Thought Potpourri

Let’s touch some bases shall we?

We start with the college football season underway this week.

To say the sport has undergone a minor earthquake would be an understatement.

It is nothing like it used to be. Remember the term student-athletes?

Forget that. How about the good old traditional conferences like the Big Ten, which were actually made up of 10 schools.

Or these conferences: the Southwest, Pac- 8 or 10 or 12, the Big Eight.

We could go on.  Now the Big Ten has 18 schools. The Pac-12 is down to the Pac-2. We could go on, but you get the idea.

Rivalry games based on geography. We still have them, such as Michigan-Ohio State, Stanford-Cal etc.

But major college football has turned into the Power 5.

It doesn’t matter where you’re from. You’re playing teams nowhere near where you live. Stanford, out of Palo Alto, CA is in the Atlantic Conference with North Carolina, Clemson, and yes, Syracuse.

Rutgers, from New Jersey is in the Big Ten as is Oregon.

Worse is the fact that there are players making millions of dollars.

Worse still is the fact that players can transfer to another school and then transfer again.

Well, that’s the internal picture of the sport.

But for us college football fans, none of that really affects the reality that we can choose what games we watch on television each week and root for the teams we like, enjoy those games and be entertained by them.

Television, of course, has changed everything. Conferences rake in the cash, schools rake in the cash, and that’s the way it is.

Just like the NFL, NBA, college basketball and MLB.

So don’t dwell on the problems. It’s not about woe is me.

The games are on, you have the choice, so watch them. Or go to the games.

The problems and issues on the inside, do not affect us from the season that has begun.

Whenever someone mentions the word GOAT, or expands it to the Greatest Of All Time, I get turned off.

When will they realize that with very few exceptions, there is only a current GOAT, not one for all-time.

In every era, there has been a GOAT in every sport imaginable.

I won’t even go into my sporting life that dates back decades.

They were recognized as the greatest until someone better came along, and they always do. Always.

Tom Brady is given that honor today, and I would agree. Mostly because of his seven Super Bowl rings. But who’s to say a quarterback won’t come along and win eight?

Then he’ll be the greatest. That number will be awfully difficult to attain, but it’s not impossible.

I might go along with Michael Jordan, who has been retired for a pretty long while, but there are even those who put LeBron James ahead of Jordan
It really doesn’t matter. There WILL be a basketball player who will exceed the talents of those two.

Whether it’s a swimmer or a gymnast, or any current super performer.

It’s all a matter of time. So why crown anyone as the GOAT when it’s only temporary. Only until the next one comes along.

Okay, I’m gonna say it.

I’m against biological men competing in women’s sports.

I’m not against people who want to change genders. There is a freedom to live your life the way you choose. However, competing against women is not reasonable, not fair, and not right.

Women have fought for the right to compete in sports and they have displayed it in magnificent fashion.

That shouldn’t be altered. I haven’t seen biological women competing against men. Why is that? I think we know why.

That’s how I feel.

I’m old school, but I sometimes find it awkward to hug everybody I meet for the second time on. It’s become the norm to give someone a hug when you see them. For women, it is easy to hug a couple they know.

That seems natural and easy. But for a guy like me who always shook hands with a guy I previously met I’m not sure about a hug, and what kind of hug to give.

I see hesitant moves where neither person is sure whether it’ll be a simple handshake, a strong, affirmative hug, or one of those faux hugs where you act as if you’re giving a hug, but not really.

Like I said, I am old school, and I have given hugs, and will probably continue to do so.

But I have friends who I know that when we meet, it will be a firm, sincere handshake.

I am comfortable with that.

A few weeks ago we wrote about how keeping in condition was a prime factor in aging as positive fashion.

Also mentioned, besides Faith, was attitude.

There is no real order of importance here.I would put Faith first. But that is a personal matter so we’ll delve into general attitude and where your thoughts land.

I have talked with people who are deeply concerned with reaching an advanced age because they dwell on the negative such as the things they will miss and not see once their time comes.

They also linger on their aches and pains which, as we all know, affect those of any age and are matter of course that is practically unavoidable.

Am I getting too depressing? Maybe. I’ll get more positive.

And positive is where we should go. If we can understand that if we reach an advanced age we have beaten the odds. We have already been greatly blessed.

I would advise to not let your thoughts go to where it does you no good.

What’s the point of harping on things that prevent you from enjoying the moment. Yes, it takes discipline to train yourself to take in life as it comes.

I know there’s a saying that you should live life to its fullest each day.

I don’t know what that means realistically. Does it mean to set out to accomplish everything you can every day of your life?

I have never done that, yet I am content in where I am.

I simply live the day, whatever it brings, with no thought to whether I’m 40 or 80. It’s my life. I love it. Some days may be better than others. Some days I may do a great deal. Some I may not.

I just don’t think about life in any other terms but experiencing every day.

There is no magic potion here. This is meant to give one man’s thoughts into how I handle life at this stage and how attitude is a key to my happiness.

Simply, it’s food for thought.