It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
by Doug Bond
Heaven's a blast! It's like a big summer camp in space. Non-stop games, crafts and activities up here around the clock. Amazing too, how everything we do up here flips a switch down there. Kodachrome sunsets? Rainbows? The Northern Lights? We are the weavers of the tie-dyed sky.
It can be stressful though, like over on the archery range, I keep missing my target and the Dow plunges 500 points. I capsize my canoe and the divorce rate spikes. I'm learning to go with the flow.
Still it's hard not to rock your earthly world. Thunder, earthquakes, landslides? Just another intense game of volleyball. Politics?...a marathon ping pong tournament. Most of the rest of the bad stuff: war, strife, wanton violence, that's just us "going voodoo" on a football field.
Now, Baseball? That's OUR kinda game, a sacred game, a heaven on earth, if you will. We're addicted to the unscripted infiniteness of it all, every game a potential eternity (remember extra innings at Candlestick?) We are at peace with this, silent spectators to your game, leaving it alone to The Living to…Play Ball!
And there's no better view than from up here to take it all in, an epic dance of fallen heroes, improbable saviors, self-determining puppets rotating in a mandala of futility and hope.
Or as one of our most eloquent scribes, Billy Shakespeare, says: Playing a game full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
Yep, you guessed it, the Bard's a Cubs fan, but then again aren't we all.
Billy Shakespeare! Doug, this is such a great take on Space Camp. The idea that everyone up there is playing games and those games make bad things happen down here on earth. So much fun!
Nice take on the prompt, Doug! Love how you worked in various sports into this (particularly baseball).
Enjoyed the piece. Good fit with the challenge.
doug, what a perfect way to start a saturday morning. thanks.
Doug, you got to be kidding. An extra innings game at Candlestick? A night game? Brrr!
Brilliant. I enjoyed this immensely!
I love the details and pacing of this piece, Doug. Great energy, great point.
Fun voice and inventive. Really good energy. And "unscripted infitniteness" is a great way to look at baseball!
wow...thanks all! So glad this comes off fluid and fun. And Jack..the Candlestick allusion. You're right, less heaven than hell, and a frozen one at that!
Fun, irreverent and a nice twist on the theme. Well done!
Absolutely baseball is heaven's game! This is close to my heart and personal life and it resonates. I loved every game being "a potential eternity" and I love this:
...an epic dance of fallen heroes, improbable saviors, self-determining puppets rotating in a mandala of futility and hope.
Thank you for a fun, funny, and beautiful read, all of these things, all at once. -- Q
Quenby..thank you! Wrote this when Giants were still distant in the NL West...and now, the parade is in the streets of San Francisco at this very moment, including an improbable savior named Renteria
I just saw this, dropped my jaw. Really great. favorited
Thank you James! It's that time of year again, and this go around my team needs an even greater miracle than last year.