Saturday, September 28, 2019

Football Counter-Programming 2019: Week 6



Welcome back everyone to another post in this year's Football Counter-Programming effort.

Last week, I sat down to write and I was 100 percent convinced that I would have no idea what to write and then stuff just starting coming out and I decided to go ahead with it and call it a thing. But this week, I really am sitting down to write and nothing is coming to mind.

You see--and I do this sometimes because of reasons--I often try to pre-plan and pre-write these posts before Saturday morning. Especially when times like this weekend arise: where I am busy all of Friday night helping out Grace's marching band at an away football game performance and then immediately helping out again on Saturday with a marching band competition. When I'm working all week, I just don't often have the mental energy to sit down and start coming up with some hare-brained idea for an FC-P before Saturday morning rolls around. And so, I always have the "bye week" looming in my mind . . . wondering which is the best week to pull the trigger on that and just back out for a week.

I sat down last week, determined not to use the bye week. I was just going to sketch out something short and try to call it intentionally vague. But then I quickly wrote some mental dialogue that I liked more than expected and felt that it was good enough.

What constitutes good enough anyway?

I'd love to know what the public reaction to these posts are. I don't expect much feedback, sure. But I wish I could crawl inside your heads and track what is good and what is bad when you read these things. And isn't that the dilemma of all writers? (And, sorry if I am casually throwing myself into that category that I definitely didn't earn.) Since I left school and quit getting grades on essays and reports--INTERRPUTED BY DAUGHTER TO GO TAKE AN AFTERNOON WALK--


. . .  Sorry.

Um, well. As I was saying. When I left school and quit getting grades on essays and reports, I lost the direct feedback from readers to gauge how I was doing with my writing. Not that these writing assignments were creative in nature--or at least not directly. I guess all decent writing should involve creativity, a clever turn of phrase where appropriate, clear thinking and useful ideas.

Not that my blogging really reflects that.

But ANYWAY--I do welcome responses: both good and bad. Truly. Without that I'm just tossing junk into the social media void and confirming in myself that no one at all wants or cares that I keep pounding these things out week after week and year beyond year. It's not like I'm truly changing your mind about college football. It's only an excuse to write something and maybe, maybe, maybe stumble into something good every once in a great while.

Maybe I'll shift to rapid-fire poetry.

If there is one thing I'm sure is a good idea is quickly sketched poetic ideas with very little time for reflection or honing.

Well--I guess that feels like the end of this drafting session. How many football plays happened in the second quarter while you were skimming this? Or did you save it for a commercial break? However you chose to consume it, I thank you for sharing some time with me.

And remember, once more. For all YOU know, the third-string defensive end of your famous alma mater just might love performing slam poetry in the too-old restaurant that some of the professors (you know which ones) still dream about hanging out in when they were younger and trying for tenure. Football players are (certainly) large. And they are allowed to also contain multitudes.

See you next weekend?

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