TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024, WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!

 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024 - “WE’RE  NUMBER ONE”

Yes, I like football - both college and professional. Watching many games has been challenging the last few weekends as I have been cat-sitting and didn’t know how to get the games on television.  I listened to part of the Nebraska vs. Indiana game Saturday (Nebraska lost 56 to 7 - ouch!!!); Texas vs. Georgia - Texas came into the game ranked #1 in college football - and lost to Georgia by the score of 30 to 15 - and dropped to #5 in the polls (and Georgia moved to #2).  Dakota State, which started at 4-0, lost its last three games. In professional football, the Minnesota Vikings, who were undefeated, lost on Sunday to the Detroit Lions by the score of 31 to 29 (on a field goal by Detroit in the last two minutes).  

At least Quinnipiac’s football team didn’t lose!!  They have been undefeated since 1929 (of course, Quinnipiac doesn’t have a football team!!!).

It is fun to yell, “We’re NUMBER ONE,” - but only one team can be number one at the end of the season.  And next year, there will probably be a new number-one team.

If you are like me, you can’t remember what the team records were at the end of last season unless you are a diehard fan.  

Fame is fleeting.  I had trophies from years ago - EDSIG “Educator of the Year,” Quinnipiac University “Center of Excellence in Teaching,” and more.  And, I threw them out.  My children wouldn’t have wanted them?  They were just trophies.

In the Cars movies, Lightning McQueen says “ “This grumpy old race car I know once told me somethin': it's just an empty cup.” I’m not going to have my picture on currency; I’m not going to have a school named after me (Aside - humor - I do have two towns in South Dakota named “before” me - “Bruce” and “White”)

There are jokes about this. My ex was a quilter and had a lot of fabric. I saw a sign in a fabric shop that read, “Whoever dies with the most fabric wins.” 

I could say, “Willie Mays died,” and most people under thirty might say, “who”? In a hundred years, 98% of people will say, “Who was Willie Mays?”.

Yup, I was born, I lived, I will die.  I won’t have a Wikipedia page; I will “vanish”.  

I sometimes reflect on Ecclesiastes 1:1: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless.”

But I have to fight back against those terms.  YES - MY LIFE HAS MEANING. I can use my life (as small as possible) for good.  Is one atom important?  Yes - God made that one atom and that atom joined millions of atoms to make a tree, a rabbit, or a human.  

So, I need to refresh my memory this morning.  Sunday was a day when I thought I was worthless (or meaningless).  That is NOT true.  I do have value.

So, today, I will walk with my head high, I will be a valuable part of humanity!!!

Because:

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, October 22, 2024

(Today would be the 112th anniversary of my father’s birth!! )