WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2022 - COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL GAMES.

 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2022 - COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL GAMES.

Do you remember the Sun Bowl of 1994?  Do you remember the Sugar Bowl of 2011?  Do you remember who won the “National Championship” last year?

Maybe you are a baseball fan.  Who won the World Series in 2004? How about college basketball? Who won the national championship in 1996?

I remember going to only one bowl game.  It was an Alamo Bowl and Nebraska played in it.  (I’m sure if I Google it, it will remind me of the year, who played and what the final score was).  I went with my son (who lives in Nebraska), and my son-in-law (who lives in Texas).  I didn’t buy the tickets (my daughter did).  While we three were at the game, my wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law were exploring San Antonio.  

Some years ago, I read a short story “It all goes in the box”.  

Seemingly a grandson was playing Monopoly with his grandfather, and other relatives on Christmas break.  The grandson had been both lucky and skillful.  He had put hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place and one of his cousins had landed on Boardwalk and went bankrupt.  He then got more properties and built more hotels.  His grandfather landed on North Carolina and while it didn’t bankrupt him, the grandson got more money and more properties and built more hotels.  

The grandson was happy - maybe even ecstatic. He had beaten his grandfather and family in Monopoly.  WOOHOO!!!

The game sat out on the table for a few hours as the family until the table was needed for dinner.  And, it all went in a box.  Maybe today, the grandson could take a picture of the final Monopoly board.  Maybe he could be standing behind the board, grinning from ear to ear.  He could post it on Facebook and other social media.  HE HAD BEATEN HIS FAMILY IN MONOPOLY!!!  

But, eventually, it all goes back into the box.  That trip that the University of <XYZ> made to the Orange Bowl (or Rose Bowl of TaxSlayer Bowl) fades away - maybe like my trip to the Alamo Bowl.  

Yes, it all goes in the box.  The game is over, all that exists are memories.  The bowl games become memories in the “brain box”.  

Some diehard fans will remember the 1997 Sugar Bowl where their favorite team came from behind to beat some other team.  Some diehard fans (or maybe the term is “fanatics”) remember who played, the completion statistics, the runs, the fumbles, who the backfield coach was, and maybe even who the line judge referee was.  But the great majority might remember for a while the game - but in ten years, thirty years, those memories fade. 

Maybe you have pictures from the game.  Maybe you had a vested interest in the game.  Maybe you played in the game, coached in the game, refereed in the game, or even had your car smashed by Mr. Mayhem (from the commercials) and had to be towed away and you had to stay an extra night in the bowl city waiting to get your car repaired.

But, it all goes into the box.  

There is an expression - the past is past, the future is unknown, and all we have is the present.  At Christmas, we call the boxes under the tree “Christmas Presents”.  I can’t long for the “good old days”, I can’t long for next summer when I’ll go to Alaska.  I can’t wait for my grandchildren to grow up and graduate from college and get married.  I only have today.  For all I know, I may be in a deadly car accident before those grandchildren graduate and marry.  

College Football (and bowl games) are entertainment.  We enjoy watching the games or going to the games.  We can tell our fanatic friends “Do you remember when Nebraska was down by 18 points in the last quarter of the Whatever Bowl and came back to win?”  “Do you remember when Sam Smith threw the “Hail Mary” pass with five seconds on the clock that won the game for good old XYZ University?  

I have a basketball memory that over the years has been enhanced in my brain.  I didn’t play regularly, but in one game, I sank a three-point basket from just outside the three-point line; or in that one game, I sank a three-point basket from the center line, or in that one game, I sank a three-point basket from the parking lot with my eyes shut.  (For sure I hit a long shot - it might or might not have been a three-point shot and it might or might not have made any difference in the game).  

But, in the end, it all goes back into the box.

In an old Christian Hymn are the words “Till my trophies, at last, I lay down”.  A few years back, I threw out all of my old trophies and awards.  I have my memories.  But, in thirty years who will remember that I was the “Educator of the Year” for EDSIG?  (And who will care?) 

Maybe I’ll make an addition to the expression “It all goes in the box”.  Then the box goes into the attic (or storage), and eventually, it all goes in the trash.  My trophies are (maybe) in a landfill someplace.  Maybe somebody with a metal detector will pick them out someday and they will be melted down into a pot or pan.  

Maybe my children and grandchildren will remember me - or maybe not.  For sure in 200 years anybody doing genealogy where I might be included might be mystified why Bruce became Karen - but will it make any difference?

I can leave a legacy of LOVE WINS, and LOVE TRANSFORMS.  It might have carried over to my students and family, to my friends, and maybe it gets carried over to the next generation.  Maybe the world will be a better place because I lived.  

But, for me, “It all goes in the box”. 

LOVE DOES WIN

LOVE DOES TRANSFORM

LOVE CAN LEAVE A LEGACY

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, DECEMBER 14, 2022