9.10.2024 – sang a song they brought …

sang a song they brought …
this tune always reminds me
of these buoyant days …

Winston Churchill wrote a 6 volume auto biography of his time as British Prime Minister during World War 2.

The 2nd volume, Their Finest Hour, covers the year 1940.

The Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic and the war in the deserts of North Africa.

In describing the success of some Australia units fighting in the desert, Mr. Churchill writes:

To complete this episode of desert victory, I shall intrude upon the New Year. The attack opened early on January 3. One Australian battalion, covered by a strong artillery concentration, seized and held a lodgment in the western perimeter. Behind them engineers filled in the anti-tank ditch. Two Australian brigades carried on the attack and swept east and southeastward. They sang at that time a song they had brought with them from Australia which soon spread to Britain.

Reading this, I am sure you might be thinking of some song of Australian origin, Waltzing Matilda or … or … well, when talking about songs of Australian origin, I guess that’s it.

Doesn’t matter because that is not where Mr. Churchill was going.

And I bet if I offered you $100 and 100 guesses you would not come up with the words Mr. Churchill recorded in his book.

“Have you heard of the wonderful wizard,
The wonderful Wizard of Oz,
And he is a wonderful wizard,
If ever a wizard there was.”

So he got the words a little wrong.

I have always heard that the single most influential movie of all time is the Wizard of Oz but this was a new look for me.

Mr. Churchill then goes on to say, “This tune always reminds me of these buoyant days. By the afternoon of the 4th, British tanks “Matildas” as they were named—supported by infantry, entered Bardia, and by the 5th all the defenders had surrendered. Forty-five thousand prisoners and 462 guns were taken.“

From what I read, Mr. Churchill ‘wrote’ by dictating to stenographers as he figured out passages of prose.

Also, from what I have read, he like to have an audience as he dictated as it gave him more of a feel for an audience.

Also, he liked to work late at night in his library.

So the scene that comes to mind is the image of Winston Churchill, cigar in hand, singing “We’re of to see the Wizard … The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” as he replays in his mind, the story of World War 2.

Now think of all the songs of World War 2.

Think what songs brought back memories.

For Mr. Churchill?

As he write, “This tune always reminds me of these buoyant days.”

9.9.2024 – the Lions simply

the Lions simply
refuse to fold – the Lions …
they simply refuse

From the article, What we learned in NFL Week 1: in the New York Times.

Under the heading, Detroit still as gritty as ever.

The Lions backed up their wild-card victory over the Rams back in January with a 26-20 overtime win Sunday night. This was a terrific opener between two teams that figure to be players in the NFC playoff race later this season and another reminder of what makes Dan Campbell’s team so tough to play: The Lions simply refuse to fold.

I have been following the Detroit Lions as long as I can remember.

And as long as I can remember no one – NO ONE – has ever used the words The Lions simply refuse to fold in a story about their game day performance.

This is the team that snatched defeat from the the jaws of victory more times than I can count.

This is the team that produced a high light film of GREAT FIRST DOWNS in LIONS HISTORY … and there weren’t many of them.

Forgive me, but I got to repeat it one more time.

The Lions simply refuse to fold.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE …

No one I know would have enjoyed that win more and few people have waited longer to hear the words The Lions simply refuse to fold than my friend since kindergarten, Richard Derby.

Richard left us earlier this year and there aren’t a lot of people who have known me in this life longer than he did.

He was in my kindergarten class at Crestview Elementary in Grand Rapids, Michigan and he sat next to me in the very last class I took at Grand Rapids Junior College before I left town.

It’s a bit silly, I know, to worry about sports teams but I feel pretty good that I know Richard’s view on the things that really count so I am comfortable to say that Richard would have enjoyed the game last night.

He would have enjoyed it a lot and felt bad for Matt Stafford at the same time.

I just want to say that when David Montgomery went into the end zone to win the game, I thought of my friend Richard.

Haven’t talked to you in years but miss knowing you were around buddy.

As the feller said of George Gershwin when he died, “I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to.”

9.8.2024 – I kinda feel bad

I kinda feel bad
I kinda feel good there are
other fans who feel worse

The last time the University of Michigan football team lost a game was back in 2022.

Until yesterday.

They lost and lost badly to the University of Texas at Austin.

The lost so badly that I felt bad – not bad bad, but downish in a goofy for what it’s all about way, bad.

Back when I was in college one of my roommates was from Ann Arbor and his folks would invite us over to their house for lunch and watch the game on Saturdays when Michigan had an away game.

After a game that saw Michigan lose to Illinois, my roommate’s Mom looked out the window and said that now she wouldn’t be able to read the Sunday Morning papers because they would all, somehow, work the score of the game into any story.

She also said she wasn’t looking forward to church as she knew their Pastor would work the score into his sermon.

She hated losing.

She wasn’t particularly fond of people who ‘lost games’ for Michigan.

I remember watching a game at their house once and Michigan was lining up for a field goal attempt and I said, “I wonder what Bryan Virgil is doing now?”

Mr. Virgil had had a fairly good multi year career for Michigan as a placekicker, except for having a game winning attempt against Notre Dame blocked back in 1979.

There were those who point out that a Notre Dame player jumped up on someone’s back to block the kick (a move that resulted in a new rule the next year) and there were those who claimed Mr. Virgil took too long to get the kick off.

When I wondered out loud what Mr. Virgil was now doing, my roommate’s Mom fired back, “I don’t know, but what ever it is, he is taking 5 steps to do it.”

When Michigan lost yesterday I thought of my roommates Mom.

I thought I don’t want to watch any more football today.

I don’t want to read the papers tomorrow.

And I know that in Church, even here in the low country of South Carolina, where the Pastor is actually a Michigan Fan (a west Michigan native), I will most likely hear about the game from the pulpit.

I puttered around most of the rest of Saturday afternoon.

My wife and I went out to investigate a new used bookstore we had heard about and picked up 4 novels from the Four-for-a-Dollar bin.

We call these beach books as I am reluctant to bring my devices to the beach.

Also I find it refreshing for my eyes to read a printed novel from time to time.

Back home, being Saturday and my day in the kitchen, still feeling a bit blue, I got the out tools and ingredients for the evening hamburgers and fries.

I then turned on the TV.

And I heard, “It’s a stunning loss for Notre Dame and a stunning victory for NIU!”

And I smiled.

I laughed out loud.

I felt good.

Sure Michigan lost to a top 5 team.

But ND was a top 5 team and lost.

Lost to a team from the Mid American Conference.

Not a slam on NIU , just saying.

I felt good that there were football fans who felt worse than I did.

I felt good that Michigan’s loss was not THE college football story for this weekend.

Then for a second, I felt bad.

I felt bad that I felt good that other fans felt worse than I did.

Than I remembered I was thinking about Notre Dame.

And I didn’t feel that bad at all.

Gotta got get ready for church.

9.7.2024 – quae volumus et

quae volumus et
credimus libenter – we …
believe what we want

Quae volumus, et credimus libenter.

The things we want we are also quick to believe.

The full form of the saying in Caesar is Quae volumus et credimus libenter, et quae sentimus ipsi, reliquos sentire speramus, “The things we want, we are also quick to believe, and what we ourselves perceive, we hope that others feel too.”

So wrote Julius Ceasar in his book, Commentaries on the Civil War.

According to Wikipedia, Commentarii de Bello Civili (Commentaries on the Civil War), or Bellum Civile, is an account written by Julius Caesar of his war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Roman Senate. It consists of three books covering the events of 49–48 BC, from shortly before Caesar’s invasion of Italy to Pompey’s defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus and flight to Egypt.

50 years or so before Christ plus the 2024 years since.

Almost 2100 years ago.

The things we want we are also quick to believe.

Either Julius Caesar would have fit right in today.

Or our current system of elections would have fit right in, 2100 years ago.

Here is the full except:

Proxima nocte centuriones Marsi duo ex castris Curionis cum manipularibus suis xxil ad AttiumVarum perfugiunt. Hi, sive vere quam habuerantopinionem ad eum perferunt, sive etiam auribus Variserviunt (nam, quae volumus, et credimus libenteret, quae sentimus ipsi, reliquos sentire speramus), confirmant quidem certe totius exercitus animosalienos esse a Curione maximeque opus esse in con-spectum exercitus venire et colloquendi dare facultatem. Qua opinione adductus Varus postero diemane legiones ex castris educit. Facit idem Curio,atque una valle non magna interiecta suas uterquecopias instruit.

In English:

On the following night two Marsic centurions from Curio’s camp, with twenty-two of their men, desert to Attius Varus. Whether they convey to him the opinion that they really held, or whether they only flatter his ears for what we desire we gladly believe, and what we ourselves feel we hope that others feel too at any rate they assure him that the hearts of the whole army are estranged from Curio, and that it is highly necessary that he should come within sight of the army and afford an opportunity of conference. Varus, influenced by this judgment, leads his legions out of camp early the next day. Curio does the same, and each draws up his forces with only one small valley between them.

As you can see, in the Loeb Classic Edition of 1917, it comes out as:

for what we desire we gladly believe, and what we ourselves feel we hope that others feel too …

quae volumus, et credimus libenteret, quae sentimus ipsi, reliquos sentire speramus …

For what we desire we gladly believe.

I don’t want to point to just one candidate in this current election cycle but those words, for what we desire we gladly believe, helps me understand his his following.

9.6.2024 – boring more than mad …

boring more than mad …
show me a sane person and
I’ll cure him for you

In his book, Jung: Man and Myth (Macmillan Pub Co, 1981), Vincent Brome writes:

“It was the explosive person who said one day to his wife, ‘If I get another perfectly normal adult malingering as a sick patient I’ll have him certified!’ And to George Beckwith, his American friend, ‘I’m sometimes driven to the conclusion that boring people need treatment more urgently than mad people.’ Witty on some occasions, he commented to one of his assistants, ‘Show me a sane person and I’ll cure him for you.’”

I am reminded of something Mr. Churchill said along the lines of “There are two types of people in this world. Those who are billed to death. And those who are bored to death.