It was painful, as a Bears fan, to watch Chicago fight back against the Washington Commanders on Sunday, only to lose on a last-second touchdown via a "Hail Mary" pass. Likewise, I know Yankees fans were as disappointed in Friday's walkout grand slam by Dodgers' veteran Freddie Freeman as L.A. fans were elated.
It's always tough to be on the losing ends of these things, but you have to be glad they happen. For one thing, they might happen for your team one day. For another, they are reminders that you can never give up, right to the end.
And most of all, they are good for the game.
People will be talking about that grand slam for decades, and kids will be reenacting that Hail Mary on playgrounds at recess for a long time to come.
But not every last-ditch effort is so positive.
Kamala Harris's closing pitch to voters is that Trump is Hitler. The false Atlantic story; the hoax that Trump's Madison Square Garden rally was a Nazi reenactment; the media talking points that Trump is a "fascist" -- it's all just desperate, and a sign she believes she is losing.
It's also a terrible way to go out. Even if she wins, she will -- much like Biden with the "very fine people" hoax -- have destroyed her own mandate by calling half the country Nazis.
It's also bad for the game.
Hillary Clinton did the same thing in 2016, and poisoned the minds of her own followers, to the point where they lost their sanity when Trump won, and began tearing the country apart -- Russia collusion, 2020 riots, etc. -- for years.
If you throw a "Hail Mary" pass and you fail -- well, then, good try. But if you trash half the country in an effort to win an election, it's worst than bad sportsmanship and you really ought to be disqualified from holding public office.
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
