TimeOut with Tambo
I spent a week in the Eastern Sierras camping in the June Lake Loop at Grant Lake. Grant is the biggest of the four lakes in the June Lake Loop and the farthest from restaurants, watering holes and the town of June Lake. It has little or no phone, TV, radio or Internet reception. So I went from a week in Pittsburgh taking advantage of cable TV, phone coverage and Internet reception to a week of complete relaxation, which is not my cup of tea and I usually don’t drink tea when I am camping.
The time away from modern communication devices left me with too much time to think and wonder since I didn’t have to spend any time reeling in fish. I did not get any bites but I did hear several trout laugh when I tried to undo what I call bird nests from my reel after botched attempts at casting.
I once had a college professor who said that college was not the place to get the answers. The brilliant professor said that college was where one went to get the questions and life was where one went to get the answers. I didn’t understand what he meant then but I think I do now.
Here are some of the questions I came up with while (f)wishing.
Why is everybody so upset with A-Rod? Every criminal who commits a major felony pleads innocent and too many get off. They cost the taxpayers billions of dollars and usually just get slapped on the wrists. Why do we expect athletes to be any different from the common criminal?
Why does everybody want to accept the “sincere apologies” of those who were bullied into taking a 50-game suspension and why do the same people want A-Rod punished four times more severely than them for committing the same crime and demanding his constitutional rights? They all cheated for the same reason — to make more money. Even with 50 games with no pay, the 12 who accepted their suspensions will make more money than most third world countries, and their next contract will be even bigger. Taking Performance-enhancing drugs (PED) is well worth the risk. Do PEDs really help anybody but the media on bad news days?
Why do we give the guy(s) who sold and distributed the drugs amnesty so that we can punish their victims? Most plea bargains are bigger crimes than the felonies being prosecuted. We let murderers, rapists, and drug dealers off relatively free to go after the “big fish.” In my opinion, we elect too many of the big fish and they let the small fish swim in their ponds.
Why did Johnny Manziel sign so many autographs when he is on record as hating to sign autographs? Does he have any new tattoos or is that just a Big Ten thing?
Why do so many people have a problem with Tim Tebow being religious but have no problem with other athletes showboating and being irreverent?
Why do all of the celebrations after a game winning run is scored in a MLB game seem staged, trite and phony? The huge piles are replacing the empty Gatorade bucket on the coach after football games as the most trite ways to fake a celebration.
What is Mayor Filner’s stance on a taxpayer supported stadium for the Chargers? Or is he too busy with his other issues? If Anthony Weiner gets elected to mayor of the Big Apple, will they change the city’s name to the Big Hot Dog? Is he a Yankee or Met fan? Do his actions trump the conduct of Marion Barry? Are Filner, Weiner and Barry really all that different than most politicians? Or do we just hear about the bizarre politicians and ignore the ones who are honest and decent?
Next year I’ll have to catch more fish.