Indiana Goes to a 12th Bowl: So What?

Indiana Goes to a 12th Bowl: So What?

It's a big deal for a few die hard, stalwart fans. The 12th bowl in over a hundred seasons. To go to a football bowl game during the holidays. It has been hard on us I.U. fans over the years. How many followers are there? (I will try to make a real estimate later).

I don't know how many we are. I am one. I live over 650 miles away from the campus, and I know of at least one other big supporter at my children's local elementary school. We do not have as big a following and tradition as many others, college football fans that watch the century old winners, like Michigan, Notre Dame, Alabama, or closer by Virginia Tech:

Nebraska, the heralded historically strong team we beat last Saturday in Lincoln, has had a sell out at its stadium every game since 1962. Before my parents met! And they are old! (One passed away five years ago at age 73, the other is 82 as of this fall.) This venue in the plains, the middle of our great nation, seats about 89,000 fans. They play there even in late November. Have you been outside in Nebraska in late November? Didn't think so. Yet they attend, snow, wind, and, agony, and crowded parking lots.

Do you know of a place in the world that does an event 6 to 7 times per year and gathers 89,000 people, every time? Since nineteen sixty-two?

Yeah, that's love, or devotion, or insanity.

And it is still not the SEC. The vaunted Southeastern Conference, that has expanded in number to 14 teams and wins most of the championships in the 21st century. They attend their games wholeheartedly and with gusto, from Florida to Texas and Missouri, of course Alabama and Louisiana, across the width and breadth of the south. They tend to be the most elite championship programs. They think it means more there. Maybe it does.

But the Big Ten is important to us. We have schools close by like Notre Dame.

While the SEC is very dominant in championships the last few decades, except for a couple of exceptions there is recent Clemson U. in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), that has been good enough to beat Alabama and other great SEC teams lately.

And, I did not mention yet the formidable and majestic PAC-12 conference, or the rest of the Big-10, which is really 14 teams. Which has its elite in Ohio State, and behind them the U. of Michigan. And Wisconsin, and Penn St. ...

Between those four conferences, there are a lot of devoted fans. Four conferences with its 54 teams, most of whom go to bowls every year. Oh, and there is another 10 big teams in the Big 12. Where Nebraska used to be... Among the storied perennial bowl winners, decade in and decade out. Texas, Oklahoma, and on down the row. But not Indiana. We go a decade or so without so much reward, justification for watching these helmeted chess pieces march across the grassy gridirons under sun and rains, snow flurries and howling winds. They say, when we normally lose in perfidy "At least I.U. has basketball". I'm sorry, but December hard court contests do not make the heart warm like a nice sunny bowl around New Year's. Such a bowl treat provides a reason to think about visiting Miami or Dallas, Pasadena or even Hawai'i... Why would you go to such tropic climes in the heart of the winter? The football team earned it!

Indiana has a few long suffering fans, but not as much as the others due to reasons of lack of historical presence and pride. A bit more like Kansas, not far from Nebraska, or Vanderbilt, not too far from Indiana. We, the fewer than Purdue and their faithful, mostly likely, are truly long suffering. We have awful paucity of success, we are relegated to the failures of seasons past.

IU went to the Rose Bowl once, their first bowl game ever in the days when there were so few bowl games, the year my parents moved to Bloomington, 1967. The Indiana football squad has not returned to Pasadena since, which usually means winning the conference crown. That one time IU made it they lost in a defensive battle to the fabulous, illustrious, USC Trojans and none other than O.J. Simpson. Yeah, that guy. And of course, in stately southern California, down the road from where my wife enjoyed the Parade of the Roses.

12 years later, in 1979, the Hurry'n plucky Hoosiers made it to the Holiday Bowl against the newcomer power in the West, the Brigham Young Coungars under Lavell Edwards. I.U. Coach Lee Corso got the win on a few fluke plays; he would go on to bigger fame as a personality on ESPN, nore renown as a talking head than a coach of the sidelines. Which is precisely where he is now, 2019. Meanwhile, Edwards would go on to greater football glory, becoming one of the best college football coaches of all time. He retired in the year 2000 and passed away about two years ago (2017).

That win of the Hoosiers in the late 1970s over my other future alma mater BYU whetted my appetite for more gridiron success in southern Indiana, but instead I.U. saturated me in futility. We beat Purdue in Bloomington one freezing Saturday in late November a couple years later, when I was maybe 11; we finished 3-8. We celebrated the victory, and Hoosier nutty fans tore down the goal posts, but the bitter hateful Boilermaker fans yelled in their wrath: "So what? You guys are 3-8, you are still going to the toilet bowl!!!"

Ahh, Purdue fans. Possibly more on them later.

I.U. struck fortune in 1983 by hiring an up and coming coach named Sam Wyche; a short year later he took the professional position of the Cincinnati Bengals. Oh well. IU was not good enough to hold on to him. C'est la vie. This is IU football.

Then they got the famed Bill Mallory in the auspicious Orwellian year 1984, who despite losing all his games his first season, led my teenage and early twenty year-old Hoosier teams to six bowls in eight years. The glory days. They won two of those six bowl games, but one year notably (when I was a missionary in the Provo training center) went 5-6 and had their juggernaut running back Anthony Thompson come in a close second in the Heisman trophy voting. One last second run failed against Kentucky at the goal line meant the one missing victory for a bowl invitation, and very possibly the Heisman honor, and possible future recruiting success and other momentum that never materialized.

I witnessed that epic, fateful charge in person in Lexington, with my good friend Jess Hurlbut, surrounded by thousands of blue-clad Wildcat fans in the heart of Kentuckydom.  Tough game. Tough season. Tough luck program. IU could mean frustration, near misses, failure and ignominy.

"At least we have basketball." But that is not enough, us football fans know. One year under Mallory we beat Michigan and Ohio State.

Mallory bottomed out in the mid-90s and was dismissed a few good and then some bad years later.

And then came more futility as the turn of the century came and went. I.U. had some entertaining NFL caliber talent, but did not win enough, all everything Antwaan Randle El came and left with no bowls, under a pretty good pro coach and former football and basketball Hoosier Cam Cameron.

Coach Terry Hoeppner was the right fit for the school and improved everything, but he contracted brain cancer and died. His immediate successor took those survivors the following year to a long sought-after bowl in 2007, to eventually lose in 2007, and then the bowl drought continued. IU seemed snake bit, one of the all time perpetual losers.

Kevin Wilson brought a prolific offense; his teams went to two losing bowls after finally solving the last game curse of Purdue, but not solving the curse of bowls ten and eleven.

And now there will be bowl number twelve under his successor, Tom Allen.

Allen has four regular season games to go in November, thus there are the two winnable Northwestern and Purdue games, and the intimidating Penn State and Michigan games.

Allen has earned respect in his fourth total year, third as head coach (he took over for the bowl game against Utah when Wilson was dismissed early in 2016). He has recruited well, and asks for fans to attend.

The last two seasons the Hoosiers would have been bowl bound as well as long as IU had gotten one more win, solved by Purdue last game losses both times, or a Maryland game I attended at College Park two years ago that escaped us on turnovers.

IU has played well over one hundred years. 130 seasons to be exact. Rutgers celebrates 150 seasons this year, and they are in much worse shape.

Indiana could realistically finish 8-4 this year, and go to a bowl, small or not, needing a chance to improve on its 3-8 record overall.

It could, it should.

Stay tuned, and get ready for more to come in the future. Bowl thirteen, you are looking pretty good.

So what, I pose to you and me? What does winning for IU, or anyone mean?

Beyond school spirit and entertainment, beyond bruises and possible broken bones, it is a chance to commemorate what we as humans want to do:

Defend the home turf, strike out against the neighbors in a fair and competitive fashion, and jump up and down for glory. And maybe, just maybe, take a trip to the Roses around the New Year.

For me, the one who watched the gridiron Hoosiers battle my future Cougars on T.V. in the basement of the Wankier's home as a eight year-old, and then attended the freezing Purdue game in the knot hole (end zone bleachers) with Paul Lowengrub, whose father was an I.U. administrator, maybe as a fifth grader, and then later games with Seth Berry and Jason Vincz and multiple games working concessions while in middle and high school, and later taking exchange student Ricardo Salvador to see IU play Navy, and even later going in at half time during a rainy afternoon and watch IU upset Michigan with Robert Calder and his dad, and then later going to see IU after my mission with my dad in Iowa and Columbus Ohio, and after that going to the Purdue game with Michael Ho, and returning five years later after Utah and seeing Randle El with Barbara Watson and others, and still later taking my nephew Mile to see the Purdue game while visiting from South America, and later watching IU come to Virginia and D.C. and Wake Forest while living on the East Coast, and at least three games in Maryland, the memories of home and friends, the radio personalities and sports journalists and parents who recall the Cardiac Kids of '67, and my open restless hopes of our Davids beating the eternal Goliaths every fall Sunday, it means I am still alive, I am still me, I am a proud but not beaten though often humbled Hoosier fan.

Go I.U.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

How many IU football fans are there? At least a million. Maybe you could be a million and one.

Hoosiers, going to a bowl near you. Happy fall and early winter. May it grow and continue.

So that's what.

Namib to Zambia (Story Number 4)

Namib to Zambia (Story Number 4)

Combinations of 240 : Endless Stories (Started in 2018...)

There are 240 countries and nations in the world, plus or minus some islands and remote places that contain their own sub-cultures.It occurred to me that it would be interesting to capture an encounter or story about two people, respectively, from every place on the planet.

This would add up to 57,600 stories. An Indian and a Nepalese. A Bhutanian and a Falkland Islander (Malvino, I guess, in Spanish). And: another fifty-seven thousand, five hundred and ninety eight encounters more. Like an American and a Welsh. Er ... Welshman... Welsh lady? On and on it will go. What would your match ups be?

___________________________________________________________

(Begun in July or August, 2019)

Equezi thought that if he could drive, he would thrive. 

There were parts of his vast land where he knew would make money if he learned how to drive. And own a car. Opportunity was rife of he could figure out his place.

The ever growing  number of tourists and foreign residents, especially Chinese, meant more money. Few people in his neighborhood made enough money to really live well. No one knew vacations, no one knew what it was like to take a real break like he saw the Chinese and wealthy of Windhoek receive.

He would join them. He would have vacations, or holidays, as the British called them.

Getting the passengers from the central Damaraland to the southern Great Namaland was the key.

Chinese settlements.Foreign tourists. Big money.

Mosunda was a smart driver from Zambia; he seemed to have figured this all out. He had lived in Namibia only four years.

Equezi went to the house of Mosunda, late one night. 

"Mister Mosunda, I am grateful to know you and I wish to do what you do. Can you help me?"

"Sir Equezi, I am of a thought that I can help those who wish to help themselves, and when I accomplish this help, I myself will be blessed and prosper more. What specific thing do you wish to do?"

"I want to drive and make money like you. But I am very poor." (It sounded like the way an American would say POE-AH. Although he could also pronounce it POOH-AH).

"Yes, I understand, Sir. That is precisely why I left my native Zambia: I was poor and I had nothing to offer anyone, least of all myself." 

"Now you have a wife and children, and you have bought many things, and you rent homes and do so much."

"Yes, life is good."

"What do I need to do?"

"Well, sir, if you trust me that much, I do think that you must do three things. Learn to drive a car and have that license, learn proper English to help the travelers, and learn Chinese, enough to help them, too."

"Chinese! It is too hard! How can I do this?"

"No, brother, it can be done, at least as much is helpful to gain them as clients and earn their respect. Most of them will know English in order to conduct business, but their native language is the ice breaker. And, there are multiple dialects, so you speak the Chinese to those from Shanghai differently than the ones from Hong Kong, and on and on."

"Yes, I see. Can you teach me?" 

"I can help a little, sure," replied Mosunda, the rich Zambian in Windhoek. "But first things first: you must learn to drive and have a license."

"Yes, yes. What is the best way?"

"I think you can learn with me, and qualify with a car that I lend you. I will make money from this, we will agree to share. With that increased income we will together purchase another car that you will pay off."

"Ahh, this seems so simple!"

"It sounds simple in theory, but it will take time and devotion, perhaps a few years. But both of us will benefit, that is for sure.

They spoke excitedly for another two hours, how they could both benefit each other.

You can imagine their earnest determination to succeed.

 Would they?

 

 

Peace Between War Times

Peace Between War Times

     I am finishing up another book by Jeff Shaara, an under-appreciated prolific and well-researched author who depicts and chronicles the wars of the United States.  Previously I have read some of his books about the Mexican-American War (1847-48), the American Civil War (1861-1865), and World War II (1941-1945). I know that he has written other tomes about the U.S. War of Independence (1775-83), World War I (1917-18), and the Korean conflict (1950-53). I am confident that I should read all of them. Maybe he will write about the Vietnam conflict or more recent U.S. wars?

Hard to say how many Americans alone have written books about our wars, other foreign wars, even fictitious  wars. We make these stories into movies and we fictionalize them, lionize the characters and the events. They deserve our attention. Some of the actions and events are made spectacular, the people involved heroicized, embellished, painted tragic and poignant. Lives are dramatically and inalterably changed by wars and their consequences. Soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, doctors, nurses, contractors, transportation specialists, the leaders, families, and civilians populations left behind... Or those that come into conflict. The injured, prisoners, dead: a great mass of parts and passions woven up in attacking or defending from the enemy in places foreign and domestic.

Right now (October 2019) Turks are attacking Kurds in Syria, both Americans and Russians figuring out where to move in between. Chaotic times, in a chaotic country that has millions of displaced people. Many victims, many others have fled to near and far parts of the world.

War is not raging in too many other places in our globe. Yemen has a constant conflict, which perhaps now is less deadly than in other months or years of the complicated power struggle there. Ethnic populaces and ideologically driven groups striving to take power from another, in a country without much natural resource wealth, like some of its Arab neighbors.

Somalia always has issues, and mini-wars pop up across the African continent. Libya has a power conflict that has been going on for many years now since Khadafy's demise.

Wars, wars, wars. And much peace for most of us.

The Arabs are the foremost purveyors of war this year.

The Kurds have been caught in the cross-fire, literally as of late.

No thanks to our current commander-in-chief. He seems to be treating a large nation of stateless people like he did the upstart USFL back in the 1980s.

It's a mistake, buddy. We all make mistakes. Hopefully they do not cost a bunch of people their lives for no reason.

Peace is a tricky conundrum.

Be we so lucky and blessed to have it and wage it, as the pin in the 1980s would say.

"Wage peace, not war."

Those in power must do what they can to work for peace and stave off the unnecessary wars.

That implies that there are wars that we cannot avoid.

We need to increase the peace quotient, which takes time and money.

Sort of like the war on global warming.

Hard Things at the Fort

Hard Things at the Fort

I knew I would be away from my family for most of 19 weeks; that the time was mostly not mine, but belonged to the U.S. Army's.

For motivation, I told myself a few comforting things to get me through:

1. Thousands of soldiers and U.S. military were in harm's way while I would be there; the desert that I would be residing in did not have much live fire or killer ordnance, not aimed at me. As a few hundred thousand troops the U.S. had deployed the year that I was there outside a small American town, I was in a pretty peaceful and safe corner of the planet.

2. I could talk to my wife and family almost every day by phone, unlike the painful brief minutes on Sundays during basic training for those long 8-9 weeks.

3. I would be attending a school and learning skills that would benefit me and my career. Food and board were extra besides my monthly pay. Health and life insurance was good.

4. I was recovering from a debilitating illness, regarding low strength my immune system, so I had time to focus on getting better and stronger. 

5. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I had extra opportunities to share things about my faith and try to be a good example and a missionary. As a young man I had been a full time missionary for two years, and time away from home and family turned out to be sweet as a time of faith and growth.

6. I could claim to have lived in another state, another climate. That kind of experience has its own value. 

7. I was serving my country, while joining a larger group of people that had done this before, it was still a unique experience to most of the country and world. It was an honor.

Hard things:

1. Being away from wife and kids. A father should be close by them. And there was not a lot of time to to talk, and small kids don't communicate that well by phone. Or at least I did not figure that out.

2. The classes and military was time consuming. We would get accountability every Sunday night at 6 pm, then wake up every workday to be on the fields for physical exercise by 5 am. Or maybe 5:30 am. After breakfast we would form up as classes for a 8 am class, being released at 5 pm for another formation to march to dinner. Free time by around 6:30 pm. Some nights we had extra training and duties, including some weekends.

3. Co-habitating at close quarters with 30 to 60 other young guys. Sometimes their music, their conversations, their antics and shennanigans was annoying. Like staying up way to late and laughing or watching movies when a body simply wanted to sleep.

4. Fireguard duty at all hours of the night. It is intrusive and tiresome. Especially when fellow troops don't do their share or get drunk and cause problems.

5. Being promised from almost day one that I would get a weekend to fly to California two months later to be with family and baptize my daughter, and some 6 or 8 weeks later having that promise blown out of the water.

6. The last culminating exercise being sleep deprived with 3-4 hours per sleep per night, for about 8 to 9 days.

7. On occasion being called for random accountability formations, like on a Saturday morning when I was over a mile away enjoying some Internet time that I did not have much of, with no laptop or Internet.

8. On some occasions being reminded to remove headphones while walking across the base, or a check on my undergarments that were slightly visible beneath my PT shorts while running to the Saturday morning impromptu accountability formation!

9. Dealing with the soldiers in classes that should be professional, but many of them were immature and trying to the patience. Some teachers were lacking, too, but that always happens anywhere.

10. Too much cursing and rude talk.

But overall, believe it or not, it was good. Good and hard.

0 for 8 Cougs in Florida, All Time

0 for 8 Cougs in Florida, All Time

BYU football teams are not world beaters (news flash!), but they should be able to win a football game in Florida after eight trips there over the years. Going back to the 1980s, when the program was considered among the nation's elite, they have now gone 0 wins for 8 losses.

I thought it would happen this afternoon, there first win against a vulnerable team. I thought we were over the zero for Florida schnide.

Not today! (Or two days ago, I started this Saturday evening...)

Or ever, yet. Frustrating.

Sure, they have played some power opponents in the Sunshine State, including a bowl against Ohio State when I was a teenager. But there have been some lesser opponents too, like the U. of South Florida today. We thought the Bulls were more down, a worse squad, than the starting quarter back-less Cougars. The back up Jaren Hall was to replace the wunderkind Zach Wilson, who broke his thumb or some digit, hopefully to return next month.

Ugh. 

Notably for history's sake is that the back up Jaren Hall became the first African-American QB to start in BYU history. He had won this game, too, until he lost it. He did okay.

His fumble lead the Bulls back in the fourth quarter after the Cougars had a late sure lead. But worse than one major miscue by a first time starter was the lack of defensive ability to hold on to a late lead, which also happened last week in Toledo, against the woe-begone Rockets, the same MAC team that lost to Bowling Green State 20-7, today. I had hoped that Toledo was better than that, making the Cougar loss a bit more respectable... At least former BYU victim Tennessee beat Mississippi State...

Upcoming Boise State and Utah State look very daunting.

As does the rest of the season.

As does the career of Kilane Sitake as head coach. Fourth year, we need to beat these guys. We should be 4-2, but instead are 2-4. Ugh and double ugh.

The overall program winning percentage of BYU is around .575 since 1922. We want it much higher of course, as do all programs. Indiana or Kansas would accept .501. Michigan and Ohio State and Notre Dame expect in the .900s or high .800s. If BYU could get its winning percentage up into the all-time .600s, it would be sweet. It looked like that would happen the last couple decades. But there have been some major snafus, like right now reflects.

Yes, Brigham Young wants to be as good as Notre Dame in football, as does now Liberty (another large religious school, whose founder Pat Robertson realized that a major sports program can bring good attention to its presence and values), which BYU will line up against in November. BYU has to beat them, the Flames?,  in Provo to have any chance of a bowl this year.

November with its 5 games and mostly lesser opponents will end up manifesting how this season goes overall, but even with rudimentary losses, the last two failures will leave this season below expectations.

If the Cougars can upset a ranked Bronco team, avenge the stronger Aggies up north, who they have had a hard team of dealing with lately, and handle the rest of their business, an 8-4 season would be okay. Or rather miraculous to finish out on a 6 game streak.  But not as good as was thought when finishing its first four games 2-2. Even with a backup QB or two, 8-4, or more likely 6-6, is underwhelming for what this team promised.

Back to history: when will BYU travel to Florida again, to get its ninth try? Not in a bowl this year '19-'20, if at all. More likely to play in Hawai'i bowl-wise, if they can qualify for the post regular season. 6-6 would work. 7-5 better, 8-4 optimal, but looking too tough right now.

2020: BYU only will get as close as Northern Illinois. Bowl chances? Tough schedule... Not high.

2021: The Cougs will travel to Georgia Southern, pretty close, but no cigar--er, candy. Possible bowl? How many are played in Florida? Orange, Gator... No, not the Gator anymore... Oh, yes, it does still play there in Jacksonville...

2022: Closest scheduled away game as of now is Lynchburg, Virginia. We shall see, with two more unslated road matches to fix. I guess every year that the BYU Cougars do not go to a Florida bowl makes it more likely the next year that they could... There are seven, counting the Orange Bowl, which every 4th year should host the national championship. Imagine that! Paging 1984...

2023: Yes ! We have the University of Central Florida on the calendar! Orlando? Opportunity number 9 if it does not happen in a bowl game or otherwise before...

2024: Nothing on tap in Florida in this year or beyond, which incidentally has Boise State up till 2033. I will be retired by then? Have a novel published or maybe have a doctorate? 63! Almost Beatles age.

The seven Florida bowls as of 2019, for those who may care or are curious:

 1) Dec.21

Cure Bowl

Exploria Stadium Orlando, Florida 2:30 p.m.

CBSSN

American Sun Belt

2) Dec 23

Gasparilla Bowl

Raymond James Stadium Tampa, Florida 2:30 p.m.

ESPN

C–USA ACC/American

3) Dec 28

Camping World Bowl

Camping World Stadium Orlando, Florida 12:00 p.m.

ABC

Big 12 ACC/ND

ABC

Big Ten SEC

ESPN

Big Ten SEC

4) Dec 30

Orange Bowl

Hard Rock Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida 8:00 pm

ACC Big Ten/SEC/ND

5) and 6) Jan 1	Citrus Bowl	Camping World Stadium Orlando, Florida 1:00 p.m.	ABC			Big Ten SEC
	Outback Bowl	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, Florida 1:00 p.m.	ESPN			Big Ten SEC

 7) Jan. 2

Gator Bowl

TIAA Bank Field Jacksonville, Florida 7:00 p.m.

ESPN

SEC ACC/Big Ten/ND

Some Benevolent Power in the Universe

 Some Benevolent Power in the Universe

Thinking about Star Wars, the epic film narrative that has marked generations, through film and marketing, art and literature, it struck me that many people are captivated by the dark side as well as the good.

Good and bad: both sides have their fans.

No wonder this story is so entertaining and captivating. It strikes chords within us, both sunny and dark.

At the age of 6 when I first watched a A New Hope (a subtitle that I did not know existed for many years, perhaps until my teens or twenties), I obviously sensed the innate goodness of Luke, aptly named after a Biblical figure close to the Messiah Himself.  Luke epitomized innocence and goodness, a pure fount of good will and purity. That he had special powers became marvelously evident.

Contrast that persona with the draconian monster of Darth Vader, and what a conflict was at stake.

And: they were father and son! What? It still staggers me to this day. I am almost 49. Of course, the second movie revealed the latter truth, after spending the next three years of my precocious life after ingesting the first film, a third of it, if you will, playing with the Star Wars figures, fantasizing about their journeys and possibilities, reading the novel version of Star Wars: A New Hope and notably Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the the Mind's Eye, both written by him and having a noticeable affect on Lucas' plot lines and development of characters. I also read kid books that featured Luke Skywalker with animation and side stories. All this before we had a video player when I turned 16.
These characters became minor psyches within my and others' consciences or consciousnesses. 

Lucas is quoted as saying that all this story is really about is a relationship between a father and a son. One turns out evil (see the first 3 prequels with Hayden Christiansen), the hidden one good (Mark Hamill), and, how can they reconcile? Do they? Is this necessary? Ben Kenobi is their bridge, the friend and mentor, the student and sage to both. And yes, there are other greater powers, Yoda and Snoke, and their acolytes...


There must be something in that dynamic of a father and child that rings true. Yes?

Then you have the two others that weigh in: the rogue iconoclast Han Solo, out for himself and the reluctant returning hero to the royal cause of good, and the sister Leia, who marvelously possesses her own powers. A daughter. Replay the first father/son scenario. Wow!

And now (culminating in 2019) we have Rey, a somehow other benevolent power created from --who knows?-- (THAT IS THE QUESTION!) And Kylo Ren, a misguided soul a bit like his grandfather, Anakin. He, a mix of royalty coupled with the force, Princess Leia, and the former rogue Solo.

Ah, the humanity.

I love it. Tantalizing and somewhat deep, me thinks.

The universe is a big, vast place; we try to reconcile our place in it. Is it sovereign to humans, or are there other creatures to parley with? Do our powers matter as sentient beings? Is there purity and virtue within us; is there a power that emanates from within the stars that guides us, leads us, cares about us?

Is there a God? And if so, does he or she or they really care? Are there good forces that exist, or is the presence of any greater power as empty as the atmosphere of our earth moon, or the imperious void of space. Even the greatest powers of our universe, the massive ovens known as stars, seem quite inhospitable and void of any type of kind or beneficent entity. Are we all alone? What is up with life?

On the flip side, are there malevolent forces among our biospheres and planets and moons? If there is a complete absence of benevolent super or higher powers, one could infer there is nothing nefarious out there (around us) as well. No divine good force or forces, no diabolical bad force or forces.

Although to the religious or faithful way of thinking, the absence of either higher power would signify an overall bleak malevolence.

Is there no higher authority, godly or spiritual? Paging Mr. Nietzchske!

Who are we? What are we?

Do we matter?

In the fictitious realm of George Lucas and the rest of us, there are ultimate good and bad forces, and mysteries abound.

Much like the known universe of the 21st century.

Do our souls live forever? Where do we go after death, and what was before mortality?

The vast universe is full of these questions.

Did the same energy that created Anakin create his granddaughter Rey?

We will we ever know.

Some mysteries are left to us. Enjoy the expanses of time and cosmos, the universes we know and do not know.

(E) racism

(E) racism

Over the years I have seen this word "(E)racism" on shirts and other means of propaganda. I liked it, I still like it. We do not like racism because it is wrong and hateful. Judging others negatively based on skin factors or other reasons of identity is not right.

We, all of us, need to actively deprogram or remove the racist elements of our thinking and lives.

But, it is complicated. Why? Because the racial and racist stereotypes that almost all of us outwardly want to eradicate are too often perpetuated by our own ignorance of those racial issues. I will explain.

Racism is usually defined by hatred or discrimination against people other than someone of our "own kind". Some examples:

A white person could hate a black person, or black people, and not hire him or her.

A black person might hate a white person, or people, and make fun of him or her.

An English speaker might dislike Spanish speakers and denigrate them.

A Spanish speaker might refer to a gringo in a mocking way.

A Non-Muslim might refer to a Muslim in less than respectful ways.

A Muslim might refer to "infidels" in hateful ways.

Wait! I just switched to language and religious examples of hatred, regardless of skin color. 

Is that still racism?  Yes, it can still apply.

However, for the purposes of this idea, my overall point, should I reduce or shrink the scope to skin color racism rather than hatred of other cultures for differing languages and religions? Okay, let's call that bigotry and focus on skin color racism, which tends to be a more American and Western case of racism.

Fair enough? Perhaps we need to tackle cases of racism bit by bit, because perhaps like cancer, "cancer" is not just one disease but maybe 300 separate diseases. We have to analyze and remove one at a time.

Curing lung cancer might not help much with leukemia, or other cancers... We have to focus one on one to make real substantial progress to eliminate or at least treat the disease. And there are many types of hates.

Part of dealing with a specific disease, or type of racism, is to recognize that it has existed and to what extent it still exists. Define it, identify it, know how to improve upon it. Or "erase" it from our current vocabulary. Not forget that it did exist, but to eliminate it from our present and future.

The classic case of racism in the United States is the relationship between black people and white people. This relationship and history is foundational to who Americans are, to many extents. It should not be that way, but that is how we are, we recognize it. To this day this relationship and the characterizations from it are pertinent. It was not right, but millions of white people (or hundreds of thousands of landowners, at least), did own millions of black slaves.

We broke up as a nation about it, fought about, advanced laws to end it, and it has been a struggle ever since, well over 150 years later, to "repair" the harms done from that evil practice.

The vestiges of institutional and social racism, which impacts finances and economics, as far as being black and white have endured, too painfully and unnecessarily in my opinion.

In the two thousand teens we have:

"Black lives matter"

"I can't breathe!"

"Hands up, don't shoot!"

Apart from those refrains taken up by the black community and those that support them, there are statements against law enforcement, which on the surface may seem like black versus white, but in reality it is cultural more than skin color hatred. There are black police, of course, which seemed to be part of the issue being fixed in Ferguson, Missouri, and other places where blacks felt harassed and threatened.

So, in review, we are talking about white versus black racism, which can happen anywhere and everywhere within the United States. It can be institutional, social, academic, legal, interpersonal, and in all ways. We must stop it, end it, avoid it, learn to unlearn it.

It is still around. I wish to "erase" it. Never forget it, but we need to move on from black and white racism. Are there practices, thinking, and language that perpetuate racial hatred and prejudice today in 2019? Certainly.

Racial prejudice and racism are wrong in all places and times, especially as we define it now in the United States in the 21st century. I lived in the U.S. about 27 years of the 20th century, and now almost 18 years of the 21st. I have some points and observations to make about current racial hatred and racism.

1. Many white people, black people, and people of all mixed heritages of them both, and others have to share blame in maintaining racism this deep in to the 21st century. Many do not, good for you! When people reinforce behaviors, speech, attitudes, or general stereotypes as "black" or "white", we are maintaining and perpetuating racial differences, and racism. The "N" word? An instrument of Perpetuation of racism. Certain comedians? Yes, for sure they perpetuate these differences of black versus white.

Should we forget that the "N" word was used as a hateful racial epithet and tool of control, for centuries? No.

Should we forget that it was used by generations of modern, free black people, as a term of ownership and empowerment? No.

Should we recognize that people, at least North Americans, of all races and ethnicities have used the "N" word as a term of fellowship, solidarity, and being "cool" while not using it as an exclusive term for a black person? Yes.

Is it right to use the "N" word in conversations referring to people in the present? NO. No means no.

In 2019 it is a hateful word that should be eliminated, erased, from our current way of referring to others. Blacks, whites, anyone. Was it used in the past? Of course, and it will always be part of who America is and was. Don't remove it from books or plays. Remove it from your playbook today.

Like leather helmets with no face masks used to be worn in American football, the "N" word has a place in our history and culture, but it is not meant to be used to play football now. Stop it. Now.

Rappers? You are perpetuating the racism, I don't care what color your skin color is. By using it you are promoting racism, unless you are narrating something from the past.

In the present? No more. NO MORE "N" word. Not into this part of the 21st century. Not when referring to oneself or others.

Make sense? It empowered some people for a bit, I get it, but it no longer does. It is simply hateful and racist. Black or white or brown uttering it, it is wrong.

2.  Don't blame police for being scared of violent or threatening suspects, of all shades and shapes. People in uniform risk their lives every shift for the benefit of all of us: we, all of us, should show them respect and a healthy amount of "fear". They deal with crazy, violent, and chemically induced citizens all the time.  Like a child to a parent, we need to show them good attitudes and cooperation. No, police do not own us. They are not our bosses. The police are our servants that we have to utterly help to promote the peace of all. This is not a racial thing, but too many turn it into a racist thing.

3. Institutions and banks of all kinds must be "color blind". Should we forget that colleges, churches, clubs, courts, public schools, banks, neighborhoods, politicians, and, yes, the very governments of our past were racist? Never forget.

4. No matter what race, religion, perspective, obey the law and stop getting locked up.

Times have been hard on minorities, we know this.

But this is 2019. We are not that way any more as far as outright discrimination. Push forward and be egalitarian, non-racist in how we finance, work, worship, and play.

Sound hard? It is, it is complex and not a trite easy fix. But it is simplistic in how to work past the bad stuff.

Do not succumb to racist terminology or hate. Change your language, change your ways, change your mental energies.

(E)racism.

We can do it. Never forget the hate of the past, but do not perpetuate the self and other loathing of the present and future.

15 Faith Builders or 15 More Deceived and Deceivers

15 Faith Builders or 15 More Deceived and Deceivers

Every 6 months for almost 200 years (189 as of 2019), without any breaks that I know of, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have publicly proclaimed their beliefs and authority to do so from the main pulpit of Salt Lake City, Utah. Okay, it started originally in the United States Midwest, but it has been ensconced in the Salt Lake Valley since 1847. They, normally older men of much church experience, give their talks, share their views, preach sermons with many invitations to act and move on. They claim the most high authority on earth, more than the Vatican or the United Nations, or any sovereign nation. They claim the backing and voice the Lord God.

Many people have different reactions to this. I have heard and witnessed many. I could cite a few, and I understand the range of them.

An Army Guard Lieutenant Colonel or Major, leading up to a Change-of-Command Ceremony at a rural fort field, overheard me explaining what I was missing on a Saturday when General Conference was happening, to which he interjected something like, "They are apostles of God, or claim to be, like the apostles of old in the Bible?" He sounded incredulous if not contemptuous in his voiced reaction to me and those I was talking with.

To him, a man raised most likely White Anglo-Saxon Protestant in the South, for all I could gather, the idea seemed far fetched. Foreign, weird, mislead. I get it.

Others have their opinions and feelings, near and far. I know no small number of second, third, fourth, and more generations of my own faith who decry, denigrate, and, ultimately reject these self-proclaimed authorities. They, those who do not believe, have their reasons to not buy in; I have heard them and have discussed many points with them, mostly, hopefully, in good manners and respectfully. Our dialogs have been taken up publicly and privately.

People who are members of our faith usually completely accept the words and leadership of these 15 top leaders, or completely reject them. There are plenty of us in between, as well. We pick and choose, very often, which points that we believe and practice the most; no one is all black or all white when it comes to entertaining these leaders' words and directives.

So, yes, I am a believer in their words, full honesty disclosed. Some days, for me, I might be at 90 percent as far as belief, or more importantly at the level of practice and living their guidance and counsel. Other days perhaps I drop down to 60 percent? Or less? Sometimes it can be hard. Who knows at what level we are believing and practicing day to day?

But for the purposes of declaration and definition, yes, I am a believer of these 15 leaders. At the age of 19 while on my full time mission in the city streets of Concepcion, Chile, in the river sector of Pedro de Valdivia, I had an inner dialog where I boiled down my core beliefs and inner compass to the fact that I had my own personal knowledge and beliefs, but so much of my assertions were based on the trust that I had in those 1990 top prophets and apostles, most of whom have now passed on (except for three, by my math) as of October 2019.

My basis, or a large part of the basis of my belief in Jesus Christ and what I believe to be His appointed Church, faith organization, and His people, lies in the status and claims of the top 15 leaders of whom I speak.

I realize that they may be purposely or accidentally deluded. I am living a lot of my hopes and life trajectory in hopes and faith that they are who they say they are, and that what they proclaim about God and Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God on Earth is true. If they are false, if they are deluded and mislead, then I will be wrapped up with their identity and will go on in a similar fate as them.

I do not trust in man, in the sense that all human governments are simply that: less than perfect. All humans have foibles and less than selfless aims that I cannot fully trust. Even these high church leaders that I have mentioned are clearly not perfect. I believe that the unseen God that we believe in overlaps with the general Christian Heavenly Father, the Jewish Yahwei or Elohim, the Muslim Allah, and some say with the Hindu Vishnu; we all believe in a largely same all powerful and all-just source, a being in whom there is much mystery but so much posited hope and faith.

I funnel that faith through these leaders and this organization, for good or ill. It may signify my ultimate triumph or ultimate tragic conclusion.

Perhaps my efforts in preaching, exhorting, serving, and paying donation monies for this causes and related missions are all in vain. I am willing to take that risk.

I believe in the overall soundness and decency of my government, my nation. It has been noble, it has its tragic flaws and peccadillos; it is powerful and often can suffer from hubris. Our democracy is far from perfect. I love it and I am loyal, but it is not where I posit my final confidence and hope.

That is found in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I believe that He has chosen elected servants and leaders. I believe that they are who they say they are.

If they are wrong, I am wrong. Are we going in wrong directions? Some say the morality is old fashioned, antiquated, discriminatory, even more wrong in the past due to inclusion issues about gender and race. I take that, those issues, with the current and the future paths.

I am almost 49 years in; I am committed to them and to the powers above, of which they are outspoken advocates.

Thus is my lot, thus is my bond an will.

If I am deceived, then let it be my blessing and curse.

I challenge you to figure out how you wish to be designated. Do you stay aloof, or commit to something outside of yourself and probably your family, at minimum.

Test it, try it, wear it, prove it.

Best of luck and I pray that God will bless. It is important to know, perhaps impossible to know for certain, but at least have a good idea where to posit the trust.

Building or deceiving, growing or diminishing, trusting or distrusting.

You decide.