Friday was my first Chad Greenway football camp. I was expecting to see a lot of area boys working out at various places on the football/soccer fields. Then I saw a bus load of kids of various ages come off a bus from North Minneapolis. It piqued my interest.
A group of aging baby-boomers gathered recently to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Minnesota’s leadership in expanding political engagement by our state’s youngest citizens — an anniversary that’s highly relevant in today’s hostile political environment.
I spend many summer days with my great-niece, Lily, while her dad works 12-hour days. Lily turns 3 at the end of February. She is a fish, so we swim and play water games. We are happy mermaids, because I love to swim. Lily also is a monkey and climbs anything and everything. I do not follow her climbing antics. I keep both of my feet solidly on the ground while encouraging Lily to be brave and climb.
If you’re at all like me, it probably feels like we’ve already been through at least three different presidential election years so far this year. And given the pace of events, it’s a good bet that between now and November, there’s more to come. The presidential contest has so thoroughly dominated our attention — not to mention news cycle after news cycle — that even the Senate and House races have pretty much disappeared from view. In this environment, the central role that ordinary Americans play — except as poll respondents — isn’t even an afterthought.
I don’t know how much you think about sharks but I used to think I think about sharks the regular amount. Which is to say: I don’t think about sharks. Unless I’m at a natural history museum. Or the aquarium. Or I’m near a 3-year-old singing “Baby Shark.” Or I happen to be rewatching Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws.” Other than that, I don’t think about sharks. I don’t dream about sharks. I don’t daydream about sharks. I don’t have nightmares about sharks. Sharks are kind of an abstract thing that exist … someplace else, I guess. Sharks are someone else’s problem.
It’s fair to say that the United States has never seen an election year like this one. We face a presidential choice between a convicted felon bent on dismantling the institutions and norms that we’ve developed over nearly 250 years, versus a sitting president whose debate performance and general age concerns have stoked calls from within his own party to step aside.
There’s a lot going on in the world. The Far East is bad. The Middle East is worse. The political landscape of this country feels like a post-apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy novel. Thus, in these very serious times, Beyond Reason will now consider potato salad.
I recently read a New York Times article about sandwiches. The tagline to the article was “the things you can do between two pieces of bread.” The popularity of sandwiches is universal, because they can be simple or complex.
Back in mid-May, the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University released the latest of their studies looking at bipartisanship in the U.S. House and Senate. They summed up the bottom line in their first sentence: “The results show a slight improvement in bipartisanship in 2023 but remained near record lows.”
Did you know May was National Tennis Month? I’ve been in and around the game for decades and never heard an inkling about it. And yet, apparently, it’s a thing. So let’s do something Beyond Reason has never done before. Let’s talk tennis.