Getting Ready
Years ago, when I was in grad school and playing intramural floor hockey, I got ready for playoff games by listening to Gustav Holst's The Planets (specifically the first movement, Mars, the bringer of War). It raised my intensity to a level that I haven't matched since. I remember little of those games, except the outcome. we won, repeatedly.
Sports, in its truest form, does that. It erases the world beyond the competition. You focus on the competition, you focus on getting your job done. Nothing else matters, nothing else is remembered. At the end of it, you shake hands and move on.
How unlike war, which ends without a hand shake, without moving on. How many wars originate from the last war? War is competion without a clear victor. Both sides are losers, with one side not losing as much.
Anyway, I am listening to the Planets, preparing for a baseball game. I am pleased to predict that there will be a winner and a loser and no one will die as a result. There may even be a hand shake at the end (even though it isn't hockey).
5:06:43 PM 
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