29 Comments
Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

Very moving tribute to your young friend, I felt like it was me who experienced the loss.

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Thank you for the kind words. 🙏🏻

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

I appreciated this, for over the past 2+ years I’ve had a love/hate relationship with sports, baseball and basketball being my favorites to watch. But I debate: do I watch or not. Your perspective has helped.

BTW, In what state did you play hockey? Minnesota?

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I began playing in North Carolina. (Weird, I know). Eventually lead to Alberta, CA. I played in the AJHL, and briefly in the WHL before torpedoing my knee.

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My wife is from northern Minnesota, hockey country. Growing up in Indiana, I never saw a hockey game live till I married her.

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I played sports my whole life and it gave me a lot of self esteem that I lacked otherwise, but pro sports since COVID and G. FLoyd has soured me on spectator sports at the pro level at least; I can't even watch anymore as it seems so "empty" now. I don't disagree that sports is important for people to engage in but if someone refused to get the jab because Aaron Rodgers didn't or Kyrie Irving didn't, they are no smarter than those who did because LeBron James said to. You have to make your own decisions based on your own awareness and reasoning not because some sports "idol" (an appropriate word) says to or not to. Can anyone watch the last few Super Bowl halftime shows and not see that there is an underlying "message" and indoctrination going on there? Or the Olympics? It's become all-too blatant. The powers that be have infected everything we hold dear w/ their propaganda.

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

Always admired Aaron Rogers and wasnt sure why. I know now why, he's more than an athlete.

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Nov 21, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

AT...you've described the exact struggle I've been experiencing for the past two years...is it bread and circus, or is there value in contest?

George Patton always seems to find a way into my consciousness...and I think this speaks to the importance of sport:

"When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

Competition is woven into the very fabric of America. Though I mostly ignore MLB and NFL, I find myself drawn back against my own principles. My overarching feeling is screw these orgs that endorse BLM and divisive ideologies yet, I'm still drawn in by the competitive nature.

Thanks for this article. My internal battle continues but your perspective helps.

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

Awesome article .. moving, well said, encouraging and much food for thought! I've second guessed sports.. being from Georgia made it hard with the Dawgs and Braves ..it's a family thing around here .. I love your perspective and comparisons .. Sports can be so uniting .. just got to take out the trash!! Thank you !!!

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My mother was a Brave’s fan (rest her soul 🙏🏻). Thank you so much for your kind words.

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

THE "TRUE" ESSENCE OF SPORTS, IN A FAMILY SETTING

(well...sorta)

Having grown up with a brother just a few years older than me, we often would tear the house apart.

My brother loved all sports, had an encyclopedic knowledge of players, & understood both offense & defense, of all sports. He had the typical sports posters of the day, Pete Maravich, Bill Bradley, Jerry West, & Lew Alcindor. He even asked for board games of sports for Christmas presents. I asked for a Hot Wheels track.

He loved boxing, my dad-me-he watched Ali/Frazier bouts together, & my dad tried to point up what each boxer was doing. Joe Louis was his favorite bruiser. My father boxed a little. Men of those days often did. In both WWII Army/Navy Legions. He was a Sailor, his bro' (Uncle) was Army.

My bro' loved The Olympics too, introducing me & teaching me the ins n' outs, of all the competition events.

Later on, in 1980 when Jimmy Carter, FOR POLITICAL REASONS, canceled U.S. Players, from playing...well...he was rather pissed & cursed The Pres., with 3 forked Sicilian spits.

Anyway.

I was no technician of sports, I just liked to play. First time at bat in Little League, I ran up to home plate to take my swings.

On the way home in the family silver-blue Rambler, sitting in the back seat, my brother elbowed me in the ribs sharply, & said rather determinant-ly, "Don't run up to the plate you freakin' idiot. Walk up to the batter's box."

I said to my father, "Hey dad, could you speed it up, there's a tremendous episode of Felix The Cat that I need to study. I already saw Part I, but I gotta ties things together with Part II."

My father calmly mused, "You're not still watching that, are you?"

"No," I said.

*

Another time, when my parents were at our local church on a Friday night, working/volunteering the kitchen during Bingo, for monies for both church & school, my brother & I decided on performing the Olympic high-jump on our parent's bed.

Well...Paulie took to air a wee bit too much, & landed on the mattress corner destroying the wooden slate beneath. Not knowing of such things, we didn't know what to do.

My bro', hearing the wood shatter & seeing the now unlevel bed, said "Dad's gonna kill you," & fled the scene.

So I accepted that with great faith & waited for my demise. But much to my surprise, when dad returned & I said something like, "I think I kinda sat on the bed too hard," he looked under the bed at the framework, & said, "It's just a slat."

I lived another day.

*

My mother often relegated us (or locked us within) to the basement on rainy days. It's not as bad as it sounds, we had a bathroom down there & she slid lunch beneath the kitchen door, at the top of the steps. ("So that's why there was mustard at the bottom of the door," sayeth The Cornel. Anywho). She just didn't want her house destroyed.

So my brother dares me to a chin-up contest, performed on the iron water pipes of the water-relayed furnace.

Later in the day, my father comes down after a day of labor, & I say, "Hey dad check this out, I leap up to the low-ceiling water pipe & proudly display my new found talent.

Now for some strange Reason, his eyes widen to owl-saucers, he grabs me lightening-ly fast, but gently at the waist, & lowers me to the floor. He explains gently again that they are water pipes, not designed to bear weight, & the iron could fracture & flood the basement.

Now...I get to thinkin' (but not sayin', to the dear man), 'but then we'd have an indoor pool, just like The Olympics.'

*

Another day in the basement, I was playing with my tiddlywinks set, sans reading the included instructions.

So I'm basically have them on the hard troweled, shiny, cement floor, then snapping them with an unleashed middle finger, to see how far I can drive them.

Sometimes I build a little pyramid of them & then whip the included rubber ball at them, like I was bowling for dollars.

Well...my decade+ older sister comes down, watches what I'm doin' & says, "Let me show you how." Basically, you bounce the ball once, & then try to scoop up as many tiddlywinks as possible, with same single hand, BEFORE the ball reaches its low point, at floor's surface.

Well...I watch this tutored, well-meaning display, & think, but don't say, "What. Is. The. Point. Of. That.?"

So...I feel inclined to return the favor whilst matching her skilled wits & grab my game which I have studied well. That's right. Barrel of Monkeys.

Ok, so let me start with cranking open the dark brown plastic barrel in which I house said monkeys. Then I spill out blue, red, & yellow monkeys with curled hands, ready for the tethering & gathering.

Well... let's just say we had some fun.

***

If one reads one of Roger Penrose's tomes, in which he describes (physically) the creation of space, via the spinning of objects that he calls "spinors," I swear I see a tiddlywink.

Something a kid might twirl before his grandpa's eye.

Anyway...

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

Another excellent article, keep up the good work. One of the greatest memories of my life was getting a chance to play in a Mite A hockey tournament when I was 10 in Lake Placid, NY. I was 2 when they beat the Russian’s so I don’t remember the game but I was in the room while it was on and my father who turned down a D1 college hockey scholarship to go to a local college, work and get married to my mom instead I know most likely reacted the same way he did when his NY Rangers finally won a Cup in 94’ after many yrs. I grew up camping with family in up state NY Adirondack Mt’s. And every summer we would go to Lake Placid. We would go by the now Herb Brooks arena and at 7 I knew something special happened there because my dad would be in awe of it. I didn’t realize I’d finally play there when I was 10. We were the one team from Connecticut that got in invited to play teams from upstate NY and all over Canada. The tournament did not go well for us, but the final game we got to play in that arena. We sat in the locker room, skating out onto the blue tint of that ice in the 80’s was incredible, we played as hard as we could against a team from Edmonton and lost 15-1. But what we did when we finally scored would’ve made YouTube nowadays because we piled up on each other like they did in 1980. And for 7 min left it gave us wings and they did not score again. Before the game my dad went and snuck on the outdoor speed skating rink just to touch the ice Eric Heiden won 5 gold medals on. We felt like heroes just for a few minutes. I got to be in the old Yankee stadium for a Red Sox/Yankees game where for 10 min after 7th inning stretch the entire crowd chanted “USA” like a Trump rally not long after 9/11. I’ve walked Daytona International Speedway, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I caught Lance Armstrong’s US Olympic feed bag in the crowded streets of Atlanta during mens road race, it’s the only one in the world and he signed it the following day right before cancer, and then that story didn’t end well. I’ve had death in other ways than you in life but the moments I have taken great memory in have been playing or watching sporting events throughout my life. I got to spend an entire day with Gordie Howe once, one of the coolest guys I ever met, I was 11, I was his friend for 1 day, he even was introducing me as his friend. When he left my dads work that day he told my father he was in his way to NYC to have dinner with Mikhail Gorbachev on behalf of Pres Reagan. Hockey broke barriers back in the 80’s. We know they push so much propaganda, I stopped watching so much for several yrs myself but we have been blessed to wake up and see it, we don’t follow it, I personally say prayers when their woke TV commercials and messages come on. But many of my greatest memories involved sports, I remember throwing 1000’s of pitches in my backyard to my grandfather as a kid, or just driving with my dad across Connecticut at 4am to get ice time. We boycott almost everything, but I have realized we often just need to watch the game for what it is, because some of those moments literally change the course of history as you said by just a paradigm shift in energy when the impossible happens, and we all are waiting for one in these trying times.

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

MASTERFUL !!!

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

[Snarky][Cynical] Counterpoint perspective;

No. Cool story bro' about over coming adversities, but still the answer is no.

Yes, sports is/was/can be a great asset to society. Just about any activity that builds relationships, strengthens mind and body, teaches discipline and values, shapes people into something better.

But still, no.

You mentioned how sports were (sometimes) punishment for slaves, and that could easily be a description of how today's professional sports are run. You also spoke with great eloquence about the pleasure of sports with peers and with your dad. In those cases, a strong yes!

But watching professional sports, in person or at home is not participation. It is trying to vicariously relive youth, while eating and drinking (garbage), and in the current psycho-babble-social-credit-score, oh and "make sure you you comply" environment, so we are back to a hard, no.

I will enjoy participating in various sports. I will enjoy watching youth sports teams. I will not pay $$ to watch the current gladiator slaves as they try to survive the lions of Caesar.

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Nov 30, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

Excellent article, and you are correct, that gold medal in Lake Placid was the spark that ignited a nation.

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Although I'm a decade or two ahead of you in life, this really hit home with me. Just an excellent piece! Sports has been an important form of therapy since its beginning. Like you, I wrote about one such moment in history that I remember from my childhood. Keep the fire burning. (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/342578-usa-vs-ussr-1962-the-greatest-track-meet-of-all-time)

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Nov 21, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

This was an amazing Substack. I’ve never been much of a sports fan because I was always working and didn’t have much time off. You give this a very special spin. Bravo!

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Nov 21, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

Sports are the bread and circus that's keeping the American public from dealing with the realities at hand such as the jab effects and the deeper conspiracies that hold this nation by the balls.

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Nov 21, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

THE BENEFITS OF ASTROLOGY

Firstly, I don't want to offend sharing this to any Christians who may believe in a Biblical proscription against "divination".

I personally believe Astrology's noble use doesn't fall within that category.

As we all know, The Visiting Magi were both astronomers (mathematical mappers) & astrologers (interpreters).

They deciphered the birth of A Great King.

Not that it truly matters, but it's

conjectured that Jesus was not born on Dec. 25th, Year 1, but probably in March (this would make him a Pisces) sometime, 3-4 BC, during a Conjuncto Maximo (major conjunction between Jupiter & Saturn).

This conjugation may...may, have represented "the star" over Bethlehem. The 12-25 date was likely "an overlay" by the Early Church Father"s replacing pagan festival dates with Christian Holidays.

*

If you've even watched a professional billiard player play, one thing you will notice right quick is their particular body approach positioning to or upon the table to augment the best possible alignment to successfully sink the shot. I believe the pro rules require 1 foot to remain "grounded" to the floor at all times, to prevent disqualification.

At this Time, those Fantastic Workers I see performing their invaluable Work need every edge possible.

So I share this in That Spirit.

*

Eric Coppolino is offering a 7 day free trial.

Details below.

Best Wishes,

In Christ.

https://open.substack.com/pub/planetwavesfm/p/starcast-for-nov-20-2022?r=11r0co&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

I’ve never been a major league sports fan and only really enjoy gymnastics, tennis and figure skating, however, you have certainly (and with polite grace and passion) made your case! I have, however, loved ancient history and you are absolutely correct. Current times: it is/was good to send a message to the owners and major advertisers. Likewise, it was also good to see the actions of a few sports stars likely awaken and save the lives of many. You explained the relationship between team members that is only seen in sports, policing/emergency response and the military. That is where many times in history one has given a life to save others....the best in human nature. We must never allow the worst to take precedence over the best. Thank you for your excellent article. You have likely inspired many, including me. 🙏

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Nov 20, 2022Liked by Paul Fleuret

Beautiful article. Thank you.

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