shadows on the periphery

(5/17/12)

Bowerman & the Men of Oregon

Just read the chapter of the 1976 olympix, and what else gwan in the life of B B.

I AM VINDICATED:

i haven’t told anyone about this, ’til now, but while watching the ’76 oly’s, what with TV crewes interviewing Mick Jagger, who, in turn, raved about “el caballo” (cuba’s alberto juantoreno) blazing thru’ the 400m & 800m; frank shorter fading to 2nd behind cierpinski (but relative unknown Don Kardong coming in 4th) in the marathon; france’s guy drut winning the 120m H.Hurdles — making not only france but Quebec happy; I REMEMBER DISCUS CHAMPION MAC WILKINS GIVING A SINCERE HEARTFELT BEAR-HUG TO E.GERMAN OSCAR SCHMIDT.

at the time i un-relaxed, leaned toward the t.v.  “is it just me?  that looked genuine!”  i’ve internalized it and not mentioned ever since.  ’til now.

kenny moore vindicated me.  THIS WAS AND IS THE TRUE OLYMPIC IDEAL.  TRANSCENDS NATIONS, POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS.

kenny wrote, among other things, about Mac’s friendship with Oscar.  this sort of thing, during the Cold War, did not assist in any sort of advancement of either’s commercial and political ambitions.  but never-the-less, i remember seeing this on my t.v. during the Montreal Olympics, well — not as if it were yesterday, but the memory is as concrete as most i remember within the past few years.  Mac actually lifted Mr. Schmidt off the ground in a mutually friendly gesture.  (Mac was not friendly with his fellow American discus-throwers.  I can sympathize.  There are several U.S. citizens I am definitely not friendly with.)

the shadows:  okay, i’m probably imagining things, and therein is where whatever problem this may be lies, the imagining, and then, degenerating into believing, and then actually acting on the stimuli, and then …

well, a few days ago there were a few (oh, about 5, or 7) times where i thought i saw a spider scurrying across my desk, from one pile of paper to another.  i knew better than to lift anything up to look.  later, i saw a large shadow moving through a grove of trees.  i didn’t stop and continued driving.

today, i think i hear people talking in the back seat of my car.  i definitely don’t look, as the car was empty, ‘cept for me, when i got in.  and then i heard buzzing whistling old black-&-white-wartime-movies-radio-sounds.

i started considering… what if this originally visually-centered phenomenon was branching out to all my senses?  would i FEEL ghostly presences tracing their fingernails along my spine?  would i taste stuff not in the salty/sweet/sour/bitter groups, borne by the ether? and …

bracing 4 sadness:  betty has (allegedly) arranged for some (alleged) cowboy(s) to come early next week to take the horses away.  we’re not supposed to dwell on whether the horses will be happy, or not.

jose puede ver:  yes, i had a GOOD annual “jose puede ver.”

things gwan:  basically, nada.

after this:  we’ll  see.

why do we even bother?