Feeding Sons

                 When they were little, I worried if they were getting enough of the “right” food, and milk, and vitamins.  How can PBJ and fish sticks be adequate for healthy, growing boys?
                 

                 Today, they are men at my table. They eat plenty, probably making up for the years of PBJ and fish sticks. Announcing requests – “Can we have chili one night, and chicken casserole, and meat loaf?”  “Can we have BBQ and catfish?” I know their favorites and had planned accordingly.

                 I also watch them interact: as men, as brothers.
                 How they seem to admire each other, how they collaborate and communicate. They are 8 years apart in age, but they relate in a closer way.
                  Feeding sons is an important task, one a mother takes seriously. 
                  Feed them well, but always, with more than food.

Never Too Old: Christmas Stockings

Too old for a stocking? Never.

Apples, Oranges, Candy, and Nuts…(www.pittypatter-pitterpatter.blogspot.com). Not so much the nuts, but the other items were staples in my stocking- with a gi-normous candy cane!

What’s this “stocking stuffer” propaganda encouraging me to fill a stocking with $50 cologne, keys to a Land Rover, and an IPhone 5?

Mother and Daddy would bring us our stockings, first thing! No getting out of bed on Christmas Morning! That’s the rule. Stockings started the festivities and provided a hint of jubilation to follow.  

I did the same for my sons, but they’re men now, and that’s rather creepy. Besides that, they roll their eyes. But, no Scrooge here, they’ll have a stocking on Christmas morning.

This year, the stockings will be hanging, but on the tree, not above the fireplace. Apples and Candy and always Batteries, because they are “not included.”

Problem is, as the recipients have grown, the stockings have not. They are the same ones as always, matching mine from the 1950’s. They tell me that Green goes well with Red on Christmas. How Boring. Stockings should be a creative delight!

My Christmas wish for you: Go forth and stuff stockings-Forever!

Merry Christmas to All and to all, a Good Night!

Ice Dome

Coleridge’s Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan:

It was a miracle of rare device,	35
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

One cold day freezes into the next.
Sunshine momentarily warms ice droplets, refreezing in saber-tooth jaws.
Hazy-hued dome of white reveals naked branches casting stark on the horizon.
White tomorrows promise rare pleasures Kubla Khan cannot know.

Darth Vader Invades the Sports Universe

            After reading my friend Talya’s Blog post from Grace, Grits, and Gardening about fanatic response to Alabama's defeat, I was motivated to comment. Many  fans breathe in relation to their sports teams victory or defeat. So do the universities, themselves.
            The Sunday morning headlines might acknowledge that the Razorbacks  lost. As a teenager, ups and downs swung radically and any loss was a downer. Sometimes, though, I did not want to get out of bed to face the disappointment: Texas came from behind to win.  Once, a hometown man died of a heart attack in the stands at War Memorial Stadium when Ole Miss got 2 chances to kick an extra point for the win. This was serious football.
                    

Memphis basketball is loaded with the  passion of Louisville, Cincinnati, and Final Four.  Tuesdays and Saturdays focus community attention on each bounce of the ball: victory or defeat.  The city holds its breath when the Tigers take the hardwood. Serious basketball for serious fans.

                Things have become  too charged with fanaticism, gotten out of hand in many respects.  Sports should be a positive enterprise:  competitive fun and economic fuel for a community, university, or state.  In my opinion, however, it hasn't been "just a game" for a very long time. Ask a coach who is fired if he thinks the sport "is just a game."  Check the financial contributions to the university in the name of this "game."  When did sport become so serious?  Young men still in their teens and early twenties are lining up for football or basketball with much more to lose than a game.  And that mentality filters down to babies in uniforms, and their parents. 
                 Taking a game seriously and being a fan-fanatic, in proper perspective, can be exhilarating. But, death threats? I’ve heard news reports of such after the Auburn win over Alabama.
                 Winning and losing.  That's life. We learn to rebound from fender benders or family tragedies and face the next day. People who do not learn to balance life can become bitter and jaded. And make threats that turn our stomachs.

                 Darth Vader must be their father.