Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Mythology is an Oral Tradition for Many Cultures in Our World, Not Just for Humans

Before there were tablets and parchment, humans passed down history in an oral fashion through storytelling (mythology) and music (poetry/bards). 

In our haste to be the top apex predator and maintain that crown, we forgot that humans are not the only intelligent life on the planet. To illustrate, Mother Earth is the most obvious intelligent life that we live on. Our own living guardian spaceship careening through a galaxy. Some people rant and rave about how people are the cause of this and that, but fail to give Mother Earth any credit whatsoever. She has survived cataclysmic events: asteroids that have cracked her crust, magnetic pole reversals, and hot magma on her surface for millions of years. Mother Earth gave us this bounty to use for our survival. If we screw it up, she will continue on. Promise. 

From what I understand, 500 nuclear detonations have been carried out after World War II. The Earth is still here. You are still here.

So why do humans keep running around screaming: me, Me, ME! Humans did this! Humans did that! It's the end of the world as we know it! Stop everything. We need to tax the air!

Well, immaturity. Without knowledge, wisdom, and discernment, a person cannot see beyond themselves and that is the true tragedy of living in a psychological bubble. That is why we must always seek out information. Most un-researched, un-studied, and un-sung data is often just gibber-jabber fed to us for our entertainment. Knowledge is messy. Wisdom is experiencing the world through that knowledge. Discernment is taking that knowledge and wisdom to create a better way to live. 

In humanity's quest to find their own discernment, we come to remember that we share this planet with other beings. I have lived with birds, dogs, and cats. Many humans have shared their lives with Mother Nature and her creatures. 

Have you ever thought how you are incorporated into an animal's life story? 

On March 16th, 2014, I became a part of a hummingbird's family story. A hummingbird made a nest high up in my gazebo to sit on her two little eggs. April 3rd, the eggs hatched. April 21st, baby hummingbird graduation day as they learned how to fly.

That is the data. The story is something different. The hummingbirds knew I existed and watched me every day. I interacted with my felines and greeted them. For over a month, I was this giant walking around the front patio. 

Graduation day turned into one for both of us to remember. I walked out of the house, and the babies were flying with their mother. One zoomed over to me. I offered my outstretched hand and open palm. The baby greeted me: see what I can do? I was so happy to see the babies hovering, but the one who came to me turned and zoomed too fast away. The baby hummingbird hit the patio wall and bounced around until the baby slammed onto the concrete floor.

I was stunned. I was, but not my feral cat, Irene. She snatched that baby into her mouth without hesitation. I stepped to Irene, pointed at her, and said: no, three times. She released the baby. I then grabbed the baby into my hand. The baby hummingbird was scared and confused. I petted the baby's head and spoke softly. I pushed over a chair, stood on it, and placed the baby back into the nest. 

I waited. After the coast was clear, the mother hummingbird returned and calmed her frightened baby down. I watched, but the two birds did not move until the next day. 

Without fanfare, the hummingbirds departed, never to return to their nest. The nest still sits empty. It awaits another fearless mother.

A nice story... for me to retell, but what about the hummingbirds? These small creatures can live 5 to 7 years. So 2014 plus 7, and the mother hummingbird is most likely deceased and so are her babies, who I befriended. The grand babies and their babies, well that is a different story. 

Every year from springtime through autumn, I hear hummingbird calls in my yard, especially by my kitchen window. I still receive visits. So the babies have communicated to their offspring about the giant who lives in the huge mushroom. 

To them, I am a character in their storytelling. Their oral tradition has passed down graduation day and how one of theirs was saved. I am now a living myth. 

How long will the story be passed down? Who knows? 

All I know is that every turn to the warmer seasons, I am greeted by the sweet tweets of hummingbirds, who are telling me as part of their ongoing living history.

The lesson here is that we must turn off the noise and get back to what is real. Turn off the news, sports, and entertainment. Is that real? 

Or, are we being fed a pseudo-reality in order to convince us of a mythology that someone else would like us to believe? What myths are being passed down to you?  What is being re-tolded? Re-imagined?

Not all mythology is taught to better humanity. Some stories we are told are created to control how we think. Do you know of any stories that we are not allowed to tell? Who we are not allowed to follow? Are these stories, fact and figures, relegated to the realm of forbidden knowledge? If so, why? And who determined what information, stories, and people are harmful to our mythology?

Maybe without the noise, we can read the classics and discern for ourselves which mythological stories makes us stronger. And which mythology creates the illusion of reality...

The hummingbirds can visit me anytime and see that I am real. 

Do you know what is real?

 

Have a great and wonderful day. 

 

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Monday, September 14, 2020

The Price of Your Inclusivity May Be Your Creativity

In a mad dash to be as woke as possible, the film industry is changing its rules for inclusion into the awards season by destroying the creative process. 

Did you check off all the boxes? Did you include everyone except the people you do not agree with? About time Hollywood ditches 82.5% of America and concentrates only on the most important 4.5% LGBTQ and the 13% African American population. That is, if you are into the statistical make up of the United States.

When organizations design hurdles to control the narrative, then what is the point in participating? It looks like micromanaging at best and social engineering at worst. 

People become engaged in authentic stories that have the look and feel of real people. That movie could be science fiction or Shakespearean, but when artificial external influences change the feel of the characters, that is when the public checks out. Woke doctrine has destroyed American cultural institutions like education, sports, and entertainment. There is a reason why woke makes corporations go broke.

Maybe that is the joke? 

The vast majority of Americans are not buying into the woke revolution. So the joke is lost on them, completely. Yet, sports teams and the film industry keep pushing the envelope on a product a large swath of people have no interest in consuming. 

Are wealthy entertainers just tone deaf?
According to Deadline Hollywood, “…the Kansas City Chiefs pummeled the Houston Texans 34-20, and the ratings were down — a lot. In early numbers, the primetime NBC game scored a 5.2 among adults 18-49 and 16.4 million viewers between 8-11 p.m. ET.

“Now, those numbers for the 8:25-11:30 p.m. ET game will certainly be adjusted upward later, but right now they mark a 16.1% drop over the spectacle of the September 5, 2019 season opener in the advertiser-rich demographic. In an America and a NFL still adjusting to the new normal of live sports in the era of COVID-19, last night’s game also fell 16.1% in total sets of eyeballs from last year’s fast affiliate results.”
then there is: 
The site reported that the “Braves-Phillies earned a 0.8 and 1.20 million on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (including ESPN2 Statcast coverage) — down 30% in ratings and 33% in viewership from week five of last season (5/5/19: Cardinals-Cubs: 1.1, 1.81M), but up a tick and 2% respectively from last year’s comparable date (9/1/19 Mets-Phillies: 0.7, 1.19M).

“Earlier Sunday,” SMW added, “a Yankees-Mets doubleheader had a 0.25 and 381,000 on TBS and a 0.18 and 303,000 on ESPN2. Cardinals-Reds had 340,000 and Padres-Rockies 231,000 on ESPN Monday.”
When there is no audience to play to, there is no revenue. No one will by dvds, jerseys, or tickets. Slowly but surely these industries will die a horrible death only to be buried as paupers. 

What is the point of this exercise? Humans are attracted to stories they can relate to and feel are organic, authentic products. Like begets like, that is your audience.

All the woke writers are following a fad that will soon fade out. Do you really want to be known for that book you wrote way back when it was cool to be exclusionary person? 

Undawnted follows mythology, literature, and original creativity initiatives. No fluff here. No fads. No woke. Just real characters that look and feel authentic. 

That is how writers should write: from their internal processes. Soon woke culture will bankrupt entertainment because the fashion of exclusion of more than 80% of Americans will soon go out of style. 

You can include anyone you want in your creativity, but once you start down the road of selective editing to satisfy an imaginary checklist: that is when your readership checks out.

The sports ratings in particular support this thesis statement.

Stop the joke now: exclusivity is not that funny.






Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Spring is Here, Sports are Overrated, and Stories Abound

Yes, I know those in the upper and eastern portions of the United States are frozen.

In Phoenix, 80's are on their way! Good, I hate the cold. I hate snow even more. I did live in Iowa as a child and I am so glad we fled, I mean: moved.  

The only wish I have is that frigid weather would ruin the Super Bowl. Then maybe Arizona would not be cursed with having to host another one. 

I know that sounds harsh but sports are not important. Sports are for fun. Sports are not supposed to be a person's main focus in life or take up their extra cash.

Let's put it this way.... We pay men to play with a ball in several sports more than we pay our teachers to teach our children, people to watch our children while we are at work. It is really obscene once you put sports in perspective to the rest of our world. 

These examples demonstrate the failing of ethics and morals. Roman Gladiators and idolizing current sports figures are but two different sides of the same coin.

In writing, a writer can find the similarities between the past and present as well as what irritates him or her about their own culture and use that experience to create another society in fiction.

Perhaps writing about how cultures defeat their male worship sports binge might be a good novel to write.

That and the weather. I cannot wait for our nice warm weather to stay awhile, even if the temperatures do not ruin the Super Bowl. At least I will have a good time being outside again. 

Well, if the planes stop spraying lines all over that make me ill and cause breathing problems. Yeah, clean air days and blue skies would cure a lot of what ails me.


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