEA-TAC before sunset so I could have more certainty of my surroundings. A WHOLE 14 HOURS PRIOR TO DEPARTING! I knew that my anxiety had gotten to the point where it had become beyond rational. It had become organic, chemical in nature. It had become a matter of not only being psychological. Reader, the reason I'm writing this time is for mental health awareness. To encourage you that it is alright to be weak at times. It's alright to feel like you're losing control. It's alright to allow what seems to be insignificant scars, add up to the point where they affect you emotionally in key situations. It's alright to pray and to talk to someone if needed. I look back on Seattle post trepidation. I wish I could have been happier, more at peace while serving in such a wonderful place. I come away knowing it humbled me to the point it knocked me off of my feet. Because, of my challenge out there, I'm back home in Alabama an even more merciful and compassionate man! Seattle taught me how to be weak. How to be at the mercy of others once again. How to be at the mercy of myself relying on Christ alone. Please, take seriously the psychological paradigm of: post traumatic stress, being alone, lack of sunlight and season/time change for mental health. Even the most 'healthy' can experience seasons of trouble, if certain dynamics come together at the wrong time. Get help if you feel things getting away from you to quickly. Sincerely, 'Anxious In Seattle"

All Things Being Equal, Go With The Opportunity That Wants You The Most

 I had it all well intended! Los Angeles in 2021 and San Francisco 2022.  That's the way it would be.  I'd do my annual commitment of inner city mission work in both of those communities in alternating years.  At least that is what I'd decided in the fall of 2020.  LA went great in 2021!  I traveled to, worked in and still support that city's Dream Center up until now. I love the west coast and desire to always be a part of it in the most tangible ways I can.

Contacting a ministry in San Francisco in 2020 I had built some familiarity about the opportunity.  It fit my past experiences and 'helping' task profile well.  Yet, something was off. It felt like the people in San Francisco kept putting me off.  Every other request for information would get ignored.  At times all I would get was a patronizing: "you're on our radar, John." Something didn't jell right.  In November of last year, I let a ministry in Seattle into my plans.  It was a place that fit my 'west coast' paradigm, like the other two cities. 

Reaching out to the Seattle opportunity was starkly different than the San Francisco one.  Not only were e-mails responded to and questions answered, I even received a call from the folks in Seattle on a Friday evening two weeks prior to Christmas.  They were calling to encourage me to come out.  Telling me in the slightest of ways: YOU ARE IMPORTANT!

Reader, whether it is a job offer, a romantic liaison/ relationship, educational endeavor or even travel/leisure always chose the opportunity that presents the people 'who want you the most.' In other words, they tell you that YOU ARE IMPORTANT! Slightly, painfully you will find it may not be what you have been envisioning for an innate amount of time. Slightly, disappointingly; it may not have been your first choice.  I have always loved Athens, GA. and it's eclectic, hippy culture and fine music scene.  I have wanted to immerse myself into that communities 'practice' since college by taking enrichment, adult learning courses at the University of Georgia. The University of Tennessee an hour and a half north of Athens in Knoxville, TN offered similar, personalized growth courses.  These were about the only two institutions who had the full set of what I was looking for, respectively.  Cool place to learn for a weekend vs. a place that had 'off the wall' coursework, I needed to make my like better, no one else in America had.  At this point I was more in line with going with the opportunity that satisfied the 'groovy' experience paradigm.  So, the UGA courses where slightly my preference, where I could visit Athens.   Instead of the back-in-forth I'd usually do in my mind I left the dilemma to fate's call of sincerity make the decision for me. I started doing this when I wasn't writing down options, closing my eyes and picking one from a pile and placing it in a fire pit, causing the final option on paper that had not been burned, to be my selected choice.  I knew one would TELL ME I WAS MORE IMPORTANT than the other.  I e-mailed both universities. UT was friendly, personable and helpful.  UGA totally ignored my two e-mails.  It is safe to say I'm now registered for three adult classes for 3 amazing 1 to 4 day sessions with UT throughout 2022.  Sure, it stung a little that UGA behaved as they did.  I'd had Athens on my mind since I visited in the summer of 1999.  Just as it stung a bit for the San Francisco endeavor to go like it did.  Reader, it fortified my conviction that God, fate gave me the opportunities He meant for me to have all along.  I'm certain that with the Seattle and University of Tennessee examples, I will be encapsulated by two new dynamics that will allow me to flourish better than my former preferences. Aligning yourself with opportunities that demonstrate the most affection to you, seems logical-yet it is not easy. It can be tough for us as human to overcome our long held goals, dreams, affections & personal preferences.  Yet, when all things are almost equal-always choose the opportunity that calls your name the loudest with it's desire.  Do this, because we live in a world that is becoming more callous, selfish, crass and untrustworthy each and every day.  Decent people who value you for you and show kindness are becoming a rare and precious commodity. 

By the time you are fully grasping the directive of this letter, I'll be on a plane out of Atlanta on my way to Seattle. to start working in a city for a week that had me on it's dance card, even as I had another.  I've got a feeling we are going to fall in love pretty quickly, regardless that the forecast states HARD RAIN the week I'm there (positively Seattle).  In my bag will probably be one of my two, recently purchased University of Tennessee Volunteer t-shirts.  There is a funny thing that happens when you choose the opportunity that wants you the most.  That being, you loose your infatuation with your slightly more desired preference. 

See you all when I make it back home to 'Bama by April Fool's Day!

J.B.

The Degrading Effect Pop Culture Has Had On Sports Fandom & Why I'm A Soccer Fan Only

 Classic country music singer, Hank Williams Jr. once wrote:  'Too many lawyers in football......baseball's got a few!  At least that's what he sung as my roommate and boyhood friend, Wes Vance, and I smoked cigarettes (Wes) and chewed tobacco (me) on the back porch of our apartment while students at the University of Alabama.  We'd laugh at his hillbilly lyrics, failing to understand how they'd relate to our adult psychology later in life.  Like any person, I'm a dichotomy of contradictions.   I can swoon over some pop culture people we all know and love like anyone else. And I get really disgusted when pop culture treads upon my means of escaping reality in the form of sports. I melt like a school girl every time I turn on old reruns of Miami Vice.  I still think James Sonny Crockett (played by Don Johnson & Rico Tubbs (Played by Philip Michael Thomas) should run for president.  I'll always man crush on most characters played by the late Patrick Swayze.  Particularly his character 'Bodhisattva' in Point Break.  Jaws & Jaws 2 make me gush.  Don't get me started on Slash from Guns & Roses or the group Air Supply..............................................................Yet, then again they are just people..............................or it's all just a make believe world.

Being here in the deep South I loved college football.  I grew up like most little boys loving the NFL.  Something made me fall out of love with those popular past times, although, I still watch for entertainment purposes. The phantom of pop culture.  With the advent of the 24 hour news cycle and idiot clickbait articles begging for attention, it is now hard to find an article about an NFL sports team I check in on without some meaningless mention about a football player's super model, singer or actress girlfriend or wife.  Pro baseball and the NBA to some degree have the same problem, but just not as bad.  The late John Lennon once sang, "I'm just a jealous guy."  But that's not me......I've never really been that way.  There are plenty of super models I think are gifts from God.  There are plenty of pro athletes I want to pursue public office for to protect.  Look at my Twitter and Facebook account and you quickly see I follow a whole lot of actresses.  I like Hollywood.... a lot!  Otherwise I'd not be trying to recruit film projects to my hometown. Here's the THING........I just don't want my escape into my past time (sports fandom is an escape that's why its so popular psychologically) to be intruded upon by the pop culture dynamic I'm trying to escape in the first place. In a episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza shouted......'two worlds collide'......................I don't want those worlds colliding!  After talking to other sports fans............ I know I'm not alone!

The whole paradigm around the recently retired pro football player, Tom Brady, is a shining example of this issue.  I actually wanted him to play until he was fifty.  I loved his attention to perfecting his gift. I loved the fact he was overlooked coming out of college and stuck his middle finger up at all those who overlooked him out of college by being so great.  I wish he was still playing.  I also want to vomit each time grown men worship him because he is married to a supermodel.  Sports talk radio constantly gushed about this. They worshiped the man and his wife for the most unimportant, superfluous reasons.  Is Tom Brady a more physically capable football player than me?........ABSOLUTELY. Am I more capable than Tom Brady in certain other physical or mental endeavors.....YOU BET I AM!  READER......is Tom Brady more physically capable in football than you are........ABSOLUTELY.    READER................are there certain things you can do better than Tom Brady...............YOU BET YOU CAN!

Women........................are you as notable as Tom Brad's super model wife........................probably not!  Female reader..................are you any less important than Tom Brady's super model wife......HELL NO!

Eight years ago I wrote for a sports blog.  I wrote an article, I knew would get me in some hot water with some men and would get me a wink from some others.  It was about that subculture of men who emasculated themselves through sports fandom.  You know those grown men who show up in sports bars wearing a football jersey with another man's name on it.  I did the same thing......WHEN I WAS 10.  The same men who love to read articles about pro athlete's sexy super model, actress girlfriends and worship said athletes and girlfriends.   It pricked a few of my readers.  I remember one time,  during one afternoon in particular, I critically commented on a click bait article about a list of NFL quarterbacks and their 'hot girlfriends.'  What ensued next was some nut from Miami, FL picking a fight with me on Facebook.  Like an idiot I responded and what started at my work desk only ended three hours later over my phone in my living room over a series of counter insulting DM messages on Messenger App.  My girlfriend at the time asked me why in the hell I'd engage in such a thing..........I stated........because I'm a moron!

Reader......these reason all of that happened was because I hit upon a crucial nerve with the 'Miami nut,' and in return the click bait article hit a nerve with me.  There are people in the world who love social hierarchies.  Then there are those who bust 'em up.  They love people they can idolize because it fits into their neat little world of 'they are up there and I'm down here, but I want some people below me.'  Other than being motivated by racism and nationalism, this psychological dynamic was why 'Trumpism' came about.  There will always be emasculated people in life looking for a hero they are too scared to risk becoming themselves. Those people go bat crap crazy when they run across people who love to bust up preconceived social hierarchies. Who believe that all people have a light to shine........that in some way all people are just as important as anyone else.  This notion forces the 'hierarchy' people to perform in life and attempt to become their own superstar!  That makes some people very insecure when they are faced with taking that risk. I just get disgusted each time I read an article that tries to tell me that men are not as important unless they are a star athlete married to a supermodel.  I get pissed off when I read an article that tries to tell the world some women out there is not as important unless she is dating or married to a superstar athlete and is a supermodel. 

I want to read an article that tells me about an honest man who comes home from work to his wife and loves her, for her and does it every damn day of his life......no matter who the hell knows.  I want to read an article of a women who is a single mom or who is not even a mom at all because she decided to plot her own course and pursue a career with hard work, honesty and integrity.  To me these are the everyday superstars I want to follow.  I wish these types of people had their faces on cards I could trade like I did with pro baseball players when I was young. Playing two on two basketball against football players at the University of Alabama or once tutoring a student in Birmingham, AL. who is now the starting punter with the Los Angeles Chargers was what it took for me to demystify 'the athlete 'gaga' and see everyone as everyday people. 

Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego & in March, Seattle.  These are the only cities I'm connected to in some way because I was either educated in or worked in them.  These cities are represented by major league sports teams.  Conventional wisdom would say you need to love the 'Cowboys' 'Rams/Chargers' Lakers etc.   As time goes on I find myself saying I just can't do it anymore.  Save for the Seattle Sounders, the LAFC or Angel City FC.  Soccer is the last sport, at least here in America, where I can truly escape from pop culture bleeding into my sports fandom, telling me I have to be Tom Brady or else. Telling me my future wife is not as valuable as Gisele Bundchen. Because if it wasn't for soccer, I'd just feel like throwing my computer out the window each time I check sports scores.  Major League Soccer, National Women's Soccer League, United Soccer League World Cup.........................I'm now yours!

-JCB

Saved By Sunset

A LITTLE BIT OF WHISKEY A WHOLE LOT OF HARTH WARMS THE SOUL TO ANY POSSIBILTY GOING ANYWHERE IN THIS MOMENT AS THE SUN BOUNCES, SHADOWED OFF OF TREES LEAVES TO SLEEP ANOTHER NIGHT ONLY TO RESURRECT ANOTHER DREAM ITS ALL RIGHT HERE IN THIS MOMENT THERE'S NOTHING ELSE I NEED.