Went to the Kentucky-Louisville basketball game at famed Freedom Hall a few weeks ago.
I have many great memories of UK games in Freedom Hall. In high school I used to go every New Years Eve and see the UK/Notre Dame game--always a classic! It was always a night game and Kentucky always won--that's why Digger ended the series after so long--and afterwards we'd go to Kingfish for a celebratory fish dinner. SCRUMPTIOUS! Then Joe's dad would drive us home to Lexington on those cold wintry nights and we'd pull in the wee hours of the morning. Of course, by our senior year we'd drive ourselves.
Anyway, the Louisville game is big time special, particularly since Rick Pitino is now coaching the Cards. He's an unreal coach--touches every inch of the program with passion and excellence. Plus he's just got a charisma that draws people. In many ways Rick is directly responsible for the reemergence of basketball prominence in the state. He "Gets it" in regards to the ultra-special tradition of basketball essence that is Kentucky. As a kid he'd get Kentucky games on the radio, you know the old fashioned kind where you'd turn the knob ever so slightly to find a clear channel. At night the breadth of stations exploded, like bugs on a hot August night.
Well, Rick told us of how when he was a kid lying in bed, he listened to Cawood Ledford broadcast Kentucky games on WHAS. He'd search and search for Kentucky games for he always knew that Kentucky was THE program. It was his keen passion and vision that brought him to Kentucky when the program was rock bottom, and by his vision we were all reminded once again of the special tradition unique to us.
I'm not sure how many Kentuckians truly appreciate what Rick did, especially UK fans scorned by his accepting the Louisville job. Anyway, future generation s most certainly will, because his imprint is massive and it is very, very real.
Anyway, I wanted SOMETHING to eat, but choices were few for I don't eat meat or junk food anymore. I chose a bag of peanuts. I tore into the bag, crunched the shell, threw the nut in my mouth and UGGHHH! Horribly stale! Another, another, another, oh yuck they are all stale. My face grimaced as I swallowed them.
I started to complain, but then thought about the proverbial starving masses in various parts of the world for whom these stale peanuts would be a feast. I thought that I should treat this bag of peanuts as if I hadn't eaten for a month--how stale would they taste THEN?
So I kept eating, ugh--another stale bite, grimace--chew--grimace--swallow--frown. And another, and another, until I simply could not stomach another stale peanut and then finally this prayer:
"Oh God, thank you, thank you, thank you for so much abundance, so much good food that I can refuse these peanuts, which I know many in the world would feast upon. Please forgive me my spoiled nature and, I pray, protect me from such wretched conditions that might find me groveling on the ground in hunger for just one of these nuts, although I don't know why I should be so favored when so many others are not. Please be with all, especially those who would do anything for this bag of stale peanuts."
I didn't mind much when Louisville won. Compared to life, winning lost its flavor.
